Streamlining Your Business with Willow360: Simple Workflow Examples

Add Text to Document

Compliance Report

Securing Willow360 with 2FA

30 Powerful Willow360 Workflow Ideas for Modern Organisations

How does credit charging work in Willow360

How many credits do I need

Fill form action uses

How to Create and Test a Workflow

Introduction to Willow360

How to Create Your First Workflow

Basic Navigation and Features

Overview of Available Actions

How to Configure and Use Each Action

Examples of Common Workflows

What's New in Willow360 v2.4: Document Enrichment and Compliance Reporting

Unlocking the Power of Metadata in Willow360

Supply information action uses

Spooktacular Workflows: Using Willow360’s “Fill in a Form” Action This Halloween

Willow360 Troubleshooting Guide

Organizing the Ultimate Office Party with Willow360

Enhancing the Accounts Department with Willow360

Adding and Managing Users

Creating and Managing Teams

Understanding User Roles in Willow360

Uploading and Managing Files

How to Use Simple Sign

Using WillowSign to Legally Sign Documents

Using the Collector in Willow360

Simple Sign vs. WillowSign: Choosing the Right Signature Tool

Data Types and Collection Options in Willow360

Focus on List input options

What’s New in Willow360 v1.15: Flexibility, Personalization, and Smarter Workflows

Bell notifications vs push notifications: what’s the difference?

What's new in Willow360 V2.1: The Intelligence Release

Turning on Push Notifications on iOS

Understanding Stored Credentials for Cloud Services in Willow360

Personal Signatures in Willow360

A Users Guide to Willow360 Workflows: Understanding, Adding Files, Tracking Progress, and Notifications

File History in Willow360

Using Inboxes and Workflows

AI Data: Let Your Documents Tell You What You Need to Know

20 Ways to Unlock the Power of AI Data in Willow360

How to Use Export Data to CSV

Using Categories in Willow360

What’s New in Willow360 v2.0: Conditional Actions for smarter workflows

What’s New in Willow360 v2.2: Smarter organisation, faster access, and a more personalised experience

What's New in Willow360 v2.3: Exporting Structured Data

What's New in Willow360 v2.5: Clean Exits

Exit Workflow

Using Conditions in Willow360

Getting Started

Background

Seasonal

Willow360 Administrator

Administering Users & Teams

The Willow Collector

Willow360 Workflow Creator

Workflow Actions

Willow360 User

Updates

<h2>Step 1: Define Your Workflow Objectives</h2>Before diving into the creation process, clearly define what you want your workflow to achieve. Identify the tasks that need automation, the sequence of actions, and the desired outcomes. This clarity will help you design a workflow that meets your specific needs.<h2>Step 2: Create the Workflow</h2>Access Willow360: Log in to your Willow360 account and navigate to the workflow creation section.Start a New Workflow: Click on the option to create a new workflow. Give your workflow a descriptive name that reflects its purpose.Add Actions: Workflows in Willow360 are built from actions. Add the actions your process requires. These are grouped by purpose:Flow control: Approve, Custom Task, Exit WorkflowSigning: WillowSign, Simple Sign, Auto Sign, Digital CertificateData collection: Fill in a Form, Supply Information, AI Data, External DataDocument modification: Convert to PDF, Stamp, Watermark, Highlight, Redact, Add Text to Document, RenameRearrangement: Merge, Split, Create Booklet, Divide BookletExport and distribution: Upload to SharePoint, Upload to OneDrive, Upload to Google Drive, Upload to Dropbox, Secure Email, System Email, Export Data to CSV, Compliance Report<h2>Step 3: Configure Each Action</h2>For each action, configure the necessary settings. For example, if you are using the Approve action, specify who the approvers are and whether any one approver or all approvers must respond. If you are using an Upload to Cloud action, select the destination folder and configure subfolder or naming rules as needed.If your workflow needs to extract information from documents automatically, add the AI Data action and configure a query for each piece of data you want to capture. AI Data uses OCR combined with artificial intelligence to read values directly from document content, such as invoice totals, supplier names, dates, or whether a document has been signed, without any manual input.If an action should only happen for some files, set a condition on it so it runs only when the file's data meets a rule, for example an extra approval only when the invoice total is over a certain amount. See <a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/using-conditions-in-willow360">Using Conditions in Willow360</a> for details.If some files that arrive in the workflow should not be processed, add an Exit Workflow action with an exit condition that identifies them. For example, after AI Data reads the document type, Exit Workflow can stop anything that is not an invoice and email the person who added it to explain why.If you want the workflow to build a running report of processed files, add the Export Data to CSV action and configure the columns and cloud destination for the output file.<h2>Step 4: Set Permissions and Privacy</h2>Define Permissions: Willow360 allows you to control who can use, view, and edit each workflow. There are three levels of access:<ul><li>Can use workflow: the user can add files to the workflow</li><li>Can see all files: in addition to the above, the user can view files added by other users</li><li>Can edit workflow: in addition to the above, the user can modify the workflow settings and actions</li></ul>Users with no permission assigned will not see the workflow tile and cannot add files to it.Assign Roles: Assign these permissions to individual users, teams, or everyone in your organisation. Individual permissions override team permissions, which override permissions set for everyone.Privacy Considerations: Ensure that sensitive information is protected. Use the Digital Certificate action to confirm document authenticity and integrity, and the Redact action to permanently obscure confidential content before sharing.<h2>Step 5: Test the Workflow</h2>Before granting access to others, thoroughly test your workflow to ensure it functions as expected.Add Test Files: Upload a few test files to the workflow and monitor how they progress through each action.Check Notifications: Ensure that notifications are sent correctly for actions such as approvals and task assignments.Test Exit Paths: If the workflow includes an Exit Workflow action, add at least one file that should exit and one that should not. Check the file history for each to confirm the exit condition behaves as expected and that any exit message is received.Verify Outputs: Check the final outputs, such as converted PDFs, signed documents, files uploaded to cloud services, and any CSV reports generated.Simulate Errors: Intentionally introduce edge cases (for example incorrect file formats) to see how the workflow handles them and ensure any error notifications are clear.<h2>Step 6: Review and Refine</h2>Based on your testing, make any necessary adjustments to the workflow. This might include reconfiguring actions, changing permissions, or adding additional steps to handle edge cases.<h2>Step 7: Grant Access</h2>Once you are confident that the workflow is functioning correctly and securely, you can grant access to others.Enable the Workflow: If the workflow was disabled during testing, enable it in Workflow Settings.Notify Users: Inform the relevant users or teams that the workflow is ready for use. Provide any necessary training or documentation to help them understand how to use it. Use the Workflow Description option in Workflow Settings to add a summary of the workflow's purpose, which will appear on the workflow tile and in the workflow view.<h2>Best Practices for Permissions and Privacy</h2>Least Privilege Principle: Only grant the minimum permissions necessary for users to perform their tasks.Regular Reviews: Periodically review permissions to ensure they remain appropriate as your team and processes evolve.Audit Trails: Use Willow360's file history to monitor what happened to each document, when, and by whom.Data Protection: Use secure storage destinations and apply redaction or digital certificates where documents contain sensitive or regulated content.<h2>Summary</h2>Creating and testing a workflow in Willow360 before granting access to others ensures that your processes are efficient, secure, and reliable. By following these steps and best practices, you can confidently deploy workflows that enhance productivity while maintaining control over permissions and privacy.<h2>Related Articles</h2><a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/how-to-configure-and-use-each-action">How to Configure and Use Each Action</a>

<h2 class="LexTKB__h2" dir="ltr">Add Text to Document</h2>Until now, if you wanted to add explanatory text to a processed document, your only real option was to build that content into the source file before it ever reached Willow360. Add Text to Document changes that. It is a new file-modifying action that inserts one or more brand-new pages of formatted text before or after the existing document, leaving the original pages completely untouched.The text itself is composed in a rich-text editor. You can use headings, bold, italic, underline and page breaks, and you can drop in file metadata tokens that are resolved automatically when the page is generated, so the same configuration produces personalised content for every file that passes through.Example 1: Customer cover sheets. A workflow that sends out signed agreements could add a page before the document reading "Prepared for [Customer Name], [Company Name] on [Current Date]", giving every pack a consistent, professional opening page without anyone typing it by hand.Example 2: Internal processing summaries. An invoice workflow could append a page after the invoice reading "Approved by [Approver Name] on [Approval Date], total [Total Amount]", so anyone opening the file later has the key facts on the very last page without digging through the file history.Example 3: Instructions for the recipient. A contract workflow could insert a page of plain-English signing instructions before the contract itself, particularly useful when a document is going to an external signer who has never used WillowSign before.For full configuration guidance, see <a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/add-text-to-document" class="LexTKB__link">Add Text to Document</a>.<h2 class="LexTKB__h2" dir="ltr">Compliance Report</h2>Willow360 has always kept a full File History for every document. Compliance Report takes that raw record and turns it into a structured, shareable output. The action generates a processing-history report for each file and uploads it automatically to a cloud location you choose. The report can include document details, extracted data, the people involved, a timeline of events, decision evidence such as approvals, output locations, and verification information. You can export it as a human-readable PDF or as machine-readable JSON, depending on who or what needs to consume it.Example 1: Audit-ready contracts. A contract approval workflow generates a PDF Compliance Report alongside the signed document, giving legal and compliance teams a ready-made record of who approved what and when, without anyone assembling it after the fact.Example 2: Regulatory evidence. A workflow handling regulated documents produces a JSON Compliance Report for every file and uploads it to a dedicated archive folder, building a machine-readable audit trail that other systems can ingest directly.Example 3: Client-facing proof of process. A professional services workflow includes a Compliance Report with every delivered document, giving clients visible evidence of the checks and approvals that document went through.For full configuration guidance, see <a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/compliance-report" class="LexTKB__link">Compliance Report</a>.<h2 class="LexTKB__h2" dir="ltr">Faster metadata selection</h2>Metadata menus have been reordered so that the sources you use most, Form Data, AI Data and External XML Data, appear first. Several fields, including CSV Columns in Export Data to CSV, the text field in Add Text to Document, the task description in Custom Task, and the email text in Secure and System Email, now support an Add All option. One click adds every item from a chosen submenu instead of adding fields one at a time, which is a welcome time-saver on workflows that use a lot of extracted data.<h2 class="LexTKB__h2" dir="ltr">Smoother, safer signing</h2>Two smaller but genuinely useful changes round out this release. WillowSign now asks for confirmation before you navigate away from an unfinished signing session, so accidentally closing a tab no longer means losing your signature placement and starting again. And in Simple Sign, PDF annotations now render within their own layer in the file viewer, so signatures and other annotations always display in the right order rather than occasionally overlapping other page content.<h2 class="LexTKB__h2" dir="ltr">Our take</h2>The theme running through 2.4 is that a document should be able to speak for itself. Add Text to Document means the finished file can carry its own context and instructions, and Compliance Report means it can carry its own proof of how it was handled. Paired with the faster metadata workflow, we think this release makes it noticeably quicker to produce documents that are both more informative and more defensible, without adding any extra manual work.<h2 class="LexTKB__h2" dir="ltr">Learn more</h2><a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/add-text-to-document" class="LexTKB__link">Add Text to Document</a><a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/compliance-report" class="LexTKB__link">Compliance Report</a><a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/how-to-configure-and-use-each-action" class="LexTKB__link">How to Configure and Use Each Action</a><a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/overview-of-available-actions" class="LexTKB__link">Overview of Available Actions</a><a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/unlocking-the-power-of-metadata-in-willow360" class="LexTKB__link">Unlocking the Power of Metadata in Willow360</a><a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/using-willowsign-to-legally-sign-documents" class="LexTKB__link">Using WillowSign to Legally Sign Documents</a><a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/how-to-use-simple-sign" class="LexTKB__link">How to Use Simple Sign</a><a href="https://help.willow360.com/en/article/file-history-in-willow360" class="LexTKB__link">File History in Willow360</a>

Go back to application

Was this article helpful?

You recently requested to reset your password for your account. Use the button below to reset it. This password reset is only valid for the next 24 hours.

If you’re having trouble with the button above, copy and paste the URL below into your web browser.

Please check your email for instructions to reset your password.

Check your email

Enter your email address and we will send you instructions to reset your password.

Help Center

Workflow Actions

Featured Articles

What's New in Willow360 v2.4: Document Enrichment and Compliance Reporting

How to Create and Test a Workflow