> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://ieg4.gitbook.io/onevu-digital-platform/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://ieg4.gitbook.io/onevu-digital-platform/openprocess-cases-and-workflow/building-processes/steps/standard-steps.md).
# Standard Steps
### Standard Steps
Most processes, at least initially for a council, are comprised of standard steps. As well as needing to be manually completed\*, these steps dictate the SLA for a process. The following illustrates the panel that slides out when a standard step is added:
{% hint style="success" %}
\* It is technically possible for a standard step to be automatically completed if the complete step API is used.
{% endhint %}
There are three tabs:
{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Details" %}
This tab provides the following functions:
**Name** - the name of the process that both staff and citizens will see
**Description** - the purpose of the process
**Allocate this step to** - a set of allocation rules to enable the step of the process to be assigned to someone. The options are:
| Allocation Type | Details |
| ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Allocate to a specific user | This will allocate this step always to a specific user selected |
| Allocate to an organisation | In OpenProcess it is possible to set up [**Organisations**](/onevu-digital-platform/openprocess-cases-and-workflow/set-up/untitled-4.md). This enables you to assign a step to that organisation. |
| Round robin allocate to a group of users | In OpenProcess, there is the concept of [**Groups**](/onevu-digital-platform/openprocess-cases-and-workflow/set-up/groups.md) that users can be associated with. If this rule is set, OpenProcess will assign each step of this type created to each of the users within the group one after the other. So if ten processes with this step are started and there are ten users associated with that group, each will be assigned one to work on. |
| Allocate to a user of a previous step | Sometimes a process needs to go back to a user that completed the step before, or even a step 3 or 4 back. This enables you to assign it to the user that completed a specifically defined step. |
| Allocate to who completed the last step | Where [**OpenProcess Flex**](/onevu-digital-platform/openprocess-cases-and-workflow/openprocess-flex.md) is licensed, branches can exist in processes. This means that you will not necessarily know the last step that was completed as it is dynamically set. Therefore unlike the last option, in this case it will allocate it to whoever completed the last step, irrespective of which step they completed. |
**Target Duration** - this sets the SLA for the step
**Calculate target date using** - there is currently only one option to this, which is **Working days only**. It essentially means that weekends are not used in the calculation of the SLA.
**Supervisors** - For those users permitted to access [**Supervise Tasks**](/onevu-digital-platform/openprocess-cases-and-workflow/supervise-tasks.md), the thing that controls which steps they can see in there is this setting. Against the step you can assign the Supervisor group of users that are permitted to see this step of the process. Normally each stage in a given process will have the same Supervisor Group but it is possible for each step of a process to have a different supervisory group if necessary.
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="Actions" %}
The Actions tab is where you can set up notifications to be sent when a process starts and when it completes.
The options for notification types are:
The first thing to note is that irrespective of the number of actions added, the one that will be used will be the one present on the customer's OneVu Profile. This is shown here where their preference is WhatsApp:
{% hint style="danger" %}
**It is vital to note** that if you support new channels for people to get progress updates e.g. SMS. You need to ensure that OpenProcess ALSO has an action for that too. I.e. if a person's preference is SMS and you have not set up an action for SMS they will not be sent a notification.
{% endhint %}
As you can see there is a maximum of 5 different options but the only one there by default is:
#### **Send An Email**
With Send An Email the following options are presented when you select to add it:
{% hint style="info" %}
**May 2026 Update - new option to send to an value stored in a field now added (further details in the section below):**
{% endhint %}
As one can see there are options to send the email:
* To the customer (in this case it is the indexed citizen held).
{% hint style="warning" %}
The citizen needs to have selected SMS as their preferred contact method for progress updates within their OneVu Profile.
{% endhint %}
* To the person currently allocated the step
* To a fixed address (normally where you're emailing an internal inbox)
* **To an address stored in a field value**
Each of the options has a From address, Subject template and Body template to use for the email.
{% hint style="success" %}
You can add all three options and can add multiple email actions.
{% endhint %}
The Fixed Address option also has another field for you to enter the email address you want to send the email to.
{% hint style="info" %}
**The Address stored in a field value option also has another field for you to enter the code of the field in Open Process that contains the value that you want to send the email to. Note: if the email is not present the notification will not be sent. If the email address is invalid the email will not be delivered and this will not be visible.**
**This new option to send to an address stored in a field value means that you can now leverage the benefits of sending progress updates to citizens even when the form they have submitted is not linked to a customer account. This dramatically extends the benefits of Open Process in dynamically keeping citizens updated with progress on their requests without the need to enforce the use of a customer account.**
{% endhint %}
#### **Send An Email via GOV.UK Notify**
With this option, you'll need to have already provided IEG4 with your GOV.UK Notify API details and have already created your email template within the [**GOV.UK Notify**](/onevu-digital-platform/openprocess-cases-and-workflow/building-processes/actions/gov.uk-notify-emails.md) application.
{% hint style="warning" %}
The citizen needs to have selected email as their preferred contact method for progress updates within their OneVu Profile.
{% endhint %}
As you can see below, you need to provide the Email Template Id and the Subject and Body of the email you want to send. Details of how this needs to be configured and set up in GOV.UK Notify can be found [**here**](/onevu-digital-platform/openprocess-cases-and-workflow/building-processes/actions/gov.uk-notify-emails.md).
#### Send a Text Msg via GOV.UK Notify
This function works identical to the above except that it sends a text message.
{% hint style="warning" %}
The citizen needs to have selected SMS as their preferred contact method for progress updates within their OneVu Profile.
{% endhint %}
Again, you provide the relevant Template ID for the SMS template in GOV.UK Notify, but this time the only field to enter is the personalised content of the message:
####
#### Send a Facebook Messenger Message
With this option the only field available is 'Message' reflective of the fact it will push whatever content is entered in here into the Facebook Messenger message:
{% hint style="warning" %}
The citizen needs to have selected Facebook Messenger as their preferred contact method for progress updates within their OneVu Profile.
They need to have connected their Facebook account to their OneVu account to achieve this. See [**here**](/onevu-digital-platform/openprocess-cases-and-workflow/building-processes/actions/messenger-messages.md) for more details.
{% endhint %}
#### Send a WhatsApp Message
With this option the only field available is 'Message' reflective of the fact it will push whatever content is entered in here into the WhatsApp message:
{% hint style="warning" %}
The citizen needs to have selected WhatsApp as their preferred contact method for progress updates within their OneVu Profile.
They need to have connected their WhatsApp number to their OneVu account to achieve this. See [**here**](/onevu-digital-platform/openprocess-cases-and-workflow/building-processes/actions/whatsapp-messages.md) for more details.
{% endhint %}
{% endtab %}
{% tab title="Fields" %}
The ability to pass Fields into a step exists for all users of OpenProcess.
But the Fields Tab on a step is only relevant to those users that have OpenProcess Flex licensed.
The Fields function enables you to set up Fields that must be completed as a part of a process step.
This functionality is useful where something will always need to be recorded in a step and you want to introduce best practice.
I.e. in the example below these two questions need to be answered in order for the step to be completed.
So the functionality effectively creates a check list function for process steps.
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}
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