The Workflow section is where you and your employees manage most day-to-day website activity. It contains your clients’ orders, estimate requests, submitted files, and related job information.

From Workflow, you can locate a job, review its details, access files, send proofs, provide pricing, communicate with the printbuyer, update the job’s status, and more.

Understand the Workflow section

The Workflow section has two main parts:

Workflow list

The main ‘View Workflow’ list displays every customer transaction in the system, including orders, estimate requests, and submitted files. Filters in the sidebar help you find the item you need.

Each job appears separately. For example, if a client submits one order containing three different business cards, the system creates three jobs with separate job numbers. All three jobs share the same order number.

Item details

Select a line item’s order number, job number, or description to open its details. Depending on the type of item, you can:

• Review the order and job specifications
• Access uploaded or generated files
• Send a proof and review the client’s response
• Provide pricing for an unpriced order or estimate
• Add notes to the Job Journal
• Update the job’s status
• Add shipping and tracking information
• Complete or reopen a job

The basic process is:

1. Use the Workflow filters to locate an item.

2. Select its Order or Job number or ‘Description’.

3. Review the details and take the appropriate action.

Find an item in Workflow

You can filter the Workflow list by:

• Type (Categories)
• Date
• Keyword
• Company, branch, or contact

Filter by type

1. Select Workflow from the Control Center’s top menu.

2. Select an option under Categories in the sidebar.

The list updates automatically based on your selection.

• Estimates contains items submitted when a client selects Request an Estimate on an order form.

• Orders contains items submitted through the website’s ordering process.

• In Estimating, located under Orders, contains orders submitted without pricing that require your printshop to provide an order total.

Filter by date

1. Select Workflow from the Control Center’s top menu.

2. Open Dates in the sidebar.

3. Enter a Start Date and End Date, or select the dates using the date chooser.

The list updates automatically to show items with activity during the selected date range.

Search by keyword

1. Select Workflow from the Control Center’s top menu.

2. Open Keywords in the sidebar.

3. Enter a word or phrase and select the type of search:

• Search All Order Info searches all available information associated with each item.
• Search Product Description searches only the information shown in the Description column.

4. Click Search.

The list updates to show items matching your search.

Above: The results of searching for the word ‘Postcard’

Filter by company, branch, or contact

Use the People filter when you want to find activity associated with a particular client account.

1. Select Workflow from the Control Center’s top menu.

2. Open People in the sidebar.

3. Enter a keyword to filter the company, branch, and contact lists.

4. Select the appropriate company, branch, or contact.

The search matches partial words. For example, searching for “Smith” may return results such as “Smith,” “Smithsonian,” and “Blacksmith.”

Review an item's details

The item details view contains transaction information and individual job information.

Transaction details

Transaction details apply to the entire order. This section may include:

• Contact information
• Shipping and billing information
• Pricing
• The date and time of the transaction
• Actions that affect the entire transaction, such as Complete Order

Job details

Job details contain the specifications for an individual product within the transaction.

For example, if a printbuyer submits one order containing brochures, business cards, and posters, the order contains three separate jobs—one for each product.

Above: Example of an order containing three jobs, with each job shown on a separate line.

Above: Example of the ‘Posters’ job within the order

When an order contains multiple jobs, you can delete, complete, reopen, or print an individual job without changing the other jobs in the order.

Use the job details tabs

The job details section contains three tabs:

• Send a Proof
• Work in Progress
• Job Journal

Send a Proof

The Send a Proof tab displays the job’s proofing activity, including:

• Proof files that have been sent
• The recipients who received them
• Each recipient’s response

The next Getting Started article explains the proofing process in more detail.

Work in Progress

The Work in Progress tab contains four sections: Price, Files, Status Updates, and Shipping.

Price

Use the Price tab to add or update the job’s price.

1. Enter an amount in the Price field.

2. Select whether the amount is the total price or the price per unit.

3. Click Update Prices.

Files

The Files section contains files associated with the job, including:

• Files uploaded by the client
• Files generated through a uDesignIT!-powered order form
• DesignEdit files
• Files added by your printshop

Select ‘Upload a File’ to attach another file for the printbuyer or for your printshop’s internal reference.

Status Updates

Use Status Updates to keep the client informed about the job’s progress.

Drag the job from one status to another. After changing the status, you can choose whether to notify your customer. The updated status also appears in the customer's account on your website.

You can use as many or as few of the available statuses as your workflow requires.

Shipping

Use Shipping to add fulfillment information, including tracking numbers associated with the job.

Review the shipping information before selecting ‘Save’. The ‘Save and Complete’ button saves the changes and marks the job as 'Complete'.

Job Journal

The Job Journal keeps job-related communication together in one place.

To add a message:

1. Select Click here to add a note to this job’s workflow history.

2. Enter your message.

3. Click Add Note.

After adding the note, you can choose whether to notify your customer by email. 

The note is then added to the Job Journal, and the client receives the message by email if ‘Yes’ is selected to send the customer an email.

Next: Send and manage proofs

The next article explains how to send proofs to clients and how clients can review and respond to them.