Have you heard about SharePoint Workflows before, but are unsure what they are and how they can improve team collaboration? SharePoint workflows help automate repetitive tasks, making day-to-day work easier, saving time, and boosting productivity. By automating manual processes, they streamline operations and reduce the chance of errors.
In this article, we’ll explain what SharePoint workflows are and highlight the different types you may want to use in your organization. We’ll also dive deeper into how you can tailor these workflows to suit your specific needs, ensuring they work seamlessly for you.
What are SharePoint Workflows?
SharePoint workflows are a set of automated processes designed to help manage and streamline tasks within SharePoint. These workflows can automate repetitive or manual tasks, such as document approval, notifications, content review, and other business processes, ensuring that tasks are completed in a consistent, efficient, and timely manner.
In essence, SharePoint workflows allow organizations to automate processes that would otherwise require manual intervention. This helps improve productivity, reduce human error, and maintain consistency across different operations.
Workflows in SharePoint can be built using built-in templates or custom-designed to meet specific business requirements. They are typically triggered by certain actions, such as a document being added or updated, or when a task is assigned to a user, among other events.
Overall, SharePoint workflows simplify complex processes and ensure that they are completed on time, allowing employees to focus on more critical tasks.
Benefits of Automating Business Processes with SharePoint Workflows
Using SharePoint workflows to automate business processes can offer several key advantages for organizations. By simplifying tasks and reducing the need for manual effort, workflows boost efficiency, productivity, and collaboration. Here’s a breakdown of the main benefits:
✅ Increased Efficiency: SharePoint workflows automate repetitive tasks, cutting down on time spent on manual processes. This allows employees to focus on more important tasks, making the workflow faster and more efficient.
✅ Better Collaboration: Workflows help teams work together more effectively by creating a clear communication path and setting up a series of actions to follow. This ensures everyone is aligned, and tasks get completed on time.
✅ Improved Tracking and Monitoring: SharePoint workflows allow you to monitor and track business processes, making it easier to spot any delays or issues. This helps ensure everything runs smoothly and efficiently.
✅ Boosted Productivity: By automating tasks, SharePoint workflows help organizations get work done faster and with fewer mistakes. This leads to higher productivity and allows teams to accomplish more in less time.
✅ Fewer Errors: Automating tasks reduces the chances of human mistakes. Workflows also provide a clear record of all actions taken, making it easier to ensure tasks are completed accurately and consistently.
Commonly Used SharePoint Workflows
There are multiple commonly used SharePoint Workflows that can be set up within SharePoint: Approval Workflows, Status Workflows, Notification Workflows, Automation Workflows, and Custom Workflows.
Approval Workflows
Approval workflows in SharePoint are a common way to manage processes like document approvals. This feature automatically starts the approval chain as soon as a document is uploaded, ensuring a smooth and efficient process.
How You Can Use It
For example, imagine your sales team sends a proposal to a client, but before it’s sent, it needs to be approved by several people. First, the sales associate prepares the proposal and sends it to the project team for approval. After that, it goes to the sales manager for review, then to the director for final approval. Instead of manually tracking who has approved the document, SharePoint’s Approval Workflow can handle the whole process automatically, without the need to leave the platform.
This helps keep everything organized, ensuring that only accurate, high-quality content is shared, and it saves time by automating the approval steps.
Status Workflows
Status Workflows let you automate the tracking of documents in SharePoint. When a document is uploaded, the workflow can automatically update its status based on certain conditions you set.
How You Can Use It
For example, imagine a sales team scenario. When a sales associate uploads a Statement of Work (SOW) to SharePoint, the Status Workflow automatically labels the document as “draft.” Then, once the project team reviews it, the workflow will change the status to “being reviewed.” When the sales manager looks at the document, it will be marked as “read.” Finally, when the sales director gets the document, they can either approve it (changing the status to “approved”) or reject it (changing the status to “declined”).
This system helps keep track of where a document is in the review process without needing manual updates at every step.
Notification Workflows
Notification Workflows in SharePoint are designed to automatically alert team members when specific conditions are met. For instance, when a document is uploaded or a task is completed, the system can send notifications, like emails, to the relevant people, prompting them to act. You can monitor the progress of these workflows through the Workflow Status Page, which provides key details such as task instructions and the status of each participant or approver involved.
How You Can Use It
Imagine your sales manager uploads the monthly sales report to SharePoint. Thanks to the notification workflow set up in your system, the sales director immediately receives an email letting them know the report is available. This ensures timely review and action without the need for manual follow-ups.
Automation Workflows
Automation Workflows often built using Power Automate, help streamline repetitive tasks by triggering specific actions based on activity within your SharePoint environment. These workflows often complement other types of workflows, enhancing efficiency by reducing the need for manual intervention.
How You Can Use It
Let’s revisit the scenario from the Status Workflow section. When sales associates upload a proposal to the “Proposal – Drafts” folder for review, it goes through an approval process. Once the sales director approves the document, it needs to be moved to the “Statements of Work – Published” folder. Instead of doing this manually, you can set up an Automation Workflow to handle the transfer automatically, saving time and ensuring consistency.
Custom Workflows
Once you see how helpful workflows can be, you might want to use more than one or even mix them. That’s where Custom Workflows come in. These let you build your step-by-step process in SharePoint using a tool called SharePoint Designer. It’s like creating your little program to make your work easier and faster.
How You Can Use It
Let’s say a sales team member uploads a document to SharePoint. A Status Workflow marks it as “in approval.” Then, an Approval Workflow sends it to the right people to review. At the same time, a Notification Workflow sends emails to let everyone know what’s happening. Once everything is approved, an Automation Workflow moves the document to the final folder where the sales team can use it. All of this happens automatically—no one must do it by hand.
Collect Feedback Workflow
The collect feedback workflow in SharePoint helps you get comments or suggestions from your team on a document or item before it’s finalized. It’s great when you need input from several people.
How You Can Use It
✅ Create the Workflow
Go to your SharePoint site and click on the “Workflows” tab. This is where you manage all your workflows.
✅ Choose “Collect Feedback”
From the list, pick the Collect Feedback option. This one is made to help you gather feedback from others.
✅ Set It Up
Tell SharePoint which document or item needs feedback, who should give feedback, and when it’s due. This helps keep everything on track.
✅ Start the Workflow
Click “Start” to begin. SharePoint will then send messages to the people you selected, asking them to review and give their feedback.
Boost Productivity with SharePoint Workflows
At Stallions Solutions, we believe SharePoint can unlock powerful opportunities for your organization. Automating your processes not only saves time but also boosts overall efficiency.
Final Words
SharePoint Workflows are great tools that help you automate everyday tasks, making your work faster and more organized. Whether it’s getting approvals, sending updates, tracking progress, or setting up custom steps, workflows help your team work better together and avoid mistakes.
By using SharePoint workflows, your processes become smoother and more consistent. Want to see how it can help your team? Talk to our SharePoint experts at Stallions Solutions today and find out how we can help you work smarter!
This is just the beginning! Stay tuned for more insights in our brand-new SharePoint blog series.
