Setting Up Workflow Management

This guide walks you through building your own workflow in the Model Editor — the set of job statuses, buttons, and access rules that decide how a job moves from start to finish. If you've ever wanted a tool to track jobs through your team's stages, this is where you set that up.

What Is This?

A workflow is the lifecycle a job travels through in Katapult Pro. Each stage in that lifecycle is a job status (for example, Not Started, In Progress, and Completed), and each status can have its own action buttons that move a job to the next stage, its own color on the Overview page, and its own access rules for outside collaborators. You build and edit all of this from the Workflow Management → Workflows section of the Model Editor.

Katapult Pro provides default workflows for data collection and engineering design that you can import from your catalog, but this section lets you build one that matches exactly how your team works.

When Would I Use It?

Build a workflow when you want a job's progress to live on the job itself, inside Katapult Pro, instead of in a separate spreadsheet or tracker that someone has to keep in sync by hand. A workflow turns "where is this job?" into a question the platform answers for you. And because the status is part of the job, it can't drift out of sync with the work the way an outside tracker does.

Setting one up is worth it when you want to:

• Give your whole team one shared source of truth. A job's status shows right on the Overview page, color-coded so office, field, and reviewers can all scan the same live picture — what's in flight, what's stalled, what's done — without checking a side channel.
• Advance a job in one click, tied to the real work. Your team presses a labeled button on the actual job to move it to the next stage, rather than remembering to update a tracker somewhere else.
• Keep collaborators at the right level of access as work moves. Access can shift stage by stage, so a partner has access during their part of the job and not before or after.
• Let the platform do the bookkeeping. Actions can fire automatically as a job changes stages, so your views and reports stay accurate without anyone manually flagging the job.

Step 1 — Open the Workflows Section and Start a New Workflow

In the Model Editor's left-hand menu, expand Workflow Management and select Workflows. Click the option to create a new workflow, then give it a clear, descriptive name in the name field at the top of the panel (for example, the market or job type it's for).

Step 2 — Build Your List of Job Statuses

Under Job Statuses, add each stage a job should pass through. Click Add a Status to create a new one, and give it a name your whole team will understand at a glance (Not Started, In Progress, and Completed are the defaults in a fresh workflow). The statuses are listed top to bottom, and you can drag the handle on the left of a row to reorder them. Keeping the list in the real sequence a job follows makes the workflow easier to read, but the order isn't what actually moves a job — the Set Status actions do that (Steps 3 and 4). The one place order genuinely matters is the Starting Status. So even a list that's out of sequence will run correctly, as long as your Set Status actions point where you intend.

At the top of the panel, use the Starting Status field to choose which status a brand-new job begins in. In the example workflow, new jobs start in Not Started. The status you pick here is also marked in the Job Statuses list with an entry-point arrow so you can see, at a glance, where every job begins.

Step 3 — Configure What Each Status Does

Click a status in the list to expand it. Each status has its own set of options that control what happens while a job sits there and how it moves on.

Entry Points — This defines the ways a job can move into this status. Each entry point names the Status the job comes from and the Item (the button) that performs the move. Use entry points to create loops (like a recollection or revision cycle) rather than only moving straight down the list. The list of entry points appears automatically as you create different entry actions and action buttons.

Access — Set the level of access outside collaborators have while a job is in this status. There are three categories: Engineering Contractor, Data Collection Contractor, and Other. Other applies to any company the job is shared with that doesn't have a specific role on the job. Choose the access level (Read, Write, or None) for each. For example, this lets you give a data collection partner access during the collection stage and pull it back once the job moves into review.

Color — Pick the color this status shows in on the Overview page. Distinct colors make it easy for the whole team to see where every job stands at a glance.

Entry Actions — Add automated actions that run the moment a job enters this status. Click Add an Action, then pick from the list of available actions. These are the same actions you can attach to a button (Step 4), so it's worth knowing what's on the menu:

• Share Job — Add or modify the job's sharing permissions for one or more companies.
• Set Status — Change the job's status. This is the action that actually moves a job from one stage to the next.
• Set Job Attribute — Set the value of a job attribute.
• Set Status Timer — Start a timer on the job that can trigger additional actions.
• Adjust Status Timer — Change the length of a timer already on the job.
• Clear Status Timer — Clear a timer on the job. (Timers clear automatically on status changes.)
• Set Job Name — Set the job's name to a unique identifier using the method you choose.
• Auto-Assign Data Collection Contractor — Set the Data Collection Contractor attribute using the assignment rules from User Options.
• Auto-Assign Engineering Contractor — Set the Engineering Contractor attribute using the assignment rules from User Options.
• Send Email — Send an automated email.

Entry actions are handy for bookkeeping that should happen every time so downstream views and reports stay accurate without anyone remembering to do it by hand.

The last section in each status, Action Buttons, is where you set up how a job moves on from here. Because it's the heart of the workflow, it gets its own step next.

Step 4 — Set Up the Action Buttons That Move a Job Forward

Still inside the status you're configuring, use Action Buttons to add the buttons a user sees while a job is in this status. Pressing a button is how your team advances a job, and because the buttons shown depend on the job's current status, your team always sees the next valid move and nothing else. In the example, a job in Not Started shows a single Start Workflow button.

Click Add a Button, then expand it to configure:

• Label — The wording shown on the button. Use plain language your team will recognize (the default workflows use labels like Ready for Data Collection and Data Collection Complete).
• Color and Icon — Give the button a color and, with Change Icon, an icon so it's easy to spot on the job.
• Access Permission — Check who's allowed to press this button: Engineering Contractor, Data Collection Contractor, and/or Model Owner. Leaving a box unchecked keeps that party from advancing the job with this button.
• Show Custom Confirmation Dialog — Turn this on to prompt the user before the button's actions run. Beyond guarding against an accidental press, a confirmation dialog can also collect information from the user and write it to the job before the rest of the button's actions fire — for example, asking who the designer is and stamping that onto the job as it advances. Turning it on reveals a few more fields:
  • Confirmation Title — The heading at the top of the dialog (for example, Confirm Assign Designer).
  • Confirmation Body — The message or question shown in the dialog (for example, Are you sure you want to proceed?).
  • Confirmation Button Label — The wording on the dialog's confirm button (for example, Assign Designer).
  • Confirmation Prompts — Optional input fields the user fills in before the actions run. Click Add a Confirmation Prompt, then set its Prompt Type (for example, Update Job Metadata, which writes the user's answer to a job attribute), the Attribute it fills (for example, Designer), and whether it's Required. In the example, pressing Assign Designer opens the dialog, the user types a name into the Designer field, that value is written to the job's Designer attribute, and then the button's remaining actions run.
• Complete Actions — The actions that fire when the button is pressed. This is what makes the button do something. Click Add an Action and choose from the same action list described in Step 3. To move the job to the next stage, add a Set Status action and pick the destination status — in the example, Start Workflow runs Set Status → In Progress, which is exactly what carries the job from Not Started into In Progress. You can stack more than one action on a single button (for example, Set Status plus Send Email plus Set Status Timer), and they'll all run when it's pressed.
• Hidden — Optionally set a condition for when the button should be hidden. Leave it blank to always show the button.

Step 5 — Add Timers (Optional)

The Timers section lets you layer time tracking onto the workflow.

Click Add a Timer, then expand it to configure:

• Name — a label for the timer.
• Description — an optional note on what the timer is for.
• Length — how long the timer runs, in days.
• Allow Model Owner Adjustment — check this to let the model owner change the timer's length.
• Allow Extension Request — check this to let users ask the model owner to extend the timer.
• Allow Manual Timeout — check this to let users trigger the timer manually instead of waiting for it to run out.
• Timeout Actions — the actions that fire when the timer runs out. Click Add an Action and choose from the same action list described in Step 3 (for example, Set Status to move a stalled job along, or Send Email to flag it).

Timers work hand in hand with the actions from Steps 3 and 4. Once you've added a timer here, you can start, lengthen, or clear it with the Set Status Timer, Adjust Status Timer, and Clear Status Timer actions on a status or a button. Any timer clears automatically when the job changes status — handy for flagging a job that has sat in one stage too long.

Step 6 — Decide Who Can Create Jobs in This Workflow

Near the bottom of the panel, check Only allow the model owner to create jobs in this workflow if you want to restrict job creation to your own company. This is especially useful for a shared model, so a company you've shared the model with can use it without being able to spin up new jobs in this workflow. Leave it unchecked to let anyone with access to the model create jobs in it.

Step 7 — Finish Creating the Workflow

When your statuses, buttons, and access rules are set, click Finish Creating Workflow in the top right to save. The workflow is now available when you create a new job with this model on the Overview page.

Good to Know

• Status order is for readability, not function. Only the Starting Status changes behavior — Set Status actions do the actual moving. A list that's out of sequence still runs correctly.
• Action order does matter. Within any list of actions — entry actions, a button's Complete Actions, or a timer's Timeout Actions — actions run top to bottom. If one action sets a value a later action needs, place it higher in the list.
• Buttons move jobs; the Set Status action is the engine. Point it at the next status to advance, or at an earlier one to build a loop or restart.
• Access is set per status, and it re-applies on every status change. The same collaborator can have different access at different stages, so you can open a job up during one phase and lock it down in another. Just know that Katapult Pro refreshes the job's sharing list every time the status changes: if you've shared a job with a company at write access but they aren't a designated Engineering or Data Collection Contractor, they'll drop to the Other access level the moment the status advances. Set the access you want those partners to keep on each status, or add them as a contractor, so their access doesn't get knocked down unexpectedly.
• Timers clear on every status change. A timer only survives while the job stays put; moving it — forward or back — clears the timer automatically.
• Test before you roll it out. Create a sample job with the model and click through the statuses to confirm the buttons, entry actions, and access all behave the way you intended.
• Workflows save to the model. Every job built on this model uses the workflow you configure here. To learn how a job actually travels through these statuses day to day, see the default workflow guides linked below.

Configuring User Options

User Options is where the contractor companies you assign elsewhere in the model come from. Whenever you restrict access to a job in a particular status (Step 3) or limit who can see an attribute on the Overview page (Display Options), you're choosing from the companies that live here. You'll find it under Workflow Management → User Options in the Model Editor.

The company list is built from your company's contact list — the same contacts you see in the Share Job dialog. You don't add or edit companies on this page directly. Instead, a company is added to your contacts automatically the first time you share a job with a user whose email is associated with that company. In other words, the way to grow this list is to share a job with someone from a new company; once you have, that company becomes available as a possible contractor.

The companies here are what populate the Engineering Contractor and Data Collection Contractor choices throughout the workflow — the access levels you set per status, the auto-assign actions, and the visibility limits in Display Options all draw from this same list. Keeping it accurate means those role-based rules point at the right partners.

Configuring Display Options

Where Workflows decides how a job moves, Display Options decides what your team sees about that job on the Overview page — the list where every job built with this model appears. Setting these up well means office, field, and reviewers can scan the Overview and pull the details they care about without opening each job one at a time. You'll find it under Workflow Management → Display Options in the Model Editor.

The panel has a few parts, top to bottom:

Time Zone - This reflects the model's time zone, which is configured under Model Options rather than here. There's nothing to set on this page — it's shown for reference so you know which time zone the dates on the Overview are based on.

Overview Attributes Default Sort Attribute - Choose the attribute the Overview list sorts by out of the box (for example, a due date or job name). Users can always re-sort once they're on the page; this just sets the starting order.

Overview Attributes - This is the heart of the page — the job attributes that appear on Overview to summarize jobs and make them easier to find. Click Add a Job Attribute to add one, then expand it to configure:

• Top Level — Controls where the attribute shows on the Overview page. Checked, it's always visible in the job's row without expanding anything. Unchecked, it's tucked into the job's collapsible region and only appears once someone expands that job on the Overview page.
• Limit Visibility — Controls who can see the attribute. Left unchecked, the attribute is visible to everyone with access to the job, and you can't single out roles. Check it to choose exactly who sees the attribute — any combination of Model Owner, Engineering Contractors, and Data Collection Contractors.
• Label — An optional custom name for the attribute as it appears on Overview. Handy when the underlying attribute name isn't the clearest thing to show your team (for example, showing an "App Status" attribute under the label "Job Status"). Leave it blank to use the attribute's own name.
• Display As — How the value is formatted on Overview. Choose a display type such as Boolean, Date, Company, or Computed. The menu may include more types than these, so scroll to see the full list.

Custom Job Name Logic - Optionally, build logic that names a job automatically.

When you've set your attributes and sort order, click Save in the top right.