Currently in Public Preview “Beta”
Introduction
The Process Manager helps organize and manage your team processes, linking analysis found in the reports you have created in Solver to external processes. It allows users the ability to assign tasks to other Solver users, set deadlines to finish these tasks, and add hyperlinks to appropriate locations to achieve your tasks.
This guide provides a high-level overview of the layout and available features found in the Process Manager.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Am I being charged for Process Manager
- No, you are not, Process Manager is an included feature of the Solver Cloud version, as of September 2020
- Can I hide Process Manager from users while in Beta?
- Please submit a ticket to support@solverglobal.com and we will hide this menu for your entire organization.
- Are there permissions for Process manager
- At this time, there are no permissions for Process Manager. Users have full access or no access (via #2 above).
- When will Process Manager go from beta to generally available in production?
- We plan to continue to add essential features while it remains in beta. You can use it in production, more features are coming soon. The beta tag will be removed in the near future.
- When will Process Manager be available for Private-Host?
- The release date is not set yet but may come at the end of 2020.
- How are users notified when a task is created and assigned or when they complete a task?
- We are working on notifications but we are not there yet. It’s coming soon.
- How is Process Manager related to Budgeting Workflow and Assignments?
- Process Manager is a broader process management feature and is not currently directly related to Budgeting Workflow. Workflow assignments are typically a task(s) within a larger planning process. The Budgeting workflow and related assignments are perfect for tracking budget/forecast input, especially when an approval process is part of the planning process. We are researching options to integrate the Solver budgeting workflow into the Process Manager. But for now, check out the Process Manager templates to reference budgeting workflow.
Process Manager Overview
This section will detail where to locate the Process Manager after successfully logging in to the Solver Cloud portal, as well as a run-through of the available buttons seen in the overview page.
The Process Manager is located underneath the Home page in the Left-Hand Menu. The app is currently in beta and noted by the BETA icon right next to the Process Manager label.
Process Manager Overview Page (first-time access)
Clicking on the Process Manager tab opens the Process Manager Overview page. If this is the first time you are accessing Process Manager, then you will see the following page elements:
- Welcome Banner
- Clicking the top X button on the welcome banner will cause it to be removed. In its place will be a Search Bar that can be used for the Processes Table
- Clicking the top X button on the welcome banner will cause it to be removed. In its place will be a Search Bar that can be used for the Processes Table
- Start a new process section, with the following Process template cards:
- Blank
- Budget Process – Budget Manager’s Preparation Checklist
- Budget Process – Budget Calendar with Milestones and Dates
- Budget Process – Situation Analysis & Year-End Forecast
- Budget Process – Target Setting
- Budget Process – Top-Down Budget Input
- Budget Process – Bottoms Up Input
- Budget Process – Analyze Budget With Reports and Dashboards
- Budget Process – CFO Feedback
- Budget Process – Board Presentation
- Monthly Reporting & Analysis
- Empty Processes Table
- Submit Feedback link
Process Manager Overview Page (pre-existing Processes)
If the Process Manager contains existing Processes, users will see the following page elements:
- Welcome Banner
- Clicking the top X button on the welcome banner will cause it to be removed. In its place will be a Search Bar that can be used for the Processes Table
- Start a new process section, with the following Process template cards:
- Blank
- Budget Process – Budget Manager’s Preparation Checklist
- Budget Process – Budget Calendar with Milestones and Dates
- Budget Process – Situation Analysis & Year-End Forecast
- Budget Process – Target Setting
- Budget Process – Top-Down Budget Input
- Budget Process – Bottoms Up Input
- Budget Process – Analyze Budget With Reports and Dashboards
- Budget Process – CFO Feedback
- Budget Process – Board Presentation
- Monthly Reporting & Analysis
- Processes Table, containing previously created Processes
- Submit Feedback link
When ready, click on the Blank template in the Start a new process section to begin creating your first Process
Process Details Page
This section will cover the available features seen when creating and editing a Process. After clicking on the Blank, you will land on the Process Edit page. Here, you will see the following interactable page elements:
- Header Breadcrumbs
- Users can click on the blue Process Manager link to close out of the Process and navigate back to the Overview page
- The timestamp will indicate when the last update to this Process was made
- Process Title
- Users can change the name of Processes by clicking on the Untitled textbox
- Users can choose to Duplicate or Delete the currently viewed Process by clicking on the downward-pointing arrow next to the Process Title
- Users can change the name of Processes by clicking on the Untitled textbox
- Process Items Table
- The Add Item button will add a new Process Item line at the bottom of the Process list, ready for user input
- Clicking on an Item name will allow users to change the name of Process Items
- The Paste hyperlink area allows users to attach hyperlinks for specific Process Items
- The Assignee column is where a user can assign Process Items to other users connected in the same Tenant
- The Due Date column is where a user can define a deadline for the Process Item to be marked as complete
- The 3 Vertical Dot column is where a user can choose whether to Duplicate or Delete the selected Process Item, as well as Insert a new Process Item above or below the currently selected Item
- Submit Feedback Link
- View Details Tab
- Clicking on the View Details link opens up the Checklist Team modal, giving a visual representation of the users assigned within the currently viewed Process as well as the number of Tasks assigned to them
- Clicking on the View Details link opens up the Checklist Team modal, giving a visual representation of the users assigned within the currently viewed Process as well as the number of Tasks assigned to them
- Completion Indicator
- The Completion indicator updates in real-time as assigned users click on the Checkmark on their assigned tasks to mark them as complete
- The Completion indicator updates in real-time as assigned users click on the Checkmark on their assigned tasks to mark them as complete
- The Add Item button will add a new Process Item line at the bottom of the Process list, ready for user input
Tips
Adding Hyperlinks:
You can use the hyperlink option to link to Reports and Budget templates. You can also link to any resource available via a hyperlink. This may be material you store in your intranet, on a Microsoft Teams site, or any other accessible location.
Linking to Reports & Budget templates: To link to a template, simply open the report or Budget template and copy the URL at the top of your browser. Paste that link into the Task hyperlink. Keep in mind that the report must be accessible to any user you assign the task to. So check to ensure the report category has been shared with the user(s).
Linking to other parts of Solver: Copying the URL will work for other parts of the application. However, the screens within the Data Warehouse are not yet accessible via the hyperlinks yet, this is coming during Q4 2020.
Linking to a Microsoft Teams: You can easily copy links to Team sites as well as documents within your Microsoft Teams environment. To find the URL to a Microsoft Team, go to the Team and select the … for more options and select “Get link to Team.” If you would like to link to a document, go to the Files on the team and once again select the … and select the “Copy Link” option and paste the link into the URL on the Process Manager task.
Roadmap Plans
Process Manager is being released as a minimal feature product so that we can get it into our customer’s hands as quickly as possible. While we have a long list of capabilities we would like to bring to Process Manager, we are most interested in your feedback to help evolve this new feature.
| Feature | Release |
|---|---|
| Email notifications | 2.0 |
| Permissions to limit access | 2.0 |
| Add category/subsection | 2.0 |
| Recurring processes | 2x |
| Add overall process due data | 2x |
| Additional information fields | 2x |
| Create my own templates | 2x |
| Add responsive date for recurring processes | 2.x |
| Track the number of days an item was worked on for historical statistics | 2x |
| Ability to add comments to items | x |
| Deeper link integration into other parts of Solver | x |