To learn about building a process in general, see Build a process.
All certification actions first require letters that will be signed by the assignees. Learn more about creating a certification letter.
Add a certification action to a process
After creating a process and certification letters to use in the process, you can add a Certification action from the Add action button in the toolbar.
Then, fill out the fields in the Action details right panel. Each certification action must include the following information:
- Title: The name of the action
- Letter: The letter that needs to be signed
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Send to: The people who need to sign the letter
- If you want multiple signer steps, click Add signer step. You'll be able to edit the signer steps that haven't yet started even after running the process if needed.
- If you add multiple signers to a single step, specify if everyone in the step needs to sign or just someone in the step needs to sign for the certification action to proceed.
You can also add:
- Due date (optional): When the letter needs to be signed by
- Assignee reminders: By default (you can change this default definition before starting the process via the certification settings in the process properties), automated reminder emails with default content are sent to assignees three days before, the day of, and every day for three days after the assignee due date. You can instead choose to not send reminders at all or customize the reminders according to your personal needs. See Send reminders in Processes for more details.
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Approval by (optional): The people who will review and approve or return the signed letter if approval is needed
- If you want multiple approvers, click Add approval step. You'll be able to edit the approval steps that haven't yet started even after running the process if needed.
- If you add multiple approvers to a single step, specify if everyone in the step needs to approve or just someone in the step needs to approve for the certification action to proceed.
Note: If no approval step is added and approval is needed, the process owner who started the process (the process manager) will be added as an approver.
- Approval due (optional): When the signed letter needs to be approved by if approval is needed
- Approver reminders: If you add an approver, you can customize the approver reminders. By default (you can change this default definition before starting the process via the certification settings in the process properties), automated reminder emails with default content are sent to approvers three days before, the day of, and every day for three days after the approval due date. You can instead choose to not send reminders at all or customize the reminders according to your personal needs. See Send reminders in Processes for more details.
- Instructions (optional): Any additional information needed to complete the certification task
- Tags (optional): Identifying information about the action using a category and a value (ex: Priority: Low). You’ll be able to edit these tags even after the certification action starts, if needed.
- Custom email notification (optional): A customized email notification sent to signers for this action when the action starts
Bulk add certification actions to a process
You can use the Bulk certification option if you want to send out copies of a single dedicated letter to each person in a group.
After selecting Bulk certification, fill out the required fields:
- Title: The name of the action that will be the same for each signer
- Letter: The letter that needs to be signed by each signer
- Assigned to: The workspace group whose members need to sign the letter
You can also add:
- Due date (optional): When all the letters need to be signed by
- Assignee reminders: By default (you can change this default definition before starting the process via the certification settings in the process properties), automated reminder emails with default content are sent to assignees three days before, the day of, and every day for three days after the assignee due date. You can instead choose to not send reminders at all or customize the reminders according to your personal needs. See Send reminders in Processes for more details.
- Approval by (optional): The person who will review and approve or return any of the signed letters that need approval
Note: If no approval step is added and approval is needed, the process owner who started the process (the process admin) will be added as an approver.
- Approval due (optional): When the signed letters need to be approved by if approval is needed
- Approver reminders: If you add an approver, you can customize the approver reminders. By default (you can change this default definition before starting the process via the certification settings in the process properties), automated reminder emails with default content are sent to approvers three days before, the day of, and every day for three days after the approval due date. You can instead choose to not send reminders at all or customize the reminders according to your personal needs. See Send reminders in Processes for more details.
- Instructions (optional): Any additional information needed to complete the certification tasks
- Custom email notification (optional): A customized email notification sent to signers for each action in this bulk certification when the action starts
Once you click Add, a separate certification action will be added to the process for each person in the assigned group.
Bulk edit certification emails
Along with customizing email notifications for specific certification actions, you can also edit those email notifications in bulk.
To bulk edit certification emails:
- In the actions list, select the certification actions that you want to edit.
- Click the Edit actions dropdown and select Certification emails.
- Choose which certification emails (out of the certification actions that you selected) that you want to update:
- Select Unmodified emails (selected by default) to update the certification emails that still contain the default email content and haven't been customized yet.
- Select Modified emails to update the certification emails that have already been customized.
- Select All certification emails to update all the certification emails (both unmodified and modified).
- Change the subject line and email body according to your needs.
- Review the affected certification actions to make sure you want to edit the certification emails for those actions.
- Click Save to make the changes.
Note: Before running your process, we recommend that you verify that all certification emails are correct by exporting all process actions as a CSV file.
Bulk edit certification letter assignments
You can also bulk edit the certification letters that are assigned to your certification actions.
To bulk edit certification letter assignments:
- In the actions list, select the certification actions that you want to edit.
- Click the Edit actions dropdown and select Certification letter.
- Out of the selected certification actions, first choose the originally-assigned certification letter. This will give you the certification actions that are currently attached to that original certification letter.
- Then, choose the new certification letter that you want to assign those certification actions to instead.
- Review the affected certification actions to make sure you want to edit the certification letter assignments for those actions.
- Click Save to make the changes.
Certification settings
You can open up Properties in the toolbar and go to the Certifications settings section to see several certification settings:
Note: You won’t be able to change these certification settings once the process runs.
Automatic approval
By default, letters that are signed without any added explanations, exceptions, or attachments will be approved automatically (see Sign a certification letter). You can deselect this option once you’ve added certification actions and if you want to require manual approvals for all certifications in the process.
Certifications default reminder emails
By default, reminder emails for certification actions are automatically sent three days before, the day of, and every day for three days after the due date. Before starting the process, you can change the schedule and text for these certification defaults for both assignee and approver emails.
Run a process with certification actions
Note: Before running your process, we recommend that you verify that all certification actions and their details are correct by exporting all process actions as a CSV file.
After building your process, click Run in the toolbar to start it. Once a certification action starts, signers will receive an email linking directly to the letter to sign.
Note: Only a process owner can run the process. This process owner will become the process manager.