Process Automator

Based on a document type, trigger, and conditions, Process Automator determines whether to perform an action. You can use Process Automator to automate several types of tasks:

• Automate manual, repetitive tasks using a standard process. For example, you can reduce the time you spend evaluating supplier invoices by creating an automatic process to evaluate the submission according to your custom conditions.
• Export real-time transactional information from Coupa to a third-party system once those transactions are complete. For example, an invoice that gets approved and paid can trigger a process that sends an API Call Out, submitting the invoice to a third-party system via API.
• Create a guided experience through  multiple related forms that end users can complete in parallel. For example, see Guided Forms. 

Example use cases 

Customers have used Process Automator to process over one billion processes to date. Some processes automate the following tasks: 

• Dispute invoices when they do not match certain conditions. 
• Print a label as soon as a good is received to ensure easy tracking and distribution.
• Push the creation of a Coupa sourcing event to a public, online arena when local laws require an open forum to allow suppliers to win contracts.
• Send an invoice to a third-party system once it's approved. For a detailed example of this workflow, see Example: Export Invoices using Process Automator. 

Parts of a process

A process is comprised of these elements.

Trigger

An action in Coupa that causes the process to begin. Triggers fall into these categories:

• Document Event: An automated process begins when a document status changes.
• UI Button Click: An automated process begins when a user clicks a configured process launch button.
• Option Selected: A guided form process begins when a user selects an option.

Steps

Contain the actions and conditions which run once the process is triggered. Processes can contain 1 to 10 steps. They run sequentially, with each step beginning when the previous one completes. Steps contain these elements:

• Actions: The automation to run based on the document referenced in the trigger or process step.
• Conditions: The conditions that define whether to run the action in the step.

API Call Out response variables

You can map the value of an API Call Out response to a variable and use it in later Process Automator steps. For example, if you have a process that submits a receipt to a third-party system using a Call Out and that third-party API returns a record ID, you can create a response variable to capture the record ID to use in later steps of the process. The path to the record ID might be configured as /receipt/record_id.

For more information, see Create a Process to Export Real-Time Data Updates.

Monitoring and error handling

You can use these tools to manage, monitor, and troubleshoot your processes.

Action history

When a document triggers a Process action, the document comments and history show the action was performed by Coupa Autobot. Changes made by the Coupa Autobot are the result of business rules or policies that can automatically reject, send notices, and more based on specific Process rules and actions.

Process step history

You can examine the history of all executed processes in the Process Step History data table. Each row in the table represents an individual process step event.

The Process Step History data table is at Setup > Platform > Process Step History. A link to the process step allows you to review and edit the process step.

Process Instances

The Process Instances data table provides direct visibility into the status and outcomes of active and historical process steps at the process level. 

The Process Instances data table is at Setup > Platform > Process Instances.