Delegating workflow tasks to another user

Task delegation is a critical component of any workflow system as it allows work to continue to flow if a participant or initiator is either too busy or unavailable. One-time review participants can also have their tasks delegated. Once delegated, the user will be notified of their new tasks.

Task delegation can be accomplished in different areas of the software:

Workflow status report
Workflow delegation in the Administration panel
Workflow preferences

Delegating a task from the workflow status report

The delegation change can be viewed in the workflow status report. You can delegate tasks when you are the task owner, the cabinet owner, or a system administrator.

A task cannot be delegated when:

A task cannot be delegated if it has been reserved. A future task can be delegated.
The user is already a participant in the activity.

You can automatically delegate all tasks assigned in the event of vacation or extended unavailability. Learn more about setting up automatic task delegation in the workflow preferences.

To delegate a task to another user

Go to Reviews and Approvals > My Tasks or Workflow Status Report. You can delegate tasks from either location.

TIP: The easiest way to delegate a large number of tasks at one time is from the My Tasks screen as there is no need to expand each workflow.

Select the task that you wish to delegate and click Delegate Task.
Enter the first or last name or email address of the person you want to delegate the task to and click Find.
In the Search Results, select the user and click Select User(s).
The task is now updated for the delegated task. In the Workflow Status Report, you can see who the task has been delegated to and who it is on behalf of.

Delegating workflows from the administration panel

If an employee goes on leave or exits the company, several workflow tasks may need to be delegated en masse. This can be accomplished from the Workflow Delegation menu in the Administration panel. You can delegate both workflow participants and workflow initiators.

Workflow participants can be delegated by the system administrator, senior library administrators, cabinet owners, workflow initiators and task participants.
Workflow initiators can be delegated by system administrator, senior library administrators, cabinet owners, and workflow initiators.

If the user is not an administrator, they will only see the tasks which they have initiated or are participating in. Cabinet owners (cabinet administrator and library administrator roles) will only see the workflows for the cabinets they own.

Both participants and initiators can be restored to their original owners in the event that the user comes back, such as from holidays, and needs to resume their duties.

To delegate a participant to a task

In the Web Client > Administration panel, go to Workflow management > Workflow delegation > Participants.
Use the following filter criteria and click Apply Filter. To show all workflows, leave filter criteria blank and click Apply filter.

Filter	Description
Participant	Select the participant name from the list. This can be the original participant or a delegate.
On behalf of	Select the original participant name from the list.
Workflow template name contains	Enter a full or partial workflow template name.
Workflow name contains	Enter a full or partial workflow name. This can be the workflow template name or the name that was set up in the custom naming pattern for the workflow template.
Due date	When the task is due. You can enter a From and/or To date or the number of days from now.

The following information is displayed in the Search results. Any workflows that are considered complete (approved, not approved, reviewed, or cancelled) are not displayed.

Column	Description
Workflow template name	The name of the workflow template.
Workflow name	This can be the workflow template name or the name that was set up in the custom naming pattern for the workflow template.
Task description	The task description in the workflow template. This gives the participant any task instructions.
Participant	This can be the original participant or a delegate.
On behalf of	The name of the original participant.
Due date	The due date of the task
Workflow task status	The status of the task: Pending Approval or Pending Review

Select the check boxes next to the workflow tasks and click Delegate participant.
Enter the name of the user and click Find Now.
Select the check box next to the user name and click Select User. The participant is changed to the user to which the tasks have been delegated. The On behalf of is the original participant name.
To export the search results, click Export as CSV.
To view the workflow status report for the task, click the <workflow name hyperlink> in the Workflow name column.

To restore a participant

In the Web Client > Administration panel, go to Workflow management > Workflow delegation > Participants.
Use the filter criteria from above and click Apply Filter. To show all workflows, leave filter criteria blank and click Apply filter.
In the Search results, select one or more workflow tasks that have been assigned to another participant. In other words, there is a user name in the On behalf of column.
Click Restore participant. The participant is assigned to the original participant owner.

To delegate an initiator

An initiator of a workflow has the ability to control certain aspects of a workflow from the workflow status report. It is important that the correct initiator is set in order to manage the workflows.

In the Web Client > Administration panel, go to Workflow management > Workflow delegation > Initiators.
Use the following filter criteria and click Apply Filter. To show all workflows, leave filter criteria blank and click Apply filter.

Filter	Description
Initiator	Select the initiator name from the list. This can be the original initator or a delegate.
On behalf of	Select the original initiator name from the list.
Workflow template name contains	Enter a full or partial workflow template name.
Workflow name contains	Enter a full or partial workflow name. This can be the workflow template name or the name that was set up in the custom naming pattern for the workflow template.

The following information is displayed in the Search results. Any workflows that are considered complete (approved, not approved, reviewed, or cancelled) are not displayed.

Column	Description
Workflow template name	The name of the workflow template.
Workflow name	This can be the workflow template name or the name that was set up in the custom naming pattern for the workflow template.
Initiator	The name of the person who started the workflow. This can be the original initiator or a delegate.
On behalf of	The name of the original initiator.
Due date	The due date of the task
Status	The status of the workflow: Pending Approval or Pending Review

Select the check boxes next to the workflow tasks and click Delegate initiator.
Enter the name of the user and click Find Now.
Select the check box next to the user name and click Select User. The initiator is changed to the user to which the tasks have been delegated. The On behalf of is the original initiator name.
To export the search results, click Export as CSV.
To view the workflow status report for the workflow, click the <workflow name hyperlink> in the Workflow name column.

To restore an initiator

In the Web Client > Administration panel, go to Workflow management > Workflow delegation > Initiators.
Use the filter criteria from above and click Apply Filter. To show all workflows, leave filter criteria blank and click Apply filter.
In the Search results, select one or more workflows that have been assigned to another initiator. In other words, there is a user name in the On behalf of column.
Click Restore initiator. The participant is assigned to the original initiator owner.