Documentation › Routines

Start a process again and again: routines

A routine automatically starts a process instance, again and again, on a schedule: every Monday, every month, every 3 days… Example: the monthly report, started on the 1^st of every month without anybody having to remember it.

What is a routine for?

• You choose a published process, which holds what has to be done, and a schedule.
• At each due time, ProcNest starts a process instance in your name, with the same people and values as you chose. It is named “routine name (date)”, for example Monthly report (2031-02-01).
• The instances it starts are ordinary ones: they show in Process instances and their tasks in My tasks.

1. Create a routine

1. Click New routine

   In the Routines tab. The button only shows if you can manage routines and see processes.

2. Details and Process

   Give a Name (required), then choose the published process. Its name is proposed when the field is empty. Choose who plays each participant and the values of the variables: these choices are reused at every run.

3. Schedule

   Set Repeat (daily, weekly, monthly or yearly), Every (a number from 1 to 100: “every 2 months”) and First run (the date and time of the first run).

4. End

   Choose when the routine stops: Never, On a date (the last day included) or After a number of runs (1 to 1000).

5. Click Save

   ProcNest tells you when the first run happens. If something is missing or not valid, nothing is saved and the fields concerned are marked in red.

Times are shown in your time zone. If the first run is in the past, the routine starts as soon as it is saved.

2. Follow and manage your routines

The Routines page lists your routines: their schedule, process, state (Active, Paused or Completed), next run, last run and number of runs. The search filters by routine or process name.

• Pause / Resume: a paused routine starts nothing. On resume it waits for the next due time in the future: what was missed during the pause is not made up.
• Edit: change the name and the schedule. The process of a routine cannot be changed: create another routine to use another process. A Completed routine that is given a later end starts again.
• Delete: removes the routine. The process instances it already started are kept.
• The Open the last process instance button opens the last instance started.

Good to know

• If ProcNest could not run for several due times, it starts one process instance when it is back, then goes on with the normal schedule. The missed due times count in the number of runs.
• A shorter month does not shift the schedule: a monthly routine that began on the 31st runs on February 28th (or 29th), then on March 31st again.
• If a run fails (for example because the process was deleted), the page says so on the routine: The last run failed. The following due times are tried as usual.
• A process instance started by a routine belongs to the person who created the routine and to their team.

Permissions

• See the Routines page: View routines. Everyone only sees their own routines.
• Create, edit, pause and delete: Manage routines (and View processes to choose the process). Users and roles explains how to get them.