Business processes

Business processes define the correct sequence of order status transitions and assign responsible parties for each stage.

With business processes, you can:

• Configure an optimized sales funnel. Orders are created in the required statuses, ensuring that no critical steps are missed during processing.
• Simplify multi-channel sales management. Orders from multiple sales channels are processed according to predefined rules by the appropriate employees, departments, or roles.
• Provide employees with clear work instructions. The system displays only the available transitions, helping employees avoid errors.
• Enhance process control and transparency. Managers gain an additional tool for monitoring and approving deals.

Business process affects only the work with Sales Orders. It does not affect workflows, integrations, applications, or the API.

• Create business process
• Edit business process
• Examples of business processes

Create business process

To create a new business process:

1. In the Kladana workspace, click on the user icon and select Settings → Business processes.
2. Click +Create a business process.
3. Add a name and description for the business process. It’s recommended to provide a detailed description, as it will make managing multiple processes easier.
4. Specify the statuses in which a transaction can be created. Click +Add more to add multiple statuses.
   
5. Configure the business process by setting up transitions between the statuses:
   • Initial status of the stage — set the initial status for the stage when editing a transaction. You can select No status if there are transactions that have not been assigned a status yet.
   • Status that should follow the initial one — define the final statuses for the stage, allowing the transaction to be moved to these statuses during editing.
     
6. Click +Add stage to create and set up as many stages as you need.
7. For each status, specify the employees who can create transactions and change statuses. By default, all account employees have access. To restrict access, click All employees. In the pop-up window, disable All account employees selected and select only the employees authorized to create transactions. Click Select.
8. Check the list of unselected statuses to ensure that no required statuses or related processes are missed. If a status is not selected, it is not included in the business process and will be unavailable when working with transactions.
9. Click Create.

By default, any business process is activated. To temporarily disable the business process, uncheck the Active option. Transaction statuses can only be changed by selected employees and only to the statuses available to them.

Only one business process can be created for a Sales Order. You can configure multi-channel sales management within a single business process. Set up the required transitions and assign employees, departments, and roles. Stages, statuses, and employees can be duplicated.

Edit business process

To edit, activate, deactivate, or delete a business process:

1. In the Kladana workspace, click the user icon and select Settings → Business Processes.
2. Select the desired business process.
3. Make the necessary changes:
   • To edit the business process, click Edit, make your changes, and then click Save.
   • To activate or deactivate the business process, check or uncheck the Active checkbox.
   • To delete the business process, click Delete and confirm the action.
   

Examples of business processes

Separate management of sales orders for different sales channels

This process is essential if you handle multiple Sales Channels: receiving Sales Orders from a website, marketplaces, social media, and messengers, as well as conducting both wholesale and retail sales. Each channel may have its own sales funnel workflow and order handling protocols. Typically, different departments, employees, and roles manage different sales channels.

First, review how Sales Orders are currently managed across various sales channels. For example, consider the workflow for website orders:

1. The customer creates a shopping cart.
2. A Sales Order is created in Kladana with the status New.
3. The manager processes the order by verifying its contents, contacting the customer to confirm the address and delivery time, and, if necessary, requesting inventory from suppliers. The order status can be updated from In progress to Approved.
4. The manager advances the order to one of the following statuses: Packed, Canceled.
5. If all goes well, the order moves further through the sales funnel. At this stage, the order status can be updated to Shipped or Canceled.
6. Upon delivery, the order status changes to Delivered or Returned. This concludes the order process.

You can implement the process described above using a business process in Kladana:

1. Create a new Business Process where each stage includes the correct transitions for each sales channel.
2. Enhance your workflows with additional tools that help automate part of the employees’ tasks and improve transparency in order handling stages:
   • Workflows — automate stages of the process, saving time and resources, and reducing the risk of errors.
   • Tasks — provide visibility into tasks, giving each employee a checklist of daily actions in the correct sequence. This ensures that no important customer call is missed, and orders are prepared on time.
   • Event Feed — maintains up-to-date information about customers and suppliers, records all correspondence and agreements, and allows employees to communicate within the Kladana workspace.
   • Apps — extend and customize Kladana’s functionality to meet the specific needs of your business.

Review the Commercial Offer or Contract Before Sending to the Counterparty

This business process is configured similarly to the previous example, but with different status transitions specified at each stage.

The business process can be enhanced with workflows. For instance, you might create the following workflows: Change the responsible employee for the Sales Order, Assign a task to the supervisor, or Send notification to the supervisor.

Confirm Product Availability or Specifications with Warehouse Staff

If cross-departmental coordination is required for a Sales Order, you can set up the process in one of following ways:

• By assigning a specific status to the warehouse employee — when an order reaches this status, it indicates that clarification is required.
• Through automated task assignments or notifications sent to the warehouse employee using workflows.

Configure a workflow to send notifications. When the workflow is triggered, the warehouse employee will receive an alert.

Order Missing Product Items for a Sales Order

This case is similar to the previous one. When configuring a business process, you can specify:

• Initial status of the stage — In progress.
• Status that should follow the initial one — Awaiting Arrival at Warehouse or Canceled.

Configure a workflow to automatically create a related Purchase Order and send a notification when the Sales Order is moved to a specific status.

Send the Sales Order for Packing

This case is similar to the previous one and also involves collaboration between employees from different departments, such as a manager and a warehouse employee.

The business process can be enhanced with workflows. For example, you can configure the following workflows: Send a notification when the Sales Order is ready for packing or Create a task to pack the Sales Order.