workflow to monitor custom status change and assign entity

I am trying to make a workflow so that on the change of status a service
activity is assigned to another queue.

The status is a custom attribute (picklist) called Billing Status with
'billed' and 'waiting for billing' as the options with the default null.

I created a workflow and am able to make a manual one that does what I want.
It checks for the Waiting for billing status and if it sees it it assigns it
to the 'waiting for billing' queue.

I have made a timed workflow for 1min on creation of a service activity to
run the subprocess of the above. that works only if I manually apply the rule
and it only applies to the service activity I have open... not the others
with the waiting for billing bit checked.

I understand that this is a component to the recursive workflows (I think).
But I cannot figure out how to make a workflow that will ALWAYS be on the
look out for this single attribute change that does not need to be manually
run.

I have made workflows with all of the other options (Manual, assign, create
and change status) I would have assumed that the 'Change Status' rule event
would be the one I want, but nothing I try works.

I am beating my head against the wall with this one... well, more then just
this one... but this one in particular.

Also, if anyone can suggest a better way of 'marking' an activity (this will
apply to tickets and possibly phone calls if I can get the service activities
working right) as 'waiting for billing' or otherwise notifying someone that
the activity is done.

The reason I did this instead of just closing a service activity is that
after closing (resolving) it you cannot reopen it. I do alot of sub work for
a company and the tickets are assigned to the account regarding the contacts
associated to the account. They might have similar subjects and similar dates
and contacts. It gets confusing and I like to make it as easy on my book
keeper, who is already riding me ofr other MSCRM issues anyway.

The way I am doing it is, I mark it to be billed, she bills and and marks it
billed, then I close the activity. Then I know from start to finish that it
has been closed, it shows up in the advance find saved queries (why oh why
can't you link directly to a saved advanced query?) and is farily fault
tolerant. If I can get the added feature of assigning it to a queue, then the
workflow that... well... works, I can then add additional actions like
creating a task and sending an email to the book keeper that there are
activities to bill.

Thanks for your help, I have learned much from this list already.

madhavik
Sat Apr 08 08:29:01 CDT 2006

Hi jp,

As per my understanding of workflow manager, the work rule defined as type
"Change Status" gets fired only when the status as defined by CRM changes. We
cannot do it for a custom field. When i had a similar requirement ( for lead
entity ), i created a work rule on "Create" of the entity with a "wait for
entity condition". So the wrokrule is fired when a new lead is created. It is
in "Running" status till the custom field changes. This will work for all
records, without applying the rule manually.

Hope this helps.




"jp" wrote:

> I am trying to make a workflow so that on the change of status a service
> activity is assigned to another queue.
>
> The status is a custom attribute (picklist) called Billing Status with
> 'billed' and 'waiting for billing' as the options with the default null.
>
> I created a workflow and am able to make a manual one that does what I want.
> It checks for the Waiting for billing status and if it sees it it assigns it
> to the 'waiting for billing' queue.
>
> I have made a timed workflow for 1min on creation of a service activity to
> run the subprocess of the above. that works only if I manually apply the rule
> and it only applies to the service activity I have open... not the others
> with the waiting for billing bit checked.
>
> I understand that this is a component to the recursive workflows (I think).
> But I cannot figure out how to make a workflow that will ALWAYS be on the
> look out for this single attribute change that does not need to be manually
> run.
>
> I have made workflows with all of the other options (Manual, assign, create
> and change status) I would have assumed that the 'Change Status' rule event
> would be the one I want, but nothing I try works.
>
> I am beating my head against the wall with this one... well, more then just
> this one... but this one in particular.
>
> Also, if anyone can suggest a better way of 'marking' an activity (this will
> apply to tickets and possibly phone calls if I can get the service activities
> working right) as 'waiting for billing' or otherwise notifying someone that
> the activity is done.
>
> The reason I did this instead of just closing a service activity is that
> after closing (resolving) it you cannot reopen it. I do alot of sub work for
> a company and the tickets are assigned to the account regarding the contacts
> associated to the account. They might have similar subjects and similar dates
> and contacts. It gets confusing and I like to make it as easy on my book
> keeper, who is already riding me ofr other MSCRM issues anyway.
>
> The way I am doing it is, I mark it to be billed, she bills and and marks it
> billed, then I close the activity. Then I know from start to finish that it
> has been closed, it shows up in the advance find saved queries (why oh why
> can't you link directly to a saved advanced query?) and is farily fault
> tolerant. If I can get the added feature of assigning it to a queue, then the
> workflow that... well... works, I can then add additional actions like
> creating a task and sending an email to the book keeper that there are
> activities to bill.
>
> Thanks for your help, I have learned much from this list already.

jp
Sat Apr 08 14:16:01 CDT 2006

I got it worked out. Took me till 4am... but I got it worked out.

I setup a manual rule with a 1minute wait an if, then, else tree with wait
for condition and then saved it and called it again in the if statements.

It was a pain because if I get something out of the tree order I have to
delete a whole if statement. Man I wish you could drag and drop components!

Anyway, I got it worked out quite well. I will give it a good testing and
duplicate if for other entities.

Thanks for the reply though, it is good to know definitively that the custom
attribute will NOT trigger the rule.