Skip to main content

Automation Flow Overview: Engines, Types, and Configuration

Understand the automation flow system, available engines (Power Automate, ProcessPro Automate, ProcessPro Workflow), flow types, and how to configure them.

Written by James Ross

Overview

Automation Flows define what happens at automated activities in a workflow. Each flow has an Engine (the execution platform) and a Flow Type (the specific action). Flows are configured in the company settings and assigned to process activities.

Available Engines

  • ProcessPro Workflow — built-in engine for approvals, document generation, and task creation. Runs entirely within ProcessPro.

  • ProcessPro Automate — built-in engine for actions like Save Managed Document, Assign Users to Activity Roles, and Create Tasks From Submissions.

  • Power Automate — external integration engine. Sends payloads to external endpoints (e.g., Microsoft Power Automate, Zapier, custom APIs).

Flow Types by Engine

ProcessPro Workflow

  • Role Approval — routes approval to users in a specified role

  • Manager Approval — routes approval to the submitter's manager from Org Structure

  • Generate Submission Pdf — creates a PDF from form submission data

  • Generate Submission Json — creates a JSON document from a template with token replacement

  • Generate Document From Template — merges tokens into a DOCX template

  • Save Generated Document To ProcessPro — uploads a generated document to Managed Documents

  • Save Generated Document To SharePoint — uploads to a SharePoint folder

  • Save Generated Document To Azure Storage — uploads to Azure Blob via SAS URL

  • Save Generated Document To External API — sends to a configured HTTP endpoint

  • Create Tasks From Submissions — generates tasks from repeater row data

ProcessPro Automate

  • Save Managed Document — generates a PDF with approval history and saves to Managed Documents

  • Assign Users to Activity Roles — prompts the task assignee to select users for roles mid-run

  • Create Tasks From Submissions — creates tasks per repeater row with filter support

Power Automate

  • Send Payload — sends an HTTP POST to a configured endpoint with submission context

Engine-Type Compatibility

Not all flow types work with all engines. The system validates compatibility when creating a flow:

  • Send Payload requires Power Automate.

  • Approve By Role requires ProcessPro Workflow.

  • Mismatched combinations are rejected with a validation error.

Configuration

Each flow requires:

  • Title and Description — identifies the flow

  • Engine — the execution platform

  • Flow Type — the specific action

  • Configuration JSON — flow-specific settings (endpoint URL, template ID, field mappings, etc.)

Important: Configuration JSON is validated on execution. Missing or malformed config returns clear error messages.

Related Articles

Did this answer your question?