Within our HR department there was a need to have documents with various expiry dates (AWAs, EBAs etc)... here is how we came up with a multi-tier warning for these documents...
Firstly, we created a new Site Content Type called Document with Expiry Information, based on the standard Document Type.
Create the following columns for this content type;
- Expiry Date - date that the document will expire
- Expiry Notification - user(s) / group(s) that will be notified via email
- Expiry Comments - free form text for any extra comments regarding the expiry (not required)
- Expiry Warning - Integer - number of days prior to expiry to send first warning email
Once this is done, you can then attach this document type to a document library. We are now ready to create the Workflow...
- Create 3 new Workflow variables;
- Expiry Warning Days - simply used to take the above field and switch it to a negative number
- Expiry Warning Date - Calculated at runtime
- Expiry Overdue Date - Calculated at runtime
- Set the Workflow to start when items are created/modified
(I've tried to attach a screenshot here - but cannot)
Now, to create the workflow;
Check if the content type of the document is Document with Expiry Information. If not then end the workflow immediately
Calculate variables
Expiry Warning Days - maths calc - Warning days * -1
Expiry Warning Date - Expiry Date + Expiry Warning Days
Expiry Overdue Date - Expiry Date + 30 Days
Create a parallel action, the first branch handles the emails as follows;
Expiry email
Covers essentially the same steps as above, using the Expiry Overdue Date this time.
Then finally, add an end workflow task
- Now, the other branch of the parallel action simply terminates the workflow if the document if modified (and the workflow will then restart)d
- Add a wait for item update
- Set it to wait for the modified date to be not equal the modifed date (as in checking itself)
- Then add an end workflow task
That's it. The run-if checks for the dates being in the future is important, because if the date is in the past - the workflow will simply sit there waiting for the date and not continue.
Basically at the end of this - you should have an email that is sent to the requested notifiers x number of days before the item is due to expire, then another one when it does - and finally (if they don't change the expiry date) another one 30 days later.
If you want the screenshot, or the export of the workflow, let me know - hope someone finds this helpful
Cheers
Tom
