Nintex Workflow Task Actions Feature Comparison

There are many different types of task actions available with Nintex Workflow. But sometimes knowing which one you should use can be about as clear as mud. What’s the difference between Assign Flexi task and Request approval? They both have an Approve and Reject/Decline branch, right. So, how different can they be? How about Request data vs. Request review? And then there’s Assign to-do task. You might think, “That seems familiar, maybe I’ll just use that one and not worry about the others.”

The truth is, some of the actions behave similarly, but have different features and built-in capabilities. The action that you choose will depend on the specific requirements you have to meet with each step of your workflow. To help you in your quest to create the most useful and user-friendly automated processes, I will share with you some of the main differences between the various task actions.

Assign to multiple users

The following task actions allow you to assign to multiple users or groups and provide several different options for how the task is completed when assigned to multiple users or groups:

• Assign Flexi task
• Assign to-do task
• Request approval
• Request review

The Request data action can only be assigned to a single user or group. If it is assigned to a group, the first group member to respond will act on behalf of the entire group.

Built-in Reminders and Escalation

Several actions have reminder and escalation capability built in. The reminder capability allows you to configure additional emails to be sent to task assignees if a certain amount of time has passed and the task has not been completed.

Similarly, if a specified amount of time has passed and the task is not complete, the escalation feature gives you the option to either reassign the task to another user or auto-complete to allow the workflow to move on. So, if these are priorities in your business requirements, you might choose these actions over another.

The actions that have built-in reminders and escalation are:

• Assign Flexi task
• Assign to-do task
• Request data

LazyApproval

The LazyApproval feature in Nintex allows users to respond to tasks by replying directly to the task notification email. This allows them to keep workflows moving even while they are on the go and don’t have access to the SharePoint environment.

LazyApproval is available for use on the following actions:

• Assign Flexi task
• Request approval
• Request data
• Request review

Delegation

All task actions have the option for you to Allow delegation when you are configuring the action. When this option is selected, the assignee will see a link on the task form that allows them to delegate the task to another user.

Approve/Reject Links in Task Notification

The Request approval action gives you access to Approve and Reject links via the Insert Reference function which allow you to provide links in the task notification to complete the task with an outcome of either Approved or Rejected without having to access the task form.

The assignee simply clicks the Approve or Reject link and then is redirected to a confirmation page in the browser.

Edit Task Form with Nintex Forms

In many cases you may need to customize the task form presented to the user with something like Nintex Forms.

This allows to you create a customized user experience for each task in the process. The following actions provide this ability directly from the action configuration in the Workflow Designer:

• Assign Flexi task
• Request approval
• Request data
• Request review

Even though the Assign to-do task does not provide the option to customize the task form directly from the Workflow Designer, you can customize the task form by following these steps:

1. Navigate to the Workflow Tasks list
2. Select List Settings
3. Select the Content Type for the to-do task form you wish to customize
4. From the Settings page, select “Edit form with Nintex Forms”