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Thinking in unit terms

What does thinking in unit terms mean for workflow design?

Design your Tallyfy templates to handle one instance at a time - one employee, one invoice, one customer - not multiple items in bulk. This fundamental principle ensures clear task ownership, proper tracking, and workflow flexibility.

When you think in unit terms, you create templates that scale perfectly whether you run them once or a thousand times.

Why unit-based design creates better workflows

The bulk processing trap

Many organizations try to create workflows like:

  • “Process all invoices for the month”
  • “Onboard the new hires starting Monday”
  • “Review all contract renewals”

This bulk thinking creates serious problems:

  • Unclear ownership - Who handles which specific invoice?
  • No individual tracking - Can’t see status of each item
  • All-or-nothing completion - One delayed item blocks everything
  • Poor accountability - “Someone else probably did it”

The unit-based solution

Design templates for single instances:

  • “Process invoice #12345”
  • “Onboard John Smith”
  • “Review Acme Corp contract renewal”

Benefits of unit thinking:

  • Clear ownership - John owns the Acme renewal task
  • Precise tracking - See exactly where each instance stands
  • Parallel processing - Run 50 instances simultaneously
  • Perfect accountability - Every task has one owner

Real-world example: Conference speaker management

Wrong approach: Bulk design

Template name: “Manage all conference speakers”

Problems with this approach:

  • Task: “Collect bio from speakers” - Who contacts which speaker?
  • Task: “Arrange travel” - Mixing 10 speakers’ flights in one task
  • Task: “Process payments” - No visibility on individual speaker status
  • If one speaker delays, entire process stalls

Right approach: Unit design

Template name: “Onboard conference speaker”

How it works:

  1. Launch separate process for each speaker
  2. Each process tracks one speaker’s journey:
    • Collect bio from Jane Doe
    • Arrange Jane’s travel (local vs. remote logic applies)
    • Process Jane’s payment
    • Send Jane’s session details

Result: Perfect visibility, clear ownership, parallel processing

How to convert bulk thinking to unit terms

Step 1: Identify the true unit

Ask: “What’s the single thing we’re processing?”

  • Not “employees” → One employee
  • Not “orders” → One order
  • Not “maintenance tasks” → One equipment item

Step 2: Name templates clearly

  • Poor: “Monthly invoice processing”
  • Good: “Process single invoice”
  • Best: “Process invoice - Standard workflow”

Step 3: Design for one, launch for many

Your template handles one invoice. Need to process 100 invoices? Launch 100 processes. Tallyfy’s bulk launch features make this effortless.

Step 4: Use clear process names

When launching, use specific identifiers:

  • “Invoice #2024-1234 - Acme Corp”
  • “Onboard: Sarah Johnson - Marketing Manager”
  • “Equipment Inspection: Crane #5 - Q1 2024”

Common scenarios requiring unit thinking

Employee onboarding

Wrong: “Onboard Q1 new hires” Right: “Onboard new employee” (launch for each hire)

Why: Each employee has different:

  • Start dates
  • Department requirements
  • Equipment needs
  • Training schedules

Customer implementation

Wrong: “Implement all January customers” Right: “Implement customer account” (launch per customer)

Why: Each customer has unique:

  • Requirements
  • Timelines
  • Contact persons
  • Success criteria

Document processing

Wrong: “Review all contracts” Right: “Review contract” (launch per contract)

Why: Each contract needs:

  • Specific reviewer based on type
  • Individual negotiation tracking
  • Separate approval chains
  • Unique deadline management

Advanced unit-based patterns

Conditional logic per unit

When designing for units, conditional logic becomes powerful:

IF Speaker Location = "International" THEN
  - Add visa assistance task
  - Include customs forms
  - Extend timeline by 2 weeks

Each speaker process adapts to their specific needs.

Parallel processing advantages

Running 20 employee onboarding processes simultaneously:

  • HR handles all background checks in batch
  • IT provisions equipment based on start dates
  • Managers review their specific new hires
  • No waiting for “the slow one”

Metrics and insights

Unit-based design enables meaningful analytics:

  • Average time to onboard one employee: 5 days
  • Bottleneck: IT equipment task takes 2 days
  • Success rate: 95% complete within deadline

Bulk processes only show: “Monthly onboarding completed or not”

When bulk operations make sense

Some tasks within a unit process can be bulk:

  • “Send welcome email to all attendees”
  • “Generate monthly report of all processed invoices”
  • “Archive completed contracts”

These are typically:

  • Single tasks within unit-based processes
  • Reporting or communication activities
  • End-of-period administrative work

Converting existing bulk processes

Assessment questions

  1. Can tasks be assigned to specific people for specific items?
  2. Do you need to track individual item status?
  3. Could one item’s delay affect others unnecessarily?
  4. Would parallel processing improve efficiency?

If you answered “yes” to any question, convert to unit-based design.

Migration approach

  1. Document current bulk process
  2. Identify the natural unit (invoice, employee, order)
  3. Redesign for single unit with clear ownership
  4. Test with one instance
  5. Use bulk launch for multiple instances
  6. Track improvements in clarity and speed

Tips for effective unit-based templates

1. Use variables for customization

  • {{Employee Name}}
  • {{Invoice Number}}
  • {{Customer Company}}

This makes each instance clearly identifiable.

2. Design for the majority case

Build for the 80% standard case, use conditions for exceptions.

Use task comments to reference related processes:

  • “See also: Contract Review #123”
  • “Parent project: Q1 Implementation”

4. Enable bulk actions where appropriate

While processes are unit-based, you can still:

  • Launch multiple instances at once
  • Run reports across all instances
  • Bulk update template for all future instances

Key takeaway

Think in units, benefit in multiples. Design your templates for one perfect instance, then run as many as needed with complete visibility and control. This shift from bulk to unit thinking transforms chaotic group activities into manageable, trackable, improvable workflows.

Documenting > Templates

Tallyfy templates function as strategic reusable blueprints that standardize business processes by defining workflow steps structure and logic to ensure consistent quality execution across organizations while enabling customization for specific instances and providing comprehensive benefits including improved training efficiency reduced errors and scalable operations management.

Pro > Tallyfy vs. project management tools

Understand how Tallyfy differs from project management tools by focusing on predictable repeatable workflows rather than one-time projects with unique tasks and timelines.

Tracking And Tasks > More about processes

A process in Tallyfy is a single execution instance of a template blueprint that represents actual work being done with its own unique identity activity log and ability to be tracked and modified independently from the original template.
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