Planning Maestro’s Workflow feature helps you coordinate budget-planning and building with your team. An Administrator can create individual Workflows and send Workflow Assignments to different users to fill out and submit, then approve the submitted work.

This document shows you, a Planning Maestro Administrator, how to enable, create, edit, and delete budgetary Workflows in Planning Maestro.

 

 

Please Note: To learn how to make budget Assignments that other users can complete and submit, see Administrator – Managing Assignments.

 

Setting up for Workflow

Before you can use the budget Workflow feature in your account, make sure these prerequisites are complete:

 

Step 1: Contact your Centage Account Manager and ask them to enable Workflow for your company’s account.

 

Step 2: In your Planning Maestro account, set up Security to enable non-Admin user Groups to access Workflow (specifically, user Groups who will need to complete budget Assignments). Click on Tools and select Security.

 

Step 3: On the Security page, select the Plan Menu Access tab.

 

Step 4: On the Plan Menu Access tab:

• Click on the dropdown menu and select the Plan for which you want to use Workflow.
• Select every User Group that should have access to Workflow.
• In the Plan Menu Items section, scroll down to the Workflow section and click on the Manage Workflow toggle switch to turn it to the ON position.

Please Note: Make sure the rest of your Security settings are set up to enable future budget Assignment Owners to access the modules, Dimensions, Plans, and Plan menus related to their Assignments (for example, Operating Expenses or your Department Dimension).

 

Step 5: Click Save.

Now, these User Groups have permission to access the Workflow feature in this Plan. Repeat these steps to enable Workflow for other Plans/user Groups if necessary.

 

Step 6: Enable and set up Security for your Version Dimension. Enabling Security makes sure that the work you do in your budget Workflow is only visible and editable by the appropriate people (especially when budgeting for Versions that represent sensitive what-if scenarios).

 

Step 7: Make sure that every user Group containing future budget Assignment Owners has Write access to the Version for this Workflow.

 

Step 8: Make sure you have at least one unused budget Version in your account that was created in Planning Maestro, not uploaded from your GL Source. If necessary, add a new Member to your Version Dimension to use for your Workflow.

Please Note: You cannot use an Actuals Version or the default Plan Basis Version for a Workflow.

 

Step 9: After making sure your Security settings and Versions are set up, redeploy your Plan to make sure these changes reach the other modules.

 

Enabling Workflow in Planning

To enable Workflow, open the Tools module and select Workflow.

 

On the Workflow Dashboard page, click Enabling Workflow.

Please Note: You can only enable Workflow if you have Security enabled for your Version Dimension. Otherwise, the Enable Workflow option is grayed out and unclickable.

 

Creating Workflows

Step 1: On the Workflow Dashboard page, to create a new Workflow, click + New Workflow.

Please Note: If you do not have an unused Versions in Planning Maestro, you receive the following error message. If you receive this message, return to the Data Modeler and add a new Version to your Version Dimension. Then, redeploy this Plan.

 

Step 2: A New Workflow page opens. Enter the following information in the fields provided:

Name – Enter  a clear name for this Workflow (such as 2023 Department Budget or Q4 Operations Budget).

Description (Optional) – Enter a description to help other employees understand this Workflow’s purpose.

Version – Click on this dropdown and select a Version (scenario) of data to budget for, such as next year’s budget, Best Case Scenario, Worst Case Scenario, etc.

Dimension – Click on this dropdown menu to select a Dimension (building block of your budget) for this Workflow, such as Account Number, Department, Program, or Product.

Due Date – Select a due date for this budget Workflow.

 

Step 3: Click Save.

• The Workflow Dashboard page reopens.
• A confirmation message appears.
• The Workflow you created appears in the table.

To add Assignments to this Workflow, click the Manage Assignments icon (   ).

 

Editing Workflows

You can edit Workflows after they are created.

Please Note: If this Workflow’s Assignments have not been sent to Owners yet, you can edit any of its information. If any of this Workflow’s Assignments have been sent to their Owner(s), you can only edit its Name, Description, and Due Date. To make more extensive changes, you could delete a Workflow and create a new one (though doing so would delete all Assignments related to the Workflow). If a Workflow has been marked Done, you can only edit its Name and Description.

 

Step 1: Reopen the Workflow Dashboard page by opening the Tools module and selecting Manage Workflow.

 

Step 2: To edit a Workflow's Name or Description, in that Workflow’s row in the table, click the Edit icon (  ).

 

Step 3: The Workflow page opens. Edit the Workflow’s information needed and click Save.

Please Note: In the example screenshot, the Workflow’s Assignments have been sent to their Owners, so you can only edit the Name, Description, and Due Date. If the Workflow’s Assignments were all unsent, you could edit any information on this page.

• A confirmation message appears.
• Your changes are saved.

 

Marking Workflows as Done

When all the Assignments for a Workflow are complete and approved, you can mark the Workflow as Done.

Please Note: When you mark a Workflow as Done, you can no longer add or delete Assignments in it. You cannot undo this action.

 

Step 1: To mark a Workflow as Done, approve all Assignments in the Workflow. When you click Approve for the last Assignment, a message appears:

 

 

Step 2: Click Yes, Mark as Done.

You can also click No and then mark the Workflow as Done later by clicking the Mark as Done icon (  ).

• A confirmation message appears.
• The Workflow’s status changes to Done.
• This Workflow is now uneditable. You can make changes to any Data Projections involved in Assignments to this Workflow manually, or create a new Workflow.

Each Assignment Owner for this Workflow receives a notification email that the Workflow is done:

 

Deleting Workflows

 You can delete Workflows if needed. Deleting a Workflow permanently deletes all the Workflow’s Assignments. However, it does not affect Data Projections created, edited, or deleted as part of that Workflow’s Assignments.

 

Step 1: Reopen the Workflow Dashboard page by opening the Tools module and selecting Manage Workflow.

 

Step 2: To delete a Workflow, click the Delete icon (  ).

 

Step 3: A warning message appears. Enter DELETE in the field provided and click Yes, Delete Workflow.

• A confirmation message appears.
• The Workflow is deleted. You cannot recover this Workflow.
• Any line items that you or anyone else created, edited, or deleted as part of Assignments in this Workflow are not affected by this deletion. For example, if you created 10 Operating Expenses to complete an Assignment for this Workflow, those expenses remain the same even if you delete the Workflow.

• Every Owner who had Assignments in this Workflow receives a notification email that they no longer have to complete these Assignments.