Skip to main content

Persona Management (The "Who")

📍 How to get here:

  1. Click on the Settings gear icon in your navigation menu.
  2. Select Organization Settings.
  3. Look at the left sidebar for the Notifications & Workflows section.

Before you can build a workflow, you need to define who is involved. Not everyone in your business needs to be treated the exact same way. The Persona Management tab helps you organize different "types" or "roles" of users (like Department Manager, Finance Director, or Support Agent).

Persona Management List

How it works: By defining these Personas, you don't have to assign tasks to specific people (like "John Doe"). Instead, you assign tasks to a Persona (like "Finance Director"). If John leaves the company and Jane takes his place, the workflow automatically routes to Jane because she now holds that Persona!

Creating a Persona​

When you click Add Persona (or edit an existing one), you will configure how the system identifies the right person.

Add Persona

  • Persona Name: A readable name like "Finance Team" or "Department Head".
  • Internal Code: A unique uppercase identifier (e.g., FINANCE_TEAM). This is how the system recognizes the persona under the hood.
  • Description: A short explanation of the persona's purpose.

Resolution Strategies​

The most powerful part of a Persona is its Resolution Strategy. This defines the logic the system uses to figure out exactly who should receive the notification or approval request at the moment it is triggered.

Resolution Strategies

You can choose from the following built-in strategies:

1. Reporting Manager​

  • Resolves to: The document owner's direct manager.
  • When to use: Perfect for standard internal approvals like Leave Requests or Expenses where an employee's immediate boss needs to sign off.

2. Project Manager​

  • Resolves to: The assigned manager of the associated project.
  • When to use: Ideal for project-based tasks, billing, or timesheets where approval must come from the person overseeing the specific project budget rather than the employee's general manager.

3. Project Leader​

  • Resolves to: The technical lead of the associated project.
  • When to use: Best for technical sign-offs, pull requests, or architecture decisions where the lead developer or engineering lead for that project needs to review the work.

4. Department Head​

  • Resolves to: The head of the owner's department.
  • When to use: Useful for high-level approvals, major budget requests, or departmental policy changes that require executive oversight from the division leader.

5. Requestor​

  • Resolves to: The person who initiated the request (Expense, Leave, Timesheet).
  • When to use: Essential for "Return for Correction" workflows. If a manager rejects an expense, the system routes it back to the Requestor so they can fix it.

6. Current Approver​

  • Resolves to: Whoever is currently holding the document in the workflow.
  • When to use: Great for sending reminder notifications. E.g., "Send an email to the Current Approver if the document has been pending for 3 days."

7. Default Approver​

  • Resolves to: A final fallback (System Admin or Owner).
  • When to use: Acts as a safety net. If an employee submits an expense but they don't have a Reporting Manager assigned in the system, the workflow might break. The Default Approver catches these orphaned requests.

8. Specific User​

  • Resolves to: A fixed, statically assigned user account.
  • When to use: Perfect for distinct organizational roles held by one person, like a dedicated HR representative, a Finance Controller, or a Compliance Officer who needs to review every request. Note: When you select this strategy, you will be prompted to select the specific user account from a dropdown menu.

💡 Quick Tip: For project-specific personas (like Project Manager or Project Leader), ensure that your module (like Timesheets) is linked to a project! Otherwise, the workflow designer will require a manual project selection.