Content Central workflow automation
Documents that route, remind and file themselves.
Content Central runs plain "when this happens, do that" rules, in the cloud or on your own servers. Invoices start their own approvals, contracts remind their owners before they lapse, and approved data lands in your accounting system without anyone chasing paper.
25 triggers, about 50 actions, no code. Built by an administrator in simple forms, run by the server around the clock.
01How a rule works
A trigger, its conditions, and a list of actions.
Every automation in Content Central is a rule. The trigger decides when it runs, conditions inside the trigger decide which documents it touches, and the actions run one after another in the order you set.
What to know before you build one
- One rule, several triggers. Combine them with AND (all must match) or OR (any one is enough).
- Actions run in order. Stamp a date, then start the approval, then send the email. The order on screen is the order they run.
- Build per document type or for everything. Most rules live on a document type under Administration > Catalogs & Document Types > [type] > Workflow. Packet triggers, scheduled reports and packet merges are set up globally under Administration > Workflow.
- Nothing happens until it is Enabled. Set a rule up, check it, then switch it on.
02What can start a rule
25 triggers: 11 react instantly, 14 run on a schedule.
Live triggers fire the moment something happens to a document. Scheduled triggers check on an interval you choose, which is how reminders, escalations and backlog alerts work.
Two settings make scheduled rules behave. Process Interval sets how often the check runs, such as every day at 6:00 or every hour. Reprocess Matching Records After stops the same document from matching again too soon. The contract reminder recipe checks daily for contracts expiring within 30 days and waits 60 days before the same contract can match again, so the owner gets one email, not thirty.
03What a rule can do
About 50 actions, grouped by the job they do.
Each action has its own settings: which template to send, which approval process to start, which folder to file into. Chain as many as the job needs.
Actions that understand packets
A packet is every document that belongs to one loan, student, employee or vendor, gathered by a shared value such as a loan number. Many actions can work on the whole packet instead of one document: start an approval, assign it to a work queue, share, copy, move, export, update fields and run lookups.
Two actions exist only for packets. Merge packet field values copies values across every document in the packet so they agree. Merge packet documents combines them into one new document, for example a single file for an auditor. Pair them with the Packet Query trigger to act the moment the last required document arrives, or to chase what is still missing. How packets work
Data from other systems
Perform Field Lookup fills fields from any ODBC database, for example vendor name and terms from your ERP when an invoice arrives. Accounting exports record what happened in an Export Status Field (success, failure or duplicate), and the Export Queue holds anything waiting to retry. Duplicate detection skips a bill that is already in accounting instead of posting it twice.
04Putting rules together
One invoice, five rules, nobody chasing it.
Rules are small on purpose. Each does one job, and together they carry a document from the scanner to the ledger.
- 01It arrives. CapturePoint 6 scans and reads the invoice on your own PC and hands Content Central a searchable PDF with its field values already typed. Email capture, DirectScan in the browser and watched folders work the same way. Anything missing data waits in the Coding Queue for a person to finish.
- 02It fills itself in. Rule 1 looks up the vendor in your ERP database and fills in the name and payment terms.
- 03It picks its approval. Rule 2 checks the Amount field. Under 5,000 goes to one approver; 5,000 and over gets a two-step approval. If an approval process also starts on capture by itself, turn that setting off so the invoice is not routed twice.
- 04It does not stall. Rule 5 checks every hour. When a stage has waited 3 days, it raises the priority and emails the approver's manager.
- 05It posts. Rule 3 sees the final approval and exports the bill to your accounting system, recording the result.
- 06It closes out. Rule 4 fires when Status changes to Paid, clears the invoice from the work queue and moves it to the Paid folder.
The approval steps themselves, with voting groups, deadlines and signatures, are covered in approval workflows.
05Recipes to copy
Eight rules teams set up first.
Each one comes from the Content Central help library. The recipe browser there has more ready-made patterns, and 29 workflow guides walk through the settings.
06Notifications and work queues
The right person hears about it, with a link straight to the document.
Messages that say something useful
Emails and internal messages come from message templates you edit. Merge codes drop in the document's fields, its catalog, the approval process and a link to open it, so a message can say "Invoice 4471 for 6,250 is waiting for your approval" instead of "You have a new item".
Recipients can be named users, groups, administrators or whoever created the document. Internal messages land in an inbox with an unread badge, and users can choose to get an email copy as well.
Work queues for everything that is not an approval
Send a document or a whole packet to a person or a group, with an optional expiration. In a group queue, each member marks their own part complete. Arrival, departure and age triggers drive reminders, so a queue that is filling up or an item that is sitting still gets attention.
Dashboard widgets show each person their approval, work, signature and coding queue counts.
07Where to start
Automate one slow process first.
- 01
Write it as one sentence.
“When an invoice over 5,000 is captured, start the two-step approval and tell AP.” If you cannot say it in a sentence, it is two rules.
- 02
Pick live or scheduled.
React to an event (captured, field changed) with a live trigger. Anything about time, such as waiting, expiring or going quiet, needs a scheduled trigger.
- 03
Stop repeats.
On scheduled rules, set Reprocess Matching Records After. If a rule starts an approval, make sure the process is not also set to start on its own.
- 04
Switch it on and watch the first few.
Enable the rule, file a test document, and check the result in the document’s history before you add the next rule.
08Questions
What buyers ask about workflow.
Do we need a developer to build workflow rules?
No. An administrator builds rules in Content Central by picking a trigger, its conditions and the actions to run, in simple forms. The help library includes ready-made recipes, and our team or a partner can set up your first rules with you.
Can a workflow rule send a document out for signature?
Not directly. Signatures come from two places: a signature request a user sends, or a signature definition on an approval stage that stamps the approver’s saved signature when they approve. So a rule that starts an approval can lead to a signed document.
Will a scheduled rule keep emailing about the same document?
Not if you set Reprocess Matching Records After. The contract reminder recipe, for example, checks every morning but waits 60 days before the same contract can match again, so the owner gets one email.
Can rules work on a whole packet of documents?
Yes. Many actions can act on a whole packet instead of one document, including starting an approval, assigning a work queue, sharing, copying, moving, exporting, updating fields and running lookups. The Packet Query trigger can fire when a packet is complete or still missing documents.
Does it run in the cloud?
Yes. Content Central runs in the cloud, or on your own servers (Windows Server, IIS and SQL Server), your choice. People use it in a web browser either way, and the workflow engine works the same.
What does Content Central cost?
Content Central is quoted for your users and setup. Tell us about your setup on the pricing page and we will send pricing that fits, or book a free live demo and we will walk you through it.
Free live demo
Bring a process that is stuck. We will show it running on its own.
Book a free demo and we will show you around, answer your questions and run your real paperwork through it. No cost, no pressure.
- A live tour of the products that fit your work
- Your own documents, set up and shown working
- Your workflow and process, mapped with you
- Straight answers from people who build it
