Workflow examples

Each example below gives the shape to draw, the settings that matter, and what the people involved experience. They build on each other, so read the first two even if you are after the fourth.

A two-step signature

The simplest workflow: a customer fills in a form, a manager signs the same PDF.

Customer form ──▶ Manager signs

Build it

1. Create the customer’s form from the PDF, then clone it with Reuse PDF File for the manager’s copy and remove every field except the signature. Publish both.
2. Add the customer form as the start step, then click Form in the palette and pick the manager’s form.
3. On the manager step: Notification tab, Send to these addresses: the manager’s email. Data & PDF tab: turn on Combine data across steps so the signature prints onto the customer’s PDF, and Create signature certificate if you want one.
4. On the start step: Who hears back: the field that holds the customer’s email.
5. In the workflow panel, Who is told when a run completes: tick Send to the person who started the workflow so the customer receives the signed PDF.

What happens. The customer submits. The manager gets an email with a link, opens it, sees the customer’s data on the PDF and signs. The customer receives the completion email with the signed PDF attached.

Approval with send-back

A request that a manager approves, sends back for correction, or declines.

Request form ──▶ Manager approval ──✓──▶ End "Approved"
      ▲                 │
      └───────✗─────────┘   (Sent back reopens the request)

Build it

1. Add the request form, then an Approval step. On its Approval tab choose Who approves?: the manager, as a team member or from an email field on the request.
2. Drag the approval’s red Sent back dot back onto the request form. The panel now reads Reopens “Request form” for editing.
3. Add an End step after the green Approved dot and name it “Approved”.
4. Decision buttons: keep Approve and Send back, or add Decline and set it to count as send back. Require a comment so the requester learns why.
5. Who hears back on the request form: the requester’s email field.

What happens. The manager’s link shows the request PDF and the fields you chose, with the buttons. Approve completes the run. Send back emails the requester the comment and a link to their submission; they fix it and resubmit, and the approval runs again. If you had left the Sent back dot unconnected instead, a send-back would end the run, and the requester could Start again with a pre-filled copy when you allow it.

The approver signs after approving

A manager approves and then signs the document, in one sitting.

Form ──▶ Approval ──✓──▶ Sign (the person who approved)

Build it

1. Add the form and the approval as above.
2. On the Approval tab, under After approving, click Add a form for the approver and pick the sign form. The tab now reads “The approver fills in “Sign” next”, and the sign form’s Notification tab has Send to the person who approved “Approval” ticked.
3. On the sign form’s Data & PDF tab turn on Combine data across steps.

What happens. The approve button on the approval page reads Approve and continue, and the note under it says “After approving you fill in “Sign””. The manager approves and lands straight in the sign form; the email with the same link also goes out in case they close the browser. The signature lands in the same PDF, and the requester’s completion email carries the signed document. The approved decision email goes out at decision time, before the signature exists.

Two approvers in parallel, one signed document

Two managers must both approve and both sign the same PDF, and neither should wait for the other’s decision.

        ┌──▶ Approval A ──✓──┐
Form ───┤                    ├──▶ Sign A ──▶ Sign B ──▶ End
        └──▶ Approval B ──✓──┘   (waits for all)
        Sign A: the person who approved A
        Sign B: the person who approved B

Build it

1. Add the form, then two Approval steps connected from the form’s exit dot, one for each manager. Name them “Approval A” and “Approval B”.
2. On Approval A, After approving → Add a form for the approver: pick A’s sign form. It appears on A’s Approved path, addressed to A.
3. Drag Approval B’s green Approved dot onto Sign A. Sign A now has two incoming connections; keep Wait for all of them.
4. On Approval B, After approving → Add a form for the approver: pick B’s sign form. It is placed after Sign A and addressed to B.
5. Turn on Combine data across steps on both sign forms.

What happens. A and B decide at the same time, in any order. The second decision releases Sign A: if A decided last, A continues straight into it, otherwise A gets it by email. When A signs, Sign B goes to B by email. Both signatures land in one PDF, because Sign B prints onto Sign A’s output, which printed onto the original.

The shapes this can take

People draw the same requirement in several ways. All of them work; they differ in who waits and how many documents come out.

Two approvals ticked on one sign form make one shared task that the first to open claims, which is rarely what two signatures need; the checklist warns about it.

Route by an answer

Small purchases go to a team lead, large ones to a director.

Purchase request ──▶ Branch ──[Amount is greater than 5000]──▶ Director approval ──✓──▶ Order form
                       │                                                                   ▲
                       └──[Otherwise]────────────────────────▶ Team lead approval ──✓──────┘

Build it

1. After the request form add a Branch step, then two approvals and connect one branch exit dot to each.
2. Select the branch. On the card for the director’s path, Add rule: field Amount, comparison is greater than, value 5000. The other card is Otherwise.
3. Add the order form and connect both approvals’ Approved dots to it. Under When several paths arrive here choose Continue on the first one: only one path is ever taken per run.

What happens. A request for 12,000 goes to the director; a request for 800 goes to the team lead. Either way the approved request reaches the order form. Reorder the cards with the arrows if you add a second rule, because the first matching path wins.

Two departments at once, then a final review

HR and IT each fill in their part, independently, and a coordinator reviews once both are in.

        ┌──▶ HR form ──┐
Intake ─┤              ├──▶ Coordinator review (waits for all)
        └──▶ IT form ──┘

Build it

1. After the intake form, add the HR form and the IT form, both connected from the intake’s exit dot. Give each its recipients on the Notification tab.
2. Add the review step and connect both forms to it. Keep Wait for all of them.
3. Select the connection from the form whose PDF the review should continue and tick Use this path’s PDF and answers as the base. If both forms carry their own PDF, use Include link to previous step’s PDF on the review step so the coordinator can open the other one; the checklist reminds you that only one path’s PDF continues.

What happens. HR and IT are emailed at the same moment. The coordinator’s task is created only when both have submitted; until then the tracker shows the run waiting on whichever department is late, and the run’s drawer colours that path.

A step that repeats

An approved trip, followed by any number of expense claims against it.

Trip request ──▶ Manager approval ──✓──▶ Expense claim (can be submitted again) ──▶ Finance review

Build it

1. Build the request and approval as in the earlier examples, then add the expense claim form and the finance review after it.
2. On the expense claim step, Rules tab, tick The same link can be used to submit again.

What happens. The traveller gets one link. After the first claim the link shows Submitted and a Submit another button; every claim creates its own finance review task, and the tracker lists each one. Without the option the link would close after the first claim, which is what you want for a signature or an application.