In today’s fast-paced corporate environment, manual tracking of approvals is a recipe for delays and errors. Whether you are managing purchase requests or employee onboarding, a Sequential Workflow provides a structured, step-by-step path that ensures every task is completed in the correct order.
Below, we break down exactly how these workflows function and how your business can leverage them.
The Anatomy of a Sequential Purchase Workflow
To understand how this works in practice, let’s look at a standard automated procurement process:
- Step 1 – Trigger: An employee submits a purchase request form (e.g., via SharePoint). Once they click submit, the workflow begins automatically.
- Step 2 – Document Retrieval: The system automatically pulls all uploaded attachments, such as vendor quotations.
- Step 3 – File Processing: The workflow processes these files one by one to prepare them for the review stage.
- Step 4 – Level 1 Approval: The request moves to the Department Manager, who reviews the details and costs.
- Step 5 – Level 2 Approval: Upon the first approval, the request is automatically routed to the Finance Manager to check budget availability.
- Step 6 – Final Update: Once fully approved, the system updates the record status to "Approved" and notifies the procurement team.
When Should Business Users Use Sequential Workflows?
Sequential workflows are best utilized when a process has a strict hierarchy or a specific order of operations. You should implement them when:
- Compliance is Critical: When a step must be verified by one party before the next party is legally or financially allowed to see it.
- Budgeting is Involved: When higher-level financial sign-off is only required after operational need is proven.
- Data Integrity: When subsequent steps rely on the data or files processed in earlier steps.
Practical Business Examples
1. Employee Onboarding
New hires require equipment from IT, access from Security, and tax setup from HR. Using a sequential flow ensures that IT doesn't ship a laptop until HR confirms the contract is signed.
2. Document Legal Review
In contract negotiations, a document must often be reviewed by a Project Manager for scope, then by a Legal Officer for liability, and finally by a director for execution.
3. Expense Reimbursement
To prevent fraud and maintain budget control, expenses are first verified for receipt accuracy by an admin and then approved for payment by a department head.
Key Benefits
- Accountability: Every approval step saves the name of the approver and the date, creating a clear audit trail.
- Speed: Notifications are sent automatically, removing the "bottleneck" of documents sitting in physical inboxes.
- Transparency: Employees can see exactly which stage their request is in at any given time.
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