Launching a Workflow Schedule

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You can access the Workflow Administrator Certification videos Workflow Onboarding Curriculum.

Once you are content with the Schedule you have created, you should take a few moments to review and confirm all details of your Workflow Process. We have created a Checklist for Launching a Workflow Schedule, walking through important information to review and verify before you launch your process. Once you have done this, you can click the "Confirm" button on the Edit Schedule screen.

When you click "Confirm," the system will run validation in the background to make sure there are no further issues to address. Please be aware that once you Confirm the process, you will only be able to modify some of its settings. You will not be able to change the candidates or associated Role Groups for that particular process. All participants will be set at the moment you click "Confirm."

For these reasons, we recommend waiting until close to the Launch date to make this selection, so any unexpected changes — like changes to faculty candidates, role group assignments, etc. — can be made if necessary.

Upon clicking "Confirm," the status in the Schedules table will then be updated to "Confirming" while Workflow validates all of the Schedules selections. Once the validation is complete, the status will update to one of the following:

  • Confirmed: If the validation was successful, the schedule will go live once the launch date is reached.
    Open: if the validation was successful and the launch date was met.
  • Confirmation Failed: if the validation uncovered errors. Details on the errors detected will appear at the top of the page when you return to edit the Schedule, and we have provided recommendations for troubleshooting these errors in the Troubleshooting Common Confirmation Errors section.

After the validation has been completed successfully, no further administrative actions are required. The process will begin on the specified date, and the appropriate users will receive email notifications if they have been configured in the schedule's Email Settings tab.

Troubleshooting Common Confirmation Errors

When a workflow schedule is ready to be launched, you will confirm it to begin the validation process. Validation can take a few minutes and will typically return a few items that need to be resolved prior to the schedule launching successfully. This includes required updates such as role groups missing reviewers for a specific scope (i.e., Department), or incomplete forms on steps. Below is a list of errors that may prevent your schedule from launching, as well as additional information and tips for resolving the errors as they arise.

Types of Errors

Error: (User) in (Role Group Name) has a disabled user account. Revise your role group or enable their account and confirm again.

A Confirmation Failed message showing list of users in role groups with disabled accounts and guidance to revise role group or enable account before confirming.

  • Explanation: If a reviewer’s account is disabled, the system won’t allow the schedule confirm. The error message now tells you exactly which reviewer and role group are affected, so you may address the issue directly.
  • Steps to Resolve:
    • Verify the disabled reviewer's account: A Faculty Accomplishments Administrator can confirm if the account is disabled and re-enable it as needed by following the steps outlined in this article: Enabling, Disabling and Deleting User Accounts.
      • If the reviewer's account should be re-enabled, wait approximately 10–15 minutes for the change to cache to the Workflow Module before confirming the schedule again.
      • If the account should stay disabled go to:
        • Workflow from the Navigation Bar.
        • Select Configuration.
        • Navigate to Role Groups to search for the role group the disabled reviewer is included in and remove the disabled reviewer from the role group. You may then assign a replacement as needed. To learn more about managing role groups, refer to Managing Role Groups.

Error: Your Launch Date is invalid. Please choose a date greater than or equal to today.

  • Explanation: Your launch date has a date value that is a day or more in the past. Your launch date must be either the current date or a future date.
  • Steps to Resolve: Change your launch date to the current date or a future date.

Error: Please select Candidates for this schedule in order to Confirm

  • Explanation: The schedule does not know which users the process will be launched for because candidates have not been added to it.
  • Steps to Resolve: Candidates must be added to the schedule by clicking the Add Candiates button and searching for users to include in the process.

The Schedule Configuration tab showing Schedule Details section with Name field and Launch Date field, Candidates for Review section showing counts for Candidates Selected and Submissions with Add Candidates button and Bulk Add Candidates link.

Error: Reports must be selected for all applicable steps.

  • Explanation: A report was added to a step on the workflow's template and must now be assigned a type of report that should display for that step in the schedule.
  • Steps to Resolve: Navigate to the step in the schedule with the report and assign it a report by selecting one from the drop down menu. This report will then be able to be run by participants of that step.

The Faculty section showing Due Date settings with Type dropdown, Due Date field, and advance checkbox, Reports section showing Form Label field and Report dropdown expanded with full‑service report options AACSB Required Fields Audit Report, NIH Biographical Sketch, and NSF Biographical Sketch.

Error: Report Start and End Dates are required in order to Confirm.

  • Explanation: A report is assigned to a step in the schedule, but no start or end dates are specified, so the system has no idea for which dates the report should be run for.
  • Steps to Resolve: Navigate to the step in the schedule with the report and enter a start and end date in the corresponding date fields.

The Reports section showing Form Label field, Report dropdown, and highlighted Start Date and End Date fields with date pickers.

Error: Report Start and End Dates must be in chronological order in order to Save.

  • Explanation: The start and end dates for a report in the schedule are not in chronological order, which means one is in the past of the other, and they must be chronological in order to run properly.
  • Steps to Resolve: Navigate to the step in the schedule with the report and change the start and end date values to chronological order.

Error: (Role Group) has no reviewer specified for (Department/College), and this schedule has candidates which are part of this group. Either update this Role Group, or update the candidates selected.

  • Explanation: A reviewer has not been assigned to a candidate's department or college.
  • Steps to Resolve: Conduct an investigation to determine whether the candidate's department or college in their Yearly Data (ADMIN) should be changed or whether the role group should include a reviewer for their department or college. If it's determined that a reviewer should be added to the role group, follow the instructions in the What is a Role Group? article learn how to do so.

    The error message will identify the department and role group that does not have a reviewer for the candidate. Example of how this type of error message will appear is below.

A Confirmation Failed message showing role groups missing reviewers and guidance to update the role group or update the selected candidates.

Error: (Report) on (Step) is restricted and not available to the following candidates:

  • Explanation: The report noted in the error message is not available to the listed candidates for the mentioned step, because the report is not available to the candidate's security role.
  • Steps to Resolve: Conduct an investigation to determine whether the listed candidates should have access to the report. If the candidates require access, review their security role and submit a General Work Request to have the report added as a report that users in within that security role should be able to run.

    The error message will identify the report, step and list of candidates that do not have access to run the report. Example of how this type of error message will appear is below.

The Edit Annual Review page showing Confirmation Failed message stating AACSB Required Fields Audit Report on Faculty is restricted and listing affected candidate, with Cancel, Save, and Confirm buttons displayed.

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