Administrator Guide - Part 2 – Kepion Support Center

Workflow Configuration

This section will cover how to create, configure, and manage a workflow authorization.

To create a new workflow authorization, select the Manage Workflow in the Administrator view and click on the PLUS button.

With the Add Workflow window visible, you can specify the title of the new workflow authorization and its effective frame of time. You need to choose from one of the two types.

Workbook: A Workbook Workflow consists of a group of Forms and/or spreadsheets.
Dashboard: A Dashboard Workflow contains a Dashboard which is defined in the Modeler.

If you want to create a Dashboard Workflow, you need to select the Dashboard you would like to use from the drop-down in the Dashboard field.

You can also copy from an existing workflow and configure the new workflow from there.

Configure Workflow

Once a workflow authorization is created, you can further configure the settings by selecting the workflow on the right-hand navigation pane. There is some difference between the options you can configure for a Dashboard Workflow and Workbook Workflow, as shown in the images below.

Title: This field allows you the option to change the workflow’s title. The title will be visible to workflow users and should be descriptive and informative of the type of workflow that was created for. For example, the title can be “Forecast by Brand A”.

Dashboard: Only available in Dashboard Workflows, use this field to specify which Dashboard is used in the workflow.

Start Date: The start date and time specifies when this workflow authorization is available for workflow users. Only when the workflow is active will the application allow workflow actions to take place.

End Date: The end date and time specifies when this workflow authorization will finish. When a workflow expires, no further workflow actions will be allowed.

Workflow Type: Basic is selected by default and provides for data updates to the workflow through the Post action. The Reviewer and Approver workflow actions are disabled when this setting is selected. It can be changed to Advanced and it will enable Reviewers and Approvers for the workflow. The Approval tab will show up if Advanced is selected.

Notification: Enabling this setting will enable workflow email notification for the workflow.

Allow Post: Enabling the Post option will allow workflow users to have the Post action available. The Post action allows users to apply their workflow changes immediately to the data model. The Post action is useful for users to incrementally apply their workflow updates to the data model instead of submitting one large workflow submission at the end of each planning process.

Locked: The locked option is available for workflow Administrators to disable all workflow actions from being available to workflow users while it is still active.

Workflow Users

Users such as Contributors, Reviewers, and Approvers can be added to a workflow by selecting the Users tab. Note that when the workflow is in Basic mode for workflow, only Contributor feature is enabled in the UI.

Contributor: You can add Contributors to the workflow by clicking on the Contributor button. Contributors are the main group of workflow users who submit data updates to the plan. For example, users within the Finance department may want to update their forecasts for the current quarter.

Reviewer: Reviewers are added to the workflow by clicking on Reviewer button. Reviewers are people who can review workflow submission made from Contributors. Reviewers can use the workflow Comment action to provide their feedback during a planning process.

Approver: Approvers are the final gate keepers for any submitted plans. Approvers are added to the workflow by clicking on the Approver button. Approvers have the ability to reject submitted plans made by Contributors. Approvers also have the ability to submit any plans as they see fit. Once an Approver approves a plan, that particular workflow is complete and becomes locked from further action. If the workflow is setup to not include Approvers, then any submissions made by Contributors will automatically enter into final state.

Workflow Groups and Roles

Kepion allows you to create GROUPS and ROLES that can be set to Contributors, Reviewers, and Approvers of a workflow. This has the same effect as putting all the individuals in the group or role as Contributors, Reviewers, and Approvers to a workflow authorization. All individuals in the group or role therefore can do the job the group or role is authorized to do. The GROUP concept is validated and synced with the groups in the Microsoft Active Directory while the ROLE concept is a feature within Kepion application. For more information on GROUP and ROLE, please refer to the Kepion Security section.

Rule (Dashboard)

In a Dashboard Workflow, you need to associate SQL Rules with Dashboard Pages. The Rules that are available include SQL based and Kepion Add Member Rule (AMR). Once a Rule is associated with a Form, the Rule becomes available for workflow users to use as part of their planning process.

Select a page and click Add.

A given Form can only be associated with the pre-defined Rules that were created on a parent model of the Form. Check the Rules that you want to add and click OK to finish.

You can use Move Up and Move Down to re-order the Rules within a page, as the list order decides the running sequence of Rules when users post data.

There are two options for Rules that you can configure as needed:

On Post: When checked, the Rule will run automatically whenever users Post the plan.

Hide: When checked, the Rule will not be available in the explorer panel of the Form.

Form (Workbook)

Forms are used by a workflow to gather input and provide reporting and analysis capabilities during a planning process. In workbook workflows, Forms need to be added to a workflow by selecting the FORM tab and clicking on Add Form button.

The Add Form window is used to select the Forms that can be added to the workflow. The Forms are created in the Modeler and are scoped to those of the current application.

You can choose to make certain Forms read-only by selecting the Form and clicking on the Read-only button. Forms that are read-only will not be enabled for collecting input by workflow users. It is recommended to make Read-only for Forms that will not be used for input to give better performance for the plan.

You can use Move Up and Move Down to re-order the Forms, as the list order decides Form position in the plan.

You can also associate Rules to a Form. Select a Form and click the Rule button.

The Rules that are available include SQL based and Kepion Add Member Rule (AMR). Once a Rule is associated with a Form, the Rule becomes available for workflow users to use as part of their planning process. Rules will only be visible when that particular form is active on the plan.

Filter Groups (Workbook)

Filter groups control the filter behavior across forms within a given plan. For instance, when you change the filter on one Form, you may want to configure another Form in the same workflow to also take on the updated filter selection.

To create a filter group, click on the Add button. The window Create Linked Filters will appear in which you can define the specific filters that should be linked across the Forms. You can share a filter across multiple Forms as long as they share the same Dimension and Hierarchy.

Page Restriction (Dashboard)

Similar to Form Restriction for workbook plans, you can limit users’ access to certain pages in a Dashboard Workflow.

To create a Form Restriction, click the Add button. Select the object that you want to configure in the Configure drop-down, and then check the pages that you want to allow access to.

For users whose access are not restricted here, their access to Forms is defined by their permissions.

Form Restriction (Workbook)

On top of user permission settings, Form Restrictions allow you to restrict user access by individual Forms.

To create a Form Restriction, click the Add button. Select the object that you want to configure in the Configure drop-down, and then check the Forms that you want to allow access to.

For users whose access are not restricted here, their access to Forms is defined by their permissions.

Approval

This tab is available only when the workflow type is set to Advanced in Configuration.

You can define the Approver chain here. Click Add to create an Approver chain.

First, select the contributor user, user group, or role that you want to configure in the Apply To list. All the Approvers of the workflow will be listed on left. Drag and drop the Approvers to the right to create the Approver chain. Click OK to finish.

Progress

All workflow submissions within a workflow authorization is listed in this view. Workflow submissions with a blue refresh icon are using the most recent Forms, while the rest are using previous version Forms.

All workflow submissions within a workflow authorization can be either refreshed with changes to the Form or removed completely from the plan. There are three options for managing workflow submissions:

Apply Form Updates - This option is used when Forms are updated within the Modeler and needs to be reflected within existing workflow submissions. Existing user entered formulas, spreadsheets, and filter selections are kept intact. This allows for workflow users to receive newly updated Forms while still using the same workflow they were using before.

Click on the check box next to each individual workflow submission (or click on the all checkbox on the column heading to select all workflow submissions), and then the “Apply Form Updates” button. When updates are done, the icon of selected workflow submissions will have a blue refresh .

Apply Workflow Updates - This option is used when Approver Chain is updated and needs to be reflected in existing workflow submissions.
Remove Workflow Submissions - This option is used to remove individual or all workflow submissions within an existing plan. This option will remove all submission records from the workflow authorization. The data that is written into the data model will not be reverted.

Click on the check box next to each individual workflow submission (or click on the all checkbox on the column heading to select all workflow submissions), and then the Remove button.

Please notice, approved workflow submissions cannot be removed from this list. In order to remove a workflow submission that has been approved, you have to have the Approver reject it or have the contributor recall it before removing.

Workflow Conclusion

Once you have your workflow authorization configured, you can view the workflow by navigating to the My Plans page by selecting the Planning node from the navigation pane. Here we see the new workflow highlighted in the image below. The workflow is tagged with future because it will be available at a future date. Users associated with the workflow can begin their workflow submissions starting from the My Plans page.