Workflows

Overview

Workflows let you turn a repeatable review or approval process into a reusable template, then run that template against real records such as documents, nonconformances, CAPAs, and change controls. You design a template once — its steps, assignees, and rules — publish it, and from then on anyone submitting a record can launch a tracked, step-by-step process with clear ownership and a full timeline.

There are two sides to Workflows:

• Workflow templates — the reusable blueprint you design and publish.
• Workflow instances — a live run of a published template attached to a specific record.

Key concepts

Step types

Step type	What it does
Action	A work step. Can include form fields and (in some modules) sub-tasks. The assignee completes the work and marks it complete.
Approval	A gate step. One or more approvers sign off. No form — comment-only.

Approval rule (Approval steps)

Rule	Meaning
ALL	Every assigned approver must complete their task before the workflow advances.
ANY	Only one assigned approver needs to complete the step to advance.

Template version statuses

Status	What it means
Draft	An editable, unpublished version. You can add and change steps here.
Published	Locked and available to launch. To change it, create a new draft.
Retired	An older published version, kept read-only for history.

Instance statuses

Status	What it means
In Progress	The run is active and moving through its steps.
Completed	All steps finished successfully.
Rejected	An approver rejected a step and stopped the run.
Changes Requested	An approver asked the owner for changes before approving.

Step-level settings

Setting	What it controls
Instructions	Guidance shown to the assignee.
SLA: Due in (days)	Business days from when the step activates until it is due.
Require Comments	Forces the assignee to leave a comment when acting.
Require E-signature	Prompts for identity verification before the action is recorded.
Allow child steps	(Action steps, some modules) Lets the record owner add ad-hoc sub-tasks while the run is live.

How to design a workflow template

1. Go to Workflows and select Create Workflow.
2. Enter a Workflow Name, choose the Module the workflow applies to, and optionally add a description. Select Create Workflow.
3. The designer opens with a first draft version and a starter step. Use the left Workflow Sequence panel to manage steps and the right panel to configure the selected step.
4. Select Add Step to add steps. Use the up/down arrows on each step card to reorder, and the remove control to delete a step.

note

You can only edit a version while it is in Draft. Published versions are locked.

Configure a step

1. Select a step in the left panel.
2. Set the Step Name and Instructions.
3. Choose the Step Type — Action or Approval.
4. For an Approval step, choose the Rule (ALL or ANY).
5. Set the SLA in business days, and toggle Require Comments and Require E-signature as needed.
6. For Action steps in supported modules, you can add form fields and turn on Allow adding child steps at runtime.

Assign who handles each step

1. With a step selected, select Manage Assignees.
2. Assign one or more Roles to the step. Roles define the pool of people eligible to be picked when the workflow is launched.

tip

Assigning roles is optional. If a step has no roles, the person launching the workflow can pick any active user for that step. Assigning roles narrows the choices to the right people.

How to publish a template

1. Open the workflow and make sure the Draft version is selected (use the version badge in the header to switch versions).
2. Select Publish. The version becomes Published and locked, and is now available to launch.

To change a published workflow, select Create New Draft. This copies the current steps into a fresh draft you can edit and publish as a new version. Older published versions become Retired and stay available for history.

note

Use Archive to take a workflow out of use without deleting it; Restore brings it back. A draft that has never been published can be discarded with Discard Draft (or Delete if it is the only version).

How to launch a workflow on a record

Workflows are launched from the record you want to route (for example when submitting a document version or a nonconformance):

1. On the record, choose the workflow version to run.
2. In the Assign Step Reviewers dialog, pick a user for each step. The choices come from the roles you assigned in the template (or all active users if no roles were set). The first step requires a reviewer.
3. Select Confirm to start the run. A workflow instance is created, the first step activates, and assigned users get their tasks.

How to act on a step

When you are assigned to the active step, open the workflow instance to see your required action:

1. Review the step details and any form fields or instructions.
2. For an Approval step, select Approve or Reject (and Request Changes where available).
3. If the step requires comments, enter one. Reject and Request Changes always ask for a comment.
4. If the step requires an e-signature, complete the identity verification prompt to record your action.

Once the step's rule is satisfied (ALL or ANY approvers done), the workflow advances to the next step automatically. You can follow progress on the instance's timeline and health card, which show completed steps, elapsed time, and overall status.

Send-back and rejections

• Reject stops the run and marks the instance Rejected.
• Request Changes sends the record back to its owner as Changes Requested, with your comment, so they can fix it.
• When a step is sent back, the system automatically routes it to the right person — the record owner for a main step, or the parent step's assignee for a sub-task — so you don't configure send-back targets in the template.

tip

Use the Workflow Instances list to find and filter all in-flight and completed runs across your records.