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Case Management Studio allows you to design workflows tailored to your needs, without relying on pre-built templates. These workflows can represent an entire case management process, which may feel complex and overwhelming at first. To help you get started with confidence, we've created this tutorial to guide you through setting up a workflow step by step. You'll set up tasks and task blocks, identify milestones, and configure all the parts that make up a complete workflow.
By the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to create a workflow that integrates input from multiple teams, tracks progress, and ensures tasks are completed efficiently—no technical expertise required.
Note: This tutorial is designed for use with Case Management Studio version 1.5.0 or later.
Workflows help organize and streamline tasks by breaking down complex processes into clear, actionable steps. They ensure that the right people are involved at the right time, helping teams collaborate efficiently and meet deadlines. Workflows are a critical part of managing cases, as they help track progress and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
Think of a workflow like your morning routine—a series of tasks you complete to get your day started. Each step in the routine depends on what came before and prepares you for the next. For example:
A workflow in Case Management Studio works in the same way. It organizes tasks and steps in a sequence, so each one is completed in the right order. Just like your morning routine, some tasks might be dependent on others, and some might run in parallel. Workflows make sure that everyone involved knows what to do and when to do it, ensuring that the process moves smoothly from start to finish.
Common use cases for using workflows in Case Management Studio typically revolve around managing and automating complex processes where multiple stakeholders, tasks, or decisions are involved. Some of the common use cases include:
If you're interested in reading more about some common use cases, head over to the Studio Workflow Examples page for complete details. For this tutorial, we'll be using the Dispute process use case.
In this tutorial, you'll set up a basicautomated clearing house (ACH) dispute process. By the end, you'll have a workflow that manages disputes efficiently from submission to resolution, ensuring all parties are informed and the case is properly closed.
This workflow makes use of tasks and milestones.
Make sure you've set up a category and a case type. If a case type hasn't been set up, create a new Category called Financial Transactions and a case type named ACH Disputes.
To configure a basic ACH dispute workflow, complete the following steps:
Tasks drive activity within case management applications by representing the work case workers perform. A workflow is a sequence of these tasks.
To create tasks directly from the Tasks page:
In the Create Task dialog, configure the following task properties.
Property | Description |
---|---|
Name | The name of the task. |
Task Type | The kind of activity the task represents. There are three task types available out-of-the-box: confirmation, decision, and document upload. |
Default Assigned Group | The group that is initially assigned this task, unless otherwise specified. |
Default SLA | The service level agreement to apply to the task, calculated in business (working) days. |
Question | The question for your users to answer. Questions are required for the Decision task type. |
Response Options | The optional responses for your users to choose from. Response options are required for the Decision task type. |
Description | Description of the task. This text box contains many text formatting options, so you can write the best description of the task, including instructions, for your users. |
To begin setting up your workflow, repeat these setup steps for each task detailed in the following tables. You will need all of these tasks for the ACH dispute workflow.
Task Name | Default Group | Task Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Intake Review | Case Workers | Confirmation | Ensure incoming applications for completeness and initial compliance to ensure a smooth processing workflow. Responsibilities include verifying required documents, data entry, and communicating with applicants for missing or erroneous information. |
Dispute Validity | Case Workers | Decision | Ensure the incoming dispute request aligns with specific technical or regulatory requirements for it to be a valid dispute request. |
Task Name | Default Group | Task Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Dispute Rejected | Case Managers | Confirmation | The dispute is invalid and was rejected. The customer will be notified of this decision. |
ACH Dispute Decision | Case Managers | Decision | The issuer decides if the case is clearly won by the customer or the merchant. |
Customer Wins Dispute | Case Managers | Confirmation | The customer who filed the dispute has won. The funds will be taken from the merchant, routed through the card network, and returned to the customer. |
Merchant Wins Dispute | Case Managers | Confirmation | The merchant has won the dispute. The customer will not receive a refund of the disputed funds. |
Task Name | Default Group | Task Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
ACH Network Validity | Case Workers | Decision | Ensure the ACH dispute that was filed is handled within the ACH Network system. |
Inform ACH Network | ACH Operators | Confirmation | Send the dispute updates to all relevant parties: the ACH Network, the Originating Depository Financial Institution (ODFI), the Receiving Depository Financial Institution (RDFI), and the merchant. |
Task Name | Default Group | Task Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Notify Customer | Case Workers | Confirmation | Email the customer about the dispute's outcome. |
Note: Once you're comfortable using Studio, you can also create tasks from the Workflow tab in case types.
Now that your tasks are in place, let's transform them into a streamlined workflow.
Select a task from the list to see and configure its details. Refer to the configuration information provided in this table:
Task | Details |
---|---|
Start | Click ADD DEPENDENT and select Intake Review |
Intake Review | In the Workflow Settings, select:
|
Dispute Validity | In the Workflow Settings, select:
|
ACH Network Validity | In the Workflow Settings, select:
|
ACH Dispute Decision | In the Workflow Settings, select:
|
Customer Wins Dispute | Click ADD DEPENDENT and select Notify Customer |
Merchant Wins Dispute | Click ADD DEPENDENT and select Notify Customer |
Dispute Rejected | Click ADD DEPENDENT and select Notify Customer |
Inform ACH Network | Click ADD DEPENDENT and select End |
When you're complete, the workflow should look similar to this:
Congratulations! You've just set up your first workflow. If you're ready to fine-tune your workflow, check out the next section for some advanced configuration options.
In this section, we'll show you how to enhance your workflow by adding some additional tasks, creating milestones, and using task blocks. These additions can help you manage more complex scenarios, like handling dispute challenges and tracking ongoing cases, while organizing key stages of your workflow. Task blocks, which group tasks into sequences, add even more efficiency since they can be used as a template when configuring new case workflows.
In this tutorial, we've kept things simple to make it easy to follow and learn. However, you'll probably want to add more advanced tasks to handle dispute challenges, upload documents, and track ongoing dispute statuses. Here are some tasks that we recommend adding when you're ready:
Task Name | Default Group | Task Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Merchant Dispute Challenge | ACH Operators | Decision | Merchants can choose to challenge the disputes when they feel the disputes are wrongly raised. |
Re-evaluate Dispute | ACH Operators | Document Upload | Allows merchants to upload supporting documents to defend their case against the dispute. |
Dispute Ongoing? | Case Managers | Decision | Verifies whether a dispute is still valid or has been revoked/rejected by any party. |
After adding these tasks, your workflow will be more flexible and ready to handle complex situations. The extra decision points and document handling features will help your team manage disputes involving merchant challenges and multiple reviews more smoothly.
Milestones, which are color-coded and labeled, help you organize tasks visually. They are specific to each case type and can be managed exclusively within the Workflow page of that particular case type.
The following milestones each represent a crucial phase in the ACH dispute process. While we didn't set up milestones immediately, you can add them as part of the setup process when you're adding your tasks.
Milestone | Description |
---|---|
Intake review | This milestone marks the beginning of the dispute process, where disputes are initially submitted and assessed for validity. It includes gathering necessary information from the customer through an intake form and initial verification of the details against ACH network criteria. |
ACH decision | At this milestone, the workflow focuses on making key decisions based on the information gathered. This includes determining whether the dispute should be escalated for further processing or resolved based on existing data, and may involve reevaluating the initial information if new details emerge. |
ACH processing | This milestone handles the core processing of the dispute, involving more detailed investigation and interactions with other parties, such as merchants. Tasks may include ongoing reviews, merchant challenges, and final decisions on the dispute, depending on the complexity and nature of the case. |
Closure | The final milestone in the workflow where the dispute is formally resolved. This includes notifying all parties involved of the outcome and closing out the case in the system. It ensures that all necessary documentation is completed and that the resolution is recorded for future reference. |
To add milestones to your workflow, complete the following steps:
Select a task from the list to see and configure its details. Refer to the milestone information provided in this table:
Task | Milestone |
---|---|
Intake Review | Intake review |
Dispute Validity | Intake review |
ACH Network Validity | ACH processing |
ACH Dispute Decision | ACH decision |
Customer Wins Dispute | ACH decision |
Merchant Wins Dispute | ACH decision |
Dispute Rejected | ACH decision |
Inform ACH Network | ACH processing |
Notify Customer | Closure |
Your milestones are now set and show up in the Milestones section, linked to their respective tasks. The workflow visualization updates automatically, giving you a clear view of how everything fits together.
Task blocks are groups of tasks that are chained together in a sequence to create flexible pathways within a workflow. Task blocks aren't specific to a case type.
To create a task block:
Note that task blocks can only be created and edited from the TASK BLOCKS page.
Congratulations on completing the tutorial! You've learned how to build a robust ACH dispute workflow from start to finish.
If you're ready to take your knowledge further, dive into task forms or learn how to configure attended and unattended tasks to save even more time by automating repetitive steps in your workflows.
Studio Workflow Tutorial