Manage the workflow
Learn about the steps involved in managing the workflow for a worksheet.
Last updated
Learn about the steps involved in managing the workflow for a worksheet.
Last updated
User permissions: Budgets & Forecasts and Manage Budgets & Forecasts
Watch these videos:
Phocas demo video: Workflows and user permissions (brief overview)
Phocas Academy: Understanding workflow and task assignment and Delegate a budget line to another user
There's a separate workflow for most types of worksheet tabs. If you are the budget owner, your name displays as the baseline in the workflow for all rows in a worksheet, which means that the workflow starts and stops with you. If you are a budget administrator, you can take over the workflow at any time.
As illustrated in the diagram below, you assign tasks (rows) to other users (contributors) and when they complete those tasks, they submit the rows back to you. You can then review those rows and either accept or reject them. When you believe there is no more work to do for the rows, you can mark them as complete.
Preparing the budget or forecast is a collaborative process but you can have peace of mind knowing that while multiple users can work in a worksheet at any time, only the current workflow owner of a row can enter or edit data in that row.
To help you manage the workflow process, add administrators to the workbook. Administrators can also take over the workflow in your absence.
You can assign tasks individually, one row at a time, or assign multiple tasks simultaneously. Assignees (workflow contributors) will see a pink notification on their Phocas homepage next to the relevant workbook, with a number indicating how many tasks they have. You can also enable email workflow notifications, so assignees get an email informing them they have tasks to complete.
In the Workflow column of a row (or row within a selection of rows), click the workflow status button (it will display as Baseline initially).
In the workflow window, enter a comment, if required.
Click the Assign button and select the required user.
The workflow window closes instantly and the Workflow column updates to reflect your changes - the label on the Baseline button changes to Assigned and your name is replaced by the user you assigned the task to. Your initials (predecessor identifier) remain, so other users can see who assigned the task.
If you change your mind, make a mistake or want to edit the values in the row yourself, you can unassign the user from the row. Click the Assigned button, then click Unassign. The row returns to you and the other user loses the ability to edit the data.
For example, in the image below, you can see that the budget owner Charlie C.Epho assigned some of the Marketing rows to Mark Marketing and Andy Admin, and the Direct Fuel and Telephone rows to Bill Branchmanager. Charlie remains as the baseline for the remaining Marketing rows, as she didn’t assign them to anyone else. She could not assign the Salary & Wages row to any user, as it is being driven (by the Headcount driver tab).
There are several ways to assign tasks in bulk:
With no rows selected, click the Row menu > Select all rows with workflow status, then select the applicable status. With those rows now selected, click the Row menu again and select Update workflow status, then change the status as usual. The workflow status of all the selected rows is automatically updated.
For example, you might want to select all baseline rows to assign them to a particular user or select all rows with Rejected status for closer inspection.
These are rows that have the same resulting action, for example, all rows you want to assign to a particular user. These rows can contain a mix of predecessors, owners, and actions. The first row you select determines which other rows can be selected. The like rows become available for selection via their checkboxes. As unlike rows cannot be selected, their checkboxes do not display. When you make a selection, you can proceed in two ways:
Use the Row menu to take further action with those selected rows.
Click on any row in that selection to proceed with assigning the rows.
Note the UI in the following video is out of date but the context is the same.
When users complete their tasks, they might assign the rows to other users for their input or submit the rows straight back to you. Ultimately, as the budget owner, the rows end up back with you.
When a user submits a task, a notification displays in the Tasks button in the top right corner. You can either click a task summary to go straight to the corresponding row in the worksheet, which displays in blue, or click the My tasks button in the search box to filter the worksheet and view only the rows that were submitted or assigned to you.
Review the values that were completed by the user and read any cell comments.
Review the workflow comments and workflow history, to see how the row progressed from the baseline to being a fully completed budget or forecast line item.
If you are satisfied with a row, you can accept it.
If you are not satisfied with the row, you can make your own revisions, then accept the row, or reject the row and send it back to the user for further editing. The workflow continues until you finally accept the row.
You can also accept or reject rows in bulk (read more about this in the Assigned tasks section above).
In the Workflow column of a row (or row within a selection), click the Submitted button.
In the workflow window, enter a comment, if required.
Click Accept or Reject, as applicable.
When you accept a row, you can mark the row as complete, as a personal reminder that you have reviewed and accepted the values.
The Completed status in the workflow is for reference purposes; it is simply a note to the budget owner that the data entry for the row is complete and has been reviewed. You do not need to mark every row as 'completed’ before you can publish or use the budget or forecast. You can use this status as a reminder to you that you have reviewed the row and are comfortable with it.
When the workflow is back with you, you can mark the row(s) as complete in two ways:
Multiple rows in bulk: Select the applicable rows, then click the Row menu > Mark as complete.
To save time, you can select multiple rows and mark one of them as complete - all of the selected rows will display as completed.
If you need to undo this action and reopen the row in the workflow, click the Completed button. You can also use the Row menu to select all rows with the workflow status of Completed, then update the status as required.
If you are a budget administrator, you can take over the ownership of the workflow from the budget owner by assigning yourself a row. This action is recorded in the workflow history. You can then assign the row to someone else or submit it back to the budget owner. This option is useful when the budget owner is unavailable, and the workflow is at a standstill.
In the Workflow column of a row (or row within a selection of rows), click the workflow status button and click Self Assign.
You can undo all of the changes that were made in the workflow for a row, so you can start the process again. See Revert to the baseline values.
Individual row: Click the Mark as Complete button or click the Accepted button, enter a comment if required, and click Complete.
Either way, the Workflow column updates to reflect your changes - the green Completed button displays and your name no longer displays, indicating that the workflow has stopped.
