What is a workflow application?
A workflow application is software that shows which steps a piece of work goes through from start to finish, who does what at each step, and where the work is waiting right now. Because it is web-based, there is nothing to install; your team opens it in a browser at the office, in the field or at home.
Its biggest benefit is visibility. The answer to "Who is sitting on this proposal?" comes from a single screen, not a round of phone calls.
Which processes is it a good fit for?
| Process | What the application does |
|---|---|
| Preparing proposals | Proposals from templates, approval steps, revision history, PDF output |
| Orders and shipping | Shows order status to the whole team and, if you like, to the customer |
| Service and maintenance | Fault tickets, technician assignment, photos and signatures from the field |
| Purchase approvals | Request, budget check, multi-level approval |
| Production work orders | Progress between stations, delay alerts |
| Employee requests | Leave, salary advance and expense forms with their approvals |
You can see how these processes take shape in different industries on our industries page. For example, project and progress-payment tracking stands out for mechanical and HVAC companies, while work-order tracking matters most in manufacturing and industry.
What a good workflow application should include
- Role-based permissions: Everyone sees only the screens and data relevant to their own work.
- Activity history: The system records who changed which record, and when.
- Notifications: When it is someone's turn, they get an email or an in-app alert.
- Mobile-friendly design: The field team can use it comfortably on a phone.
- Reporting: Pending work, average turnaround times and bottlenecks are visible at a glance.
- Export: Data can be pulled out as Excel or PDF whenever needed.
- Backups: Data is backed up regularly and automatically.
Management dashboards
A management dashboard summarizes data from different sources on one screen: daily orders, open proposals, overdue service tickets, collection status. What makes a dashboard valuable is that nobody has to gather the data by hand, and it is up to date every morning. If your financial data lives in your ERP, it is often faster to cover that side with our ERP reporting service.
Checklist before you start
- How many steps does the process have, and who works on each step?
- Which tools does the process run on today (Excel, email, paper forms)?
- At which step do the most delays or errors happen?
- Will customers or suppliers also log in to the system?
- Which report do you still prepare by hand every week?
Frequently asked questions
Does the application work on phones too?
Yes. We design our web-based applications to be comfortable to use on phones and tablets. If you need a separate app in the app stores, our mobile app service comes into play.
Can our existing Excel data be migrated?
Yes. Data migration is part of the go-live plan, and we clean and map the data before we move it.
You can find the full process on our custom software service page, and you are welcome to get in touch with us to talk through your own process.