How to use the pool screen and allocate jobs from the pool.

The pool screen has a Take button which is designed to allow users to self-allocate the job that has been in the building/ready to start for the longest period of time. When a user clicks this button the two most obvious things the system should do are to a) set that user as the Preparer and b) set that user as the current holder. That is exactly how all of the Glide templates (those where the pool is active by default) behave. Behind the scenes though you can fully control what happens when the Take button is pressed, this event triggers a special workflow step and so you can trigger any number of workflow actions to be triggered at this point. Here is how to do that:

1. Firstly note you need to be a superuser to edit workflows.
2. Click on the config menu.
3. Click on edit workflow systems.
4. Drill into the appropriate workflow system using the pencil icon to the right of the name.
5. Click on the Routes tab.
6. Scroll to the workflow route you wish to effect, this setting can be different for each workflow route you have.
7. Scroll down to where it says workflow steps
8. See if you already have the step labelled Special 'On taking from the pool', it will be a yellow bar and always just below the (also yellow) Special - Job creation step.
   1. If you have one already skip to step 10.
   2. If you don't create one in step 9.
9. At the top of this workflow route click the Add a new step button. Click this and set the following options.
   1. Progress button name Pool
   2. Description Pool
   3. From (Special) - On taking from the pool
   4. To Leave blank
   5. Visibility settings Leave both as the default setting.
   6. Click save
10. Now scroll to find the 'Special - On taking from the pool' step in your workflow route, it will be highlighted yellow and will be the second workflow step just below the workflow creation step. You can now add workflow actions to control what happens when a job is taken from the pool, this can includes anything such as setting target dates and e-mailing both staff and clients. To set up the recommended settings mentioned above you would add the following 2 workflow actions:
    1. Set job staff member: To set the current user (i.e. the person logged in and clicking the button) in the preparer position (your positions might be named differently).
    2. Set job sub-system holder: To set the job holder as the preparer (which we set to the logged in user above).