Task Assistance

Task Assistance in Unit4 Advanced Virtual Agent (Ava) allows managers to approve or reject workflow tasks, view current tasks, flag important items, and proactively manage deadlines. It also helps employees stay informed about the status of their requests.

The following element types are available for use with Task Assistance:

Absence approval (ABSA).
Timesheets (TS).
Requisition (REQ).
Goods received (GRN).
Purchase order (PO).
Incoming invoice (IIN).
Travel expenses (TIN).
Travel request (TIR).

When approval tasks are shown, either on request or through a notification, users can Approve, Reject, or View the task in Unit4 ERPx or Unit4 ERP CR.

Example utterances to trigger Task Assistance

Tasks.
Show me my tasks.
I want to approve travel requests.
Any invoices to check?
Are there any purchase orders to approve?

Ava task notifications

Ava's Task Assistance notifies the user about:

Approval tasks	Notification frequency	Number of tasks per notification	Examples
Important	immediate	one	You have a requisition task currently awaiting action. It is marked as important.
Close due date	checked every 30 minutes (24 hours before due date)	one	You have a requisition task currently awaiting action. Please be aware that its time limit is within the next 24 hours.
Escalated	checked every 30 minutes (automatic); immediate (manual)	one to many (automatic); one (manual)	Automatic: This is a notification message about an automatic escalation from {origUser}. You have the following requisition task.
Forwarded	checked every 30 minutes	one	This is a notification about a forwarded task to you from Jane Doe, with the following comment: please check the requested amounts.
New	checked every 30 minutes	one	There is one requisition task for you.
Reminders	checked every 30 minutes	one to many	This is a reminder. You have the following 5 requisition tasks.
As substitute of another user	checked every 30 minutes	one to many	As the substitute of Jane Doe, this is a notification for you. You have the following 5 requisition tasks.

Non-approval tasks	Notification type	Number of tasks per notification	Examples
Rejected	immediate	one to many	You have a requisition task regarding office supplies, with the following comment: "please check the provider" from Jane Doe. To correct this task, you can go to Unit4 ERP.

To receive these notifications, configure alerts in the Alert setup (TWF031) window of Unit4 ERP. Important approval tasks can also be configured in the Element types (TWF032) window. Due dates can be configured in different ways. For more information about alerts, importance levels, and due dates, see the Workflow Reference Manual.

Unit4 ERPx

System setup

To complete the functional setup for Task Assistance in Unit4 ERPx, an administrator must perform the following steps.

Access rights

Configure the required public APIs and objects. For information about setting access to public APIs and objects, see the ERPx access setup.

💡 Tip: Create an Ava role with the required permissions. Assign new Ava users to this role.

Access to the following endpoints is needed to use Task Assistance.

Timesheets

My Tasks [Public API].
Objects [Public API].
Timesheets [Object].
Resources [Object].
Periods [Object].
Activities [Object].
Personal work schedule [Object].
Time codes [Object].
Work orders [Object].

Incoming invoices

My Tasks [Public API].
Registered financial transactions [Public API].
Suppliers [Public API].
Objects [Public API].
Attributes [Object].
Tax codes [Object].
Tax system [Object].

Purchase order

My Tasks [Public API].
Purchase order [Public API].
Suppliers [Public API].
Documents [Public API].

Travel expenses

My Tasks [Public API].
Objects [Public API].
Travel expenses [Object].
Attributes [Object].
Attribute values [Object].
Tax codes [Object].
Tax system [Object].
Companies [Object].

Goods received

My Tasks [Public API].
Suppliers [Public API].
Objects [Public API].
Goods receipt note [Object].
Products [Object].

Absence approval

Absences [Public API].
Objects [Public API].
My tasks actions [Public API].
Tasks [Public API].
Absence code [Object].
Resources [Object].

Travel requests

My tasks [Public API].
Objects [Public API].
Travel request [Object].
Companies [Object].

Requisitions

My tasks [Public API].
Objects [Public API].
Requisition [Object].
Companies [Object].

To apply actions

My Tasks actions [Public API].

Process definitions

Specify the Process definition for each element type, including distribution rules for users. Workflow processes with user-defined actions are supported. User-defined actions must contain only alphanumeric characters.

Proactive notifications

To receive proactive notification of pending tasks, define importance criteria (high or very high) for each relevant element type.

Ava notifies users when:

Workflow assigns users a task as "last owner of task".
Workflow assigns users a task as "task initiator".
Workflow assigns users a task with high or very high importance, as defined for the relevant element type.
Workflow detects an active new-task alert, as defined in Alert setup. Note that Ava has its own response text and does not apply the defined alert template.
A user's request has been approved and the workflow is completed.

Unit4 ERP CR

System requirements

Configure Task service V201209. To generate the approval URL, publish the BusinessWorld web application in Unit4 ERP Management Console.

System setup

Access rights

Assign access rights to relevant users as described in the ERP CR access setup.

Access to the following endpoints is needed to use Task Assistance:

Task service V201209 [Web service].
Task management [Public API].
Companies [Public API].
Users [Public API].
Employee [Public API].
Query [Public API].
Objects [Public API].
Attributes [Object].
Attribute values [Object].
Periods [Object].
Countries [Object].
Absences [Object].
Users [Object].
Companies [Object].
Travel-requests [Object].

ℹ️ Note: Task service V201209 is a web service. Unit4 CloudOps must grant access.

Process definitions

Define process definitions for each element type, including distribution rules for users. Workflow processes with user-defined actions are supported. User-defined actions must contain only alphanumeric characters.

For more information, see the Workflow Reference Manual.

Proactive notifications

To receive proactive notifications for pending tasks, define high or very high importance criteria for each relevant element type.

Ava notifies users when:

Workflow assigns them a task as the last owner of task.
Workflow assigns them a task because they are the task initiator.
Workflow assigns them a task with high or very high importance, as defined for the relevant element type.
Workflow detects an active new-task alert. Ava uses its own response text instead of the alert template.
Their request is approved and the workflow is completed.

Known issues

Setup for absence task cards

Issue

The way that Ava task cards structure the information for absence tasks differs from the absence approval structure in ERP, and so Ava may require some setup adjustments to avoid possible issues. The traditional approval window is displayed on a desktop or laptop screen, so it can include more information than the Ava task card, which are designed to be used on portable devices like phones. Currently, Ava displays absences one request at a time, without the possibility of displaying several lines in a single card. The issue is that actions will be performed on all the lines that meet the grouping criteria, not only in the displayed one.

ℹ️ Note: This issue affects both ERPx and ERP CR.

Workaround

To avoid any issues, go to the Element types (TWF032) window in Unit4 ERP and ensure that the Task list property of Element type ABSA includes the following columns:

client.
resource_id.
sequence_no.
abs_seq.

This setup ensures that each group has only one request, preventing unwanted approvals.