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Apps are the foundation of everything you build in Elementum. Each app is a self-contained workspace that organizes your data, workflow logic, automations, and user permissions around a specific business process. This guide walks you through creating one from scratch using a Vendor Onboarding app as a running example.
This guide expands on the steps introduced in the Quick Start Guide. If you haven’t reviewed it yet, start there for a high-level overview.

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Before You Begin

Make sure you have the following in place:
  • An active Elementum account with permission to create apps
  • At least one CloudLink data source configured in your organization
  • A clear understanding of the business process you want to model
Sketch your process on paper first — identify the stages, the people involved, the data you need, and what should happen automatically. For vendor onboarding, this might mean mapping out the path from initial application through final activation, along with the teams involved at each step. This upfront planning saves significant rework later.

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Step 1: Create the App

Navigate to Apps icon Apps in your dashboard, click the https://mintcdn.com/elementum/3rrGGod5FxcH4b5_/images/icons/ellipsis-vertical.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=3rrGGod5FxcH4b5_&q=85&s=8343232c8560472d342194c8cbf5d507 More icon, and select Create New App. Fill in the following required fields:
  1. CloudLink — Choose the CloudLink with the data you’ll need for your workflow. For vendor onboarding, select the CloudLink connected to your vendor and procurement data.
  2. Name — The display name for your app in Elementum (e.g., “Vendor Onboarding”).
  3. Namespace — A unique identifier for your app. This cannot be changed later.
  4. Handle — A short reference key that appears as a prefix in every record ID (e.g., VND-001). This cannot be changed later.
  5. Description — Help others in your organization understand what the app does (e.g., “Manages the end-to-end vendor onboarding process from application through activation”).
  6. Category — Organizes all apps in your organization. Categories are managed by admins in Settings.
Click Create once all fields are completed. The Record Details Layout will open, where you can begin configuring how records are displayed and edited in your app.
Apps are visible to other users in your organization as soon as they are created. If you want to build and test privately before going live, create your app in a development environment first.
You can test your app at any stage by creating sample records using the Create Record Button. This lets you verify that your layout and workflow are working as expected before your users see the app.

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Step 2: Design Your Layout

After creating your app, the Record Details Layout opens. This is where you choose which fields and components are available on each record — defining what information users can see and edit. For vendor onboarding, you might add fields like Company Name, Tax ID, Contact Email, Annual Revenue, and a Products/Services description. The layout also includes stage-specific sections that control what users see at each phase of the process. You define the stages and their visual appearance here in the Layout Builder — in Step 5, you’ll use Flow to connect those stages together and define how records transition between them. Use the Layout Builder to add, arrange, and configure the fields and components your records need. For a detailed walkthrough, see the full Layout Builder guide.
Some fields are required by the system and cannot be removed from the layout. These fields are essential for record tracking and workflow functionality.

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Step 3: Configure Views

Your app supports three view types for displaying records:
  • List view — Best for scanning and filtering large sets of records. For vendor onboarding, use this to review all vendors sorted by submission date or status.
  • Board view — Ideal for tracking items across stages (like a Kanban board). This gives your team a visual overview of where each vendor stands in the onboarding process.
  • Calendar view — Useful when dates and deadlines drive your process. Track vendor activation target dates or review deadlines at a glance.
Each view can be filtered by any field or component. Use Display Settings to manage which fields are visible across your app views. In the List view, if you find yourself using a specific filtered view consistently, click Add to Workspace, enter a Location and Name, then click Save Widget. The saved view will be available from the menu when you click Home.
Workspaces can be shared with others in your organization, so your team can access the same curated views.

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Step 4: Create a Form

If your app collects input from users, create a form to standardize how data enters your workflow. Forms let you control which fields are required and how submissions are structured to keep incoming data clean and consistent. For vendor onboarding, a form lets prospective vendors submit their company details, certifications, and banking information through a guided experience. For a full walkthrough, see the Form Builder guide.

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Step 5: Map Your Flow

Flow is where you define how records move through your process — connecting the stages you set up in the Layout Builder and specifying the transitions between them. While the Layout Builder controls what each stage looks like, Flow controls how stages are connected and in what order records progress. Open the Flow tab and lay out the stages of your workflow.
Flow captures what your process looks like. To make the process actually run — routing records between stages, sending notifications, updating fields — you’ll configure Automations in the next step.

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Define Stages

Each stage represents a phase in your business process. For the vendor onboarding workflow:
  1. Application — Vendor submits their information through the intake form.
  2. Review — Procurement team evaluates the submission for completeness and compliance.
  3. Approval — Decision-maker approves or rejects based on vendor qualifications and risk assessment.
  4. Activation — Approved vendor is onboarded into the system and granted access to relevant portals.

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Configure Assignments

Use assignment rules to define who is responsible for work at each stage. For vendor onboarding, you might assign the Review stage to your procurement team, route Approval to a manager based on the vendor’s annual revenue, and assign Activation to your IT operations team. Assignments can be based on:
  • Role or department
  • Workload balancing
  • Specific field values (e.g., region or product line)

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Step 6: Add Automations

Automations are what bring your Flow to life. While Flow documents the process, automations make it run — triggering actions when specific events occur. This includes routing records to different stages based on conditions, so your process handles branching and decision points automatically. Start with a few high-impact automations, then add more as you learn how your team uses the app.

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Decision Points and Routing

Use automations to handle the branching logic in your process. For vendor onboarding:
  • Route vendors to different review tracks based on annual revenue (e.g., vendors over $1M go to VP approval).
  • Create parallel paths when both Legal and Finance need to review simultaneously.
  • Define exit criteria that must be met before a vendor can advance (e.g., all required documents uploaded).

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Common First Automations

Notifications

Alert team members when a record is assigned to them, a deadline is approaching, or a status changes. For vendor onboarding, notify the procurement team when a new application arrives.

Field Updates

Automatically set field values based on conditions — for example, set the vendor risk level to “High” when annual revenue exceeds a threshold.

Approvals

Route records through approval processes based on value, category, or other criteria.

Integrations

Send data to external systems via webhooks or the API when key events happen — like pushing approved vendor data to your ERP system.

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Automation Tips

  • Start simple. One trigger, one condition, one action. Add complexity only after you’ve confirmed the basic flow works.
  • Test thoroughly. Run through each automation with sample data before going live.
  • Monitor execution. Use the automation log to verify that automations fire as expected and investigate any failures.
Automations must be built within an App. Make sure your app’s data structure and flow are in place before creating automations that depend on them.

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Step 7: Create Records

Records are the individual data entries that live inside your app — each one representing a single item moving through your process. In vendor onboarding, each record is a vendor progressing from application through activation. Records can enter your workflow in several ways:
  • Manual creation — Users create records directly from the app or through forms.
  • CloudLink sync — Records are pulled from external data sources like Snowflake, BigQuery, or Databricks via CloudLinks.
  • Automations — Records are generated automatically in response to system events or triggers.
  • Agents — AI Agents create and populate records during conversations and task execution.
  • API — External systems create records through the Elementum API.
For a full walkthrough of each method, see the Create a Record guide.

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Step 8: Test and Launch

Before inviting your team, walk through the entire vendor onboarding process yourself. Use this checklist to verify everything works end to end:
  • Create test records — Add several vendor records that represent realistic scenarios, including edge cases like missing documents, boundary revenue values, and vendors that should take different paths through the flow.
  • Walk the flow — Move each test vendor through every stage. Verify that assignments, notifications, and field updates behave correctly at each transition.
  • Validate automations — Check the automation log to confirm every automation fired when expected. Look for automations that didn’t trigger or produced unexpected results.
  • Invite early users — Bring in a small group of users for feedback. Ask them to complete tasks without guidance — their experience will reveal layout issues, unclear labels, and missing automations.
  • Iterate and go live — Incorporate feedback, fix any issues, and roll out to your full team. Plan to revisit the app after a week of real usage to make further refinements.
Depending on your organization’s configuration, you may need to deploy your app to a different environment once it has been tested and is ready for production.

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Next Steps

Once your app is running, configure who can see and modify your data. Head to the Data Access guide to set up record-level permissions and ensure the right people have access to the right information. Then explore these capabilities to extend your app further:

AI Intelligence

Add AI-driven triage, extraction, or routing to automate complex decisions.

Analytics & Reports

Build dashboards and reports to track process performance and identify bottlenecks.

Advanced Automations

Layer in scheduled processing, SLA tracking, and multi-step automation chains.

Best Practices

Review proven patterns for scaling and optimizing your workflows.