Flowcharts are tools
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is the case, a flow chart is worth a thousand words in a process document. Flowcharts allow you to visualize how work moves and transitions from step to step, from person to person, and illustrates where things twist and turn to show everything that can happen. Flowcharts can be simple or complex. They can show how tasks relate to each other or how the process steps are completed within a task.
I’m not going to go into the software you can use to write a workflow as there are many. This is more about using this as a tool to clarify what work is done by whom and when. Here are a few key elements of a workflow chart to get started.
Swim lanes - The swim lanes identify who is doing each task. In this chart you can see a lane for an Accountant and one for the Accounting Manager. As the lines and boxes cross over to each lane, you can see when and where tasks may change hands.
Start and End points - It’s important to identify where the process starts and why. What are the triggers for a task? Is it based on time, a request, a form submission, or a phone call? You can have more than one trigger as long as you are clear whether any one can start the task or if all of them are required.
Processes- the square boxes can indicate a task name or a process step depending on the scope of your flowchart. These are action oriented statements such as Process Form, Answer Phone, or Send email. Depending on your software, you could add a link or additional information within the shape for additional clarification.
Decision points - these are the diamond shapes. These indicate the flow of work could go down one or more paths depending on a decision. Sometimes the decision can be formulaic such as “if the refund amount is greater than $100, then option A, otherwise option B”. Or it could be more subjective such as “Did the employee meet the requirements”.
There are a number of other components you could consider adding to your flowcharts. I recommend you look into basic software and utilizing this as a part of any job or task analysis.