Episode 515: Approval on Contract through Workflow! (Improved version)

"Contract flow" and "Decision making Flow" are popular in 2016 as well

This is the last post of this year. We were able to deliver Business Templates every week in 2016 as well. This is also thanks to the "support message" and "Like" from the readers.

Yes. We will try harder next year (2017) as well.

Well, this blog has disclosed over 500 articles (and nearly 800 templates) over the past seven years so far, what kind of articles were read well in this year of 2016? I immediately examined the access log of this year.

<Top 5 Articles>

• 2010-11-12: Making an Extensive Agreement History List with an Agreement Workflow
• 2015-07-06: National Identification Number in Workflow (4)
• 2011-10-03: Fault! Report It Through Workflow!
• 2013-03-25: How to Design a Workflow Chart of decision making by the Boss and Their Boss: part 2
• 2011-05-02: Processing Ringi Approvals Simultaneously

Again, online approval (paperless) on "Contracts" and "Decision-making request" seems to be a popular agenda. (Note: This is the result of the Japanese version)

How do I write it at the present time? "Contract approval flow"

However, this article was written already six years ago.

As being in a position of a person who draws Business Processes every day, I cannot stop thinking that "I would recommend a different Process now". (Though it cannot be helped to be "often read", because it comes at the top when searching for "contract workflow" in Google search in Japanese, currently...)


So, in the last article of this year, I would like to rework the "Contract approval Process" in a simple way.

[Contract approval Process (2010-11-12)]

Episode 514: Politicians should Show Us "Productivity Improvement" Practically!

Work-life balance of politicians and bureaucrats

As in other developed countries, Japan is also facing the limits of existing "welfare state line".

In other words, every political parties agree on the basic policy of "streamlining the administration" (simple and efficient government). Cannot go against the flow of the times.

* Through the chain of bankruptcies that occurred in the 1930s (the Great Depression), human beings denied "laissez-faireism" and affirmed "social security" by a big government. After the economic stagnation (Oil crisis) that occurred in the 1970s, human beings to be aware of "inefficiency of welfare state" and accepted a recurrence to a "competitive society" in a smaller government. Securing of tax revenue became difficult for corporate activities since the 1990s cross country border. While maintenance of infrastructure and medical expenses increase, and as a result, the existing "welfare state line" would not go on.

However, "Discussions on administrative efficiency improvement in the National Assembly" does not mesh at all.

The direction of reforms to be discussed is diverse, for example, 1) to stop "Hanko administration", 2) to promote the "privatization of special purpose entities", and 3) to unify the collection of health insurance, pensions and income taxes". However in any direction it seems that it is not easy to form an agreement on "how to make it smaller" or "the procedure to shrink" the government that has grown big.

As a result, the Diet members repeat similar questions and the Cabinet repeats the same answers.

"Questions" are submitted at midnight, "Responses" are created in the middle of the night, "briefing to Minister " is held early in the morning. The National Assembly itself is promoting 'enlargement of administration'. "Productivity improvement" they say is already a nonsense.

How to make question by Diet members

In the first place, the work of Diet members is not "performing in the galleries" to be looking good on TV. To the private sector, the committee deliberations seem merely 'long-term meeting' which detains people who are paid high hourly wages like the Minister from 9 o'clock in the morning to late evening. What do the investors think if the "Board of Directors" was held from morning till evening, and ended up with some of the directors "appealing to leave away"?

If they feel that there are matters to correct about the Cabinet submission bill and national politics in general, they should use more "written question" than "verbal question". And, they should refer to past questions (FAQ) (not like a private FAQ site), when asking questions. If they dare to ask the same question, they can ask "Is there any change in the answer contents of FAQ-20161213-01?" Then the Cabinet will simply click "No".

There is no qualification for talking about "national interest" for a member who only claims "deliberation time is short". (Rather, the number of questions should be his or her KPI.)

[Cabinet answer creation]

Episode 513: Business Process to Ensure Quality of Posted Articles

"Cannot see the Business Process in the Field"？

In autumn 2016, "Plagiaristic act" by "curated media" is reported sensationally in Japan.

Originally, "content curation" is worthwhile, so as "curation tools / platforms" which enables anyone to post their curated contents. However, a site management company (listed company) mass-produces contents curation articles through cloud-sourcing, and the fact that plagiarism has been instructed during the outsourcing of article writing is brought to the light.

Process of Curated Article Production

There indeed was a Disclaimer note, i.e.

We are completely not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, benefits, conformity to specific purposes, or anything else regarding the information in this article and the user's judgment for using this information.

However, since the particular site was curation concerning "wellness", "Moral" was questioned rather than "copyright infringement". And, as a result, the CEO apologized as "there was a problem in the process of article creation".

DeNA press releass: Statement by CEO

some parts of our manual and directions to writers could be interpreted as suggesting plagiarizing other websites. I cannot view this as being morally correct ... I promise to fundamentally change our operations of these media and create a process which I can completely place my faith in.

I do not know whether it is truth or not, but probably "he did not really see the business process". (I want to believe so.) Then, what kind of business process should he have build if the operating company needs to write articles responsible for?

[Article Creation process]

Episode 512: The Shortest Business Process in the World?

"I want to try business flow designing..."

In the world of "programming" it is said that "the only way to learn it is to write a program". In fact, everyone writes a program that displays a string "Hello World" at start learning programming. Similarly to this, "try to draw a Business Process" is very important even in the world of "modeling".

The following Business Process is started by "receive mail", and it ends with "chat post".

In the commonplace, a Business Process begins with some sort of "trigger", and several "Steps" follow after it. Whereas, there is only one processing step of "Post to chat" in this example. And, that is a "processing by computer" (automatic processing), so there is no "handling by human" at all. (What a heck!)

[Chat Post flow]

Episode 511: Automatically Generate Transfer Slip File (Excel-CSV)

"It's so troublesome to enter billing data..."

Logs such as bank deposits and withdrawals and card payments have become "automatic journalizing", and "accounting input work" became quite easier compared to before.

However, in terms of "sales" in particular, it is too late to wait for the timing of "deposit". After all, it is desirable to record it as "sales as accounts receivable" at the time of "invoice" issuance... Rather, it's a must.

• 2016 - 11 - 22: Accounts receivable 120,000 / Sales 120,000 = Website creation (for company A)
• 2016 - 12 - 31: Saving deposit 120,000 / Accounts receivable 120,000 = Website creation (for company A)

Incidentally, on the contrary, there are cases where cannot include in "sales" at the time of issuing "Invoice" (even at the time of "deposit").

• 2016 - 12 - 31: Saving deposit 120,000 / Advance received 120,000 = Maintenance 2017 - 01 - 2017 - 12 (for Company A)
• 2017-01-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-01 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
• 2017-02-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-02 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
• 2017-03-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-03 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
• 2017-04-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-04 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
• 2017-05-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-05 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
• 2017-06-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-06 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
• 2017-07-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-07 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
• 2017-08-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-08 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
• 2017-09-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-09 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
• 2017-10-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-10 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
• 2017-11-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-11 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)
• 2017-12-01: Advance received 10,000 / sales 10,000 = 2017-12 of Maintenance 2017-01 to 2017-12 (for company A)

The creation method and creation timing of so-called "transfer slips" (transfer records) varies depending not only on the type of industry but also on company policy. Even so, the work itself should certainly be "automated".

In the following Workflow, at the moment when the "Invoice" is approved by the supervisor,

• Receipt PDF will be emailed to he customer,
• Multiple line "transfer records" are automatically calculated
• The import file is automatically generated.

Accounting staff can finish "input work" by only uploading the automatically generated Excel-CSV file to the accounting system.

[Invoice Issuance flow]

Episode 510: "Post Facto Approval" in Expense Report Flow is Good Enough

"Because of the corporate card, it is difficult to grasp the entire expenses"

Business process improvement will reduce "wasteful work" and "time-consuming procedures". However, along with that, "checking by human" tends to be inadequate.

It sure will be a problem if "a loophole (fraud method) has been created as a result of promoting work efficiency" in high occurrence work of "Four major apps" which are;

• Expense reimbursement flow
• Procurement purchasing flow
• Attendance report flow
• Request for decision flow

However, there is often a trade-off relationship between "labor saving and unmanning" and "strengthening the check system." After all, must seek "compromise to suit each company".


The Expense reimbursement flow below is a monthly application type business flow that mainly aiming "reimbursing out-of-pocket expense".

In this example, it is devised so that approval can be obtained for expenses which do not require settlement as reimbursable out-of-pocket costs at the same time. This is an idea that it will eliminate advance approval about "payment with credit card" and "travel expenses receiving temporary payment".

The applicant himself will have the effect of not only "saving labor" in one application, but also "becoming aware of how much company expenses is using each month".

[Expense and Out-of-pocket costs report]

Episode 509: Submit Year-end Adjustment Document through Cloud-based Workflow

'What a cumbersome it is to fill in year-end adjustment paper!'

In Japan, workers in every enterprise are instructed submission of "two sheets of document" at the end of year. Looking at that annual paper, a salary earner would think to oneself 'Ah, this year is going to end soon...' And once starts filling in the paper, he or she would be irritated for its cumbersomeness. (And then later, administrative staff would deeply sigh for too many omissions of entry...)

=[EDEIE] Acceptance and confirmation of Application for (Change in) Exemption for Dependents of Employment Income Earner
'Is it OK to write "Same as above" in the column of Address of Family member?'
'Do I write "Same as submitted number" into the column for Personal number?'
'I am not sure about the date of birth of all of my family...'

= [DIPEIE] Acceptance and confirmation of Application for Deduction for Insurance Premiums for Employment Income Earner and Application for Special Exemption for Spouse of Employment Income Earner
'Life insurance with Term insurance rider... wordy...'
'Medical payments and personal injury protection ...wordier...'
'Management Organization for Postal Savings and Postal Life Insurance... too wordy!

It sure is an once-a-year "seasonal event", but it won't be a fun. Suppose 50 million workers nationwide would be irritated for 30 minutes, how much of GDP would be lost? (Need to break away from "handwriting" at least...)

* Incidentally, when it comes to wasting of "100 million sheets of paper" and "storage for it", it will be ended up with "Approval for provision by electronic or magnetic means". In short, it requires submission of "Application for approval on the provision of descriptions concerning withholding by electronic or magnetic means" (Japanese description only), which I would like to mention about at other chances...

The following two Workflows are schemes that an applicant makes application, and administrative accepts and confirms. Everything will be completed online.

And for the next year, applicants will be able to "Start a new Process with these data". Everyone who makes application through this Workflow will be required only to rewrite "HEISEI 28" (Japanese calender year) to "HEISEI 29" at [EDEIE], and "HEISEI 27" to "HEISEI 28" at [DIPEIE]. (Unless change in family member or in insurance policy.)

[Dependent Exemption Application / Insurance Premium Deduction]