Workflows Overview

Workflows in DocQ define the lifecycle that a document follows from creation through to completion. A workflow is a series of steps that a document is submitted to, reflecting the real-world processes your organization uses to review, approve, sign, and distribute documents.

What Are Workflows?

A workflow represents the path a document takes through your organization. Each workflow consists of steps — discrete actions that must be completed before the document moves forward. Steps can include:

• Review and approval — one or more users review the document and approve or reject it.
• Signature collection — designated signers apply their e-signatures.
• Sharing and distribution — the document is shared with specific users or groups.
• Notifications — stakeholders are informed about the document's progress.
• Submission to other workflows — the document is forwarded into a separate workflow for additional processing.

How Documents Move Through Workflows

Documents advance automatically between steps once all required actions at the current step are completed. When a user approves or rejects a document, the workflow determines which step comes next based on the workflow configuration.

• Approve directs the document to the next step defined for the approval outcome.
• Reject directs the document to a different step, as configured by the workflow designer.

This approve/reject branching allows you to build workflows that handle both the happy path and exception scenarios without manual intervention.

Non-Sequential Routing

Workflow order is not strictly sequential. While many workflows follow a linear path from start to end, DocQ supports conditional routing that creates alternative paths based on the values of template variables. This means a single workflow can handle multiple scenarios — for example, routing a contract to different approval chains depending on its dollar amount, department, or document type.

For details on setting up conditional routing, see Conditions & Routing.

Next Steps

• Creating Workflows — learn how to build a new workflow on the visual canvas.
• Step Types — explore all available step types, from Person and Department to Timer and Web-Service.
• Conditions & Routing — configure IFTTT-based conditions for multi-path routing.
• Workflow Settings — set default workflow behavior, associate templates, and configure export options.
• Troubleshooting — resolve validation errors and common workflow issues.