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Adaptive Planning
Last Updated: 2023-06-23
Configurable Workflows

Configurable Workflows

Preview Date: 2026-02-07. Production Date: 2026-05-08.
With this release, we introduce Configurable Workflows, a new framework that enables you to design, orchestrate, and execute planning cycles. You can now create reusable workflow definitions using a graphical builder, assign tasks dynamically to users, user groups or associations, and manage the entire lifecycle within Hubs. You can use hierarchy submit tasks for seamless bottom-up hierarchical routing, advanced participating level selection, and aggregated monitoring. This feature replaces the legacy Workflow and Process Tracker.
Watch the video:
 6m 59s

Business Benefits

This feature enables you to have:
  • Enhanced flexibility. You can now design workflows that match your unique organizational structure, supporting both bottom-up planning motions.
  • Improved governance. You can now enforce strict data locking upon submission to ensure data integrity during planning cycles.
  • Increased process efficiency. You can now automate task handoffs, notifications, submission routing, and hierarchical roll-up submissions, reducing administrative overhead.
  • Streamlined communication. You can now send targeted, consolidated reminders to users with pending tasks to keep your planning cycles on schedule without overwhelming their inboxes.
  • Granular control. You can now utilize sheet scoping to limit tasks to specific data slices, ensuring users only focus on relevant accounts and levels.
  • Improved visibility. You can now gain immediate insight into your planning progress with detailed monitoring and enterprise tree views, helping you identify and resolve bottlenecks quickly.

Changes

Workflow Administration and Definitions
We add a new
Workflow Definitions
 page in a new
Workflows
 section in your hubs, where you can now create workflow definitions that you use as reusable templates for your planning cycles. You can create definitions with these task types:
  • To-Do.
  • Hierarchy Submit.
When you create a new workflow definition on the
Workflow Definitions
 page, we provide a graphical workflow definition builder that supports drag-and-drop actions, enabling you to:
  • Move to-do and hierarchy submit tasks.
  • Reorder tasks.
When you create to-do tasks on your workflow definition, you can configure task destinations and direct users to specific dashboards or sheets to complete their work.
When you create submit tasks, you can additionally also configure sheet scope to define specific modeled or cube sheets applicable to a task. We now automatically lock only these sheets for specific roles when assignees submit.
When you launch or edit a workflow, you can now use a multiselect enterprise tree to choose participating levels for hierarchy submit tasks. We add an
Auto-select and maintain valid descendants for selected level
s check box that automatically includes child levels as associations change throughout the workflow.
When you publish workflow definitions, we:
  • Enable you to use those workflow definitions to launch workflows for specific plan versions and participating levels.
  • Automatically lock the workflow definitions for major structure changes while active workflows exist.
Workflow Management
We add a new
Workflows
 page in the
Workflows
 section in your hubs, where you can monitor your workflows using a flat-list view of all workflows, their statuses, and progress. You can use this page to:
  • Drill down into specific instances to view task-level details.
  • Export workflow task history and participating levels to Excel for audit and detailed review.
  • View a hierarchical enterprise tree and grid view of your workflow. This view includes aggregated progress counts (such as
    In Progress
    ,
    Submitted
    , and
    Sent Back
    ) and allows you to search by level or filter by assignee and status.
  • Send a reminder to assignees who have not yet completed their assigned to-do, submit, approve, or hierarchy submit tasks. We only display this option for in progress tasks.
  • Pause, resume, and archive workflow instances to manage the planning cycle lifecycle.
End User Experience
We add a new
My Tasks
 section in your hubs which you can use as a central inbox to:
  • View and access your assigned to-do and hierarchy submit tasks.
  • Take action directly on task destinations, which we surface in the task. Example: You set your Expenses sheet as a to-do task destination, and your assignee can view and take action on the Expenses sheet directly from the task.
  • Submit, submit all levels, or send back on your tasks.
When you send a task back, we automatically:
  • Unlock the data for that specific part of the level and organization hierarchy.
  • Notify the original submitter.
  • Reset the task status back to
    In Progress
    .
For hierarchy submit tasks, parent-level submitters can choose to send back a specific leaf level only, or a parent level along with all of its descendants, using the
Parent Level Only or Parent Level and All Descendants
 options.
We automatically send notifications:
  • To leaf-level assignees upon workflow launch.
  • To parental-level assignees once all their child levels are submitted.
We also consolidate send-back notifications by assignee.
Security and Setup
We add a new
Enable Configurable Workflows
 check box on the
General Setup
 page in
Administration
. When you enable this feature, we disable the legacy Workflow and Process Tracker features.
We add a new
Manage Workflows
 permission. This permission is required to create definitions, launch, and monitor workflows.
We now support associations as assignees for tasks, allowing workflows to dynamically route based on level assignment.

What Do I Need to Do?

  1. Select the
    Enable Configurable Workflows
     check box on the
    General Setup
     page in
    Administration
     and save. Note: When you enable this feature, we disable the legacy Workflow and Process Tracker features.
  2. Assign the
    Access Hubs
    ,
    Edit Hubs
    , and
    Manage Workflows
     permissions to the security groups or users who will administer planning cycles.
  3. Configure the associations you want to use as assignees for submit and approve tasks. Go to
    Administration > Associations
     to define the relationships between users and levels that will drive task routing. Example: Create an association for budget submitters for level Product Development.
  4. Create a new hub to house your workflow definitions or use an existing hub. Example: Create a Financial Planning hub.
  5. Ensure that all workflow participants have access to this hub and all the artifacts in the hub.

What Happens if I do Nothing?

If you don’t select the
Enable Configurable Workflows
 check box and save, your tenant will continue to use the legacy Workflow and Process Tracker features. However, we recommend planning your migration as this new framework provides enhanced capabilities and will be the standard for future updates.

Test Scenarios

When you use Ask Workday to ask questions about configurable workflows, the links to configurable workflows topics in the
Source Links
 section won't work until we deliver this feature to Production.

Change Log

Configurable Workflows
We correct this note to clarify the Business Benefits and Changes sections.
Video
We update the video on this release note.
Hierarchy Submit Tasks
We update the feature description, Business Benefits field, and Changes field to document the new hierarchy submit task type.
Preview Date: 2026-04-10. Production Date: 2026-05-08.
Send Reminders to Task Assignees
We update the Changes field to document the ability to send reminders to assignees who haven't completed their tasks.
Preview Date: 2026-04-10. Production Date: 2026-05-08.
Workflow Path Modal
We update the Business Benefits and Changes fields to document the new Workflow Path modal.
Preview Date: 2026-04-10. Production Date: 2026-05-08.
Configurable Workflows
We update the delivery dates for the Production delivery for this functionality from 2026-03-14 to 2026-05-08.