ProcessGround User Guide

What improves extraction

• •A clear trigger or starting event.
• •Action-oriented activity descriptions with the accountable role nearby.
• •Explicit decision conditions and documented outcomes.
• •Section headings that reflect real phases or procedures.
• •References that identify where a reused procedure is defined.
• •A documented end, handoff, or statement that downstream work is outside the source.

What can reduce reliability

• •Scanned or image-only PDFs, especially when OCR is incomplete.
• •Screenshots of application steps without surrounding explanation.
• •Policy statements that describe requirements but not an operational sequence.
• •Appendices, report inventories, definitions, and approval matrices that resemble activity lists.
• •Missing actors, undocumented rejection paths, or references to procedures that are not included.
• •Very broad manuals in which headings mix workflows, controls, rules, and background material.

Recommended workbook design

• •Use one clean risk and control matrix sheet when possible.
• •Keep a single header row and avoid merged cells inside the data range.
• •Use one process activity relationship per row, repeating identifiers when needed.
• •Keep risk and control identifiers stable and unique within your source system.
• •Use business wording that a reviewer can understand without relying on abbreviations alone.
• •Remove decorative title rows, subtotals, and blank sections that are not part of the matrix.

1. 01

   Review the recommendations

   ProcessGround recommends ready workflows and shows supporting context separately.

2. 02

   Select up to four families

   Choose the process families you want in the package. A family can still contain supported branches and referenced subprocesses.

3. 03

   Generate one complete package

   The selected families are extracted together so names, roles, rules, and boundaries remain consistent.

4. 04

   Use the recovery result

   If a selected family is missing, ProcessGround retries it once with focused source context. If it still cannot be represented, no package is produced and no credit is used.

Review the complete result, not only the score

• •Confirm each process group represents a real business procedure or documented variant.
• •Check that every swimlane names one accountable actor rather than a mixture of roles and systems.
• •Follow every decision label to its intended target and confirm exception paths do not rejoin improperly.
• •Review automatically applied repairs and make sure they preserve the source meaning.
• •Open the complete unresolved-finding list rather than relying on the short summary.
• •Review low-confidence steps, unmatched risk rows, and ambiguous mappings individually.

Draw.io

1. 01

   Open diagrams.net

   From the editor, choose File, Open From, and the location where the .drawio file is saved.

2. 02

   Review each page

   Confirm lanes, phases, decision routes, metadata, and any Risk & Control Index before saving changes.

3. 03

   Save to your repository

   Choose a durable local or approved cloud location. ProcessGround does not retain a diagram-history copy for you.

Lucidchart

1. 01

   Start from Lucid Documents

   Select + New, then Import documents, and choose the ProcessGround .drawio file.

2. 02

   Review the conversion

   Confirm pages, editable shapes, connectors, colors, labels, and imported properties. Organization settings may restrict imports, and not every custom property is guaranteed to transfer identically.

3. 03

   Save as a Lucid document

   The imported result is your Lucidchart copy. ProcessGround does not generate a native Lucidchart file.

Native Microsoft Visio when available

1. 01

   Download the .vsdx file

   The native Visio export is labeled Beta because desktop compatibility should be reviewed for each package.

2. 02

   Open and inspect it

   Check for repair warnings, attached connectors, page names, swimlanes, editable shape data, and branch labels before distribution.

Microsoft Visio Data Visualizer workbook

1. 01

   Open Visio Plan 2 desktop on Windows

   Choose File, New, Templates, Flowchart, then Cross-Functional Flowchart - Data Visualizer, identified by the Excel icon.

2. 02

   Start the wizard

   Choose Create, select Cross Functional Flow Chart (horizontal), then Browse to the downloaded workbook.

3. 03

   Select the process table

   Choose ProcessMap for the first flow. Multi-flow workbooks also contain ProcessMap2, ProcessMap3, and later numbered tables.

4. 04

   Map the process fields

   Map Function or Swimlane to Function, Phase or Timeline to Phase, Process Step ID to Process Step ID, Description to Process Step Description, Shape Type to Shape Type, and Accessibility to Alt Text.

5. 05

   Map the connections

   Use Next Step ID with the Next Step relationship and Comma delimiter. Map connector labels from Connector Label.

6. 06

   Finish and save

   Retain source order for Function and Phase, select Finish, review the result, and save the diagram as a .vsdx file.

7. 07

   Refresh after workbook edits

   Keep the workbook with the Visio file. Save workbook changes, then use Data Tools Design and Refresh Diagram in Visio.

• ✓Every process page has the correct trigger, business purpose, and documented ending or source boundary.
• ✓Process families and subprocess links match the source rather than document-heading structure alone.
• ✓Every activity is in the lane of the accountable role, with systems and supporting participants kept in notes where appropriate.
• ✓Phases follow the business lifecycle and do not duplicate unrelated document sections.
• ✓Every decision has a documented condition, distinct targets, and labels aligned to those targets.
• ✓Exception, rejection, return, and rework paths do not incorrectly merge into the normal path.
• ✓Inferred activities and source boundaries are acceptable and do not add undocumented downstream work.
• ✓Referenced subprocesses point to the correct process page and source section.
• ✓Mapped risks and controls belong to the selected process step, and ambiguous or unmatched rows have been resolved.
• ✓Potential control gaps have been reviewed against the complete control environment, not only the uploaded matrix.
• ✓The downloaded file opens cleanly in the intended destination tool and remains editable.
• ✓The reviewed package is saved in an approved document repository with an appropriate version name.

How customer content is handled

• •ProcessGround processes uploaded file contents and generated files in memory and does not intentionally persist them in its application database.
• •Process documents and structured risk and control content are sent to the OpenAI API for request-time analysis with storage disabled in the request.
• •OpenAI states that API data is not used to train models by default unless the API customer opts in. Default abuse-monitoring logs may retain customer content for up to 30 days.
• •For paid accounts, ProcessGround retains an encrypted normalized analysis for up to 30 days so exact reruns can reproduce the same business semantics without another credit. The cache is isolated to the account, does not contain the uploaded file or generated diagram, and is deleted at expiration or account deletion.
• •Content-free operational records may include account identifiers, file type and size bucket, analysis mode, package status, diagnostic codes, usage, model stage, token counts, estimated cost, and processing duration. Process names and source filenames are not retained in generation telemetry.
• •Do not upload protected health information, complete payment-card data, government identifiers, passwords, secrets, classified or export-controlled material, children's data, biometric identifiers, or similarly regulated information.

Managing Professional renewal

• •Canceling Professional from the Account page stops the next renewal; it does not delete your ProcessGround account.
• •Professional access and the remaining credits in the current billing cycle stay available until the displayed end date.
• •You can select Keep Professional before that date to resume automatic renewal.
• •At the end of the paid period, unused credits expire and the account changes to Sample Access with no custom generation.
• •Permanent account deletion is separate. It cancels an active subscription immediately and removes operational account data as described in the Privacy Policy.