EIB - Inbound Bypasses Approvals

 EIB - Inbound Bypasses Approvals

As you know there are 2 processing types you encounter while doing an EIB. 1. Manual Processing 2. Automatic Processing

When the automatic processing is available on a business process, and when it is chosen on the inbound template, Workday automatically completes workflow steps for a process or sub-process and bypasses below items :

• Approvals
• Document reviews
• Questionnaires
• Notifications
• To do tasks

Mass Advance Business Process

 Mass Advance Business Process

As the task name suggests, it is used to advance any bulk / individual Business Processes. You can advance one BP type at a time. Not multiple BP's

Remember that not every Business Process can be advanceable. 

For example: You may use it for Time Entry, Performance Review, Talent Review, Time Off, Change Job etc.,

Once you key in the parameters based on what you wanted to see in the results. Date range can not be more than 180 days. Most widely used filters are by Assigned To and About Workers.

How do I find appropriate fields for creating Workday condition rules?

Fields for creating Condition Rules

While creating condition rules say for example in Business Processes, if a field that you are looking for is not available or it in one of the other related Business Objects,  then you can create your own calculate fields and bring it up to the Action Event Level. 

Remember that you Business Process is related to the action event. Also you can notice all the available fields and conditions that you can use in a particular BP.

Lets take an example of Termination BP - You can see a tab "Available Rules & Fields". Search here for the fields that you are looking for while creating the conditions. 

Also check  Workday Data Dictionary report to determine what fields are available for each business object.

How to handle unassigned Tasks in Business Processes?

Unassigned Tasks 

I know a lot of new Workday Enthusiasts struggle in fixing the Unassigned Tasks in the Business process that you typically see in the inbox.

An unassigned task is one for which the specified security group does not contain a user, or contains only users with disabled Workday accounts.

Here is an example of identifying one such Business Processes and fixing the same. Lets say we want to identify the hire processes that were hanging around in the Unassigned state.

Access the report Unassigned Tasks.   

Business Process Administrators can reassign unassigned tasks to workers in the required security group. Workday sends a notification email to members of all security groups with View and Modify permissions to the Business Process Administration domain when a task becomes unassigned. 

Provide the specific BP or select For all Business processes radio button to view all BP's per your need and most necessarily provide the date range to fetch you the results in a specific time line.

In our case we can see two Hire BP's that do not have any workers to assign.

Navigate to the related actions of the BP Event, then Reassign Unassigned Task.

Then on the next screen, give the user that you want this task to be reassigned to.

That marks the completion of reassignment of an unassigned Task.

Root cause for the Unassigned Tasks in BP mostly be the Unassigned roles in the Supervisory Organization or User account disabled, or expired or locked.

Full Process Record on Business Process Event

Full Process Record on BPs

The Full Process Record on the Business Process Event gives you a great amount of detailing regarding what happened from the BP's initiation to the processing to any sub events triggered to the actions performed to the notifications generated.

Access any Business Process  and go to the related actions fo that BP event, In the below example we took an integration event. You could view on any Hire or Termination or any other BP that you need to analyze.

You can notice the below sections showing up all the tabs which indeed contains the detailed information about this event. Also notice Comments tab if there were any comments as part of the process. Below sample doesn't show up though.

Copy Custom Notifications

Copy Custom Notifications on Business Processes

Often there are times, where we should be creating multiple custom notifications may be on the same lines. Making the use of Copy Notification feature eases the creation of multiple custom Notifications.

So, make the use of Copy Notifications to lessen the burden of creating multiple notifications from scratch.

Access your Business Process and go to the Notification tab and see your existing custom notifications and click on the related actions on your custom notification and then

Business Process >> Copy Notification

Provide the Effective Date and notice the Workflow Notification that is being copied. On the next screen you will notice your custom notification being copied and you can now edit according to your need. 

Report: Business Process and Integration Notifications

Business Process and Integration Notifications

This is a report that you can use when you wanted to check for the notification routing. For example, for one of the task in the Business Process triggered a notification and you wanted to see, if it really triggered those recipients. This can be used for both Business Processes and Integrations.

There are couple of reports that you will notice in the tenant. 

 

Business Process and Integration Notifications (Do Not Use) - This is not an indexed report and Workday is not supporting this so refrain from using this report. Do Not Use (DNU)

Business Process and Integration Notifications Indexed - Use this Report. When you give your input parameters, be mindful in providing the values, do not go for lengthier durations.

The example below shows for one day.

Notice there are 317 instances for one day. Here you can see all the notifications that got generated with date and time. 

Recipients are the individual workers or the workers from the security groups. Lastly you can see the Static Email Recipients like test@gmail.com

Business Processes: BP Critical Errors

How to identify Business Processes with Errors & Fix?

Some times we see few of the transactions falling flat, saying Processing Error! You can rely from time to time on one report i.e.

Business Process Exception Audit - Report

Using this report we can find all the BP's that have Critical Errors and Alerts. If you want to see and address your Warnings as well, check the Include Warnings Checkbox. But Warnings won't hard stop you. Your main target should be to zero any critical errors.

This is a great report to identify all critical errors at one place and fix it individually.

Once you run the report, it results like below.

Highlighted in Yellow

Severity                          : Critical / Warning

A Problem Exists With : Shows which step your BP has problem or as a whole.

Problem / Solution        : Provides you with possible solution to fix the same. Follow this, it will help you in fixing the issue mostly.

For Example: Click on one of the A Problem Exists With item which will take you the respective BP to fix as shown below. It gives you a clear detail as what is missing in this BP.

The related actions menu in the A Problem Exists With column is the same as the related actions menu on an individual step on the BP's View Definition page.

If a business process is broken, Workday automatically sends a Fix Business Process task to Business Process Administrators and provides a link to correct the business process definition.

Business Processes: Help Text

How to Set Help Text for the transactions for your users?

As the name suggests, this gives a preset text for the user to understand better about the process or transaction if you want them to know before they proceed. You notice these Help-Text in typical BP's say, Hire , Request Compensation Change, Close Position, Request Absence, so on..

Transaction Level View: Lets take an example of Request Compensation Change Process

You can maintain Help Text on each of your Business Process Step.

Navigation: 

Entire BP:  Business Process >> Actions >> Business Process >> Maintain Help Text

One Step in BP: Business Process Definition >> Go to a step >> Actions >> Business Process  >> Maintain Step Help Text

Edit Step Help Text

You can setup your step Help-Text on conditional basis, say if you want to show up the help text for a particular group of people.

Business Processes: Mass Cancel To Dos

To Do's

To Do's are typically used in the Business Processes. Also used in Checklist, again with in Business Processes.

To Do's won't have much priority when you compare with other BP Step types, so users comfortably skip them if they were optional.

The task Mass Cancel To Dos helps in canceling the To Dos which you don't want to visit anymore and complete them and which have been long pending.

Select the To Do events and cancel.

Other Tasks and Reports related to To Dos that you can check out:

To Dos

Maintain To Dos

Create To Do is the task that you see in the Business Process Step Type - To Do.

Integrations: Notifications Sample

Integrations- Notifications Sample

We use Notifications on the scheduled Integrations specially to monitor if there is any abnormal behavior like the process getting aborted or failed or other below reasons. Once you set up the notification you can receive an email with the configured message.

Most commonly used Integration Statuses in Production are:

Aborted

Completed

Completed with Errors

Failed

Not Run due to Exceptions on Future Process

Some of the Fields that you can use on Notification while building your message:

 

• Integration System
• Integration Event
• Integration Event Status
• Integration Attachment
• Created from Integration Process Event

Sample Email:  Try to build with the below sample. Using Text and External Fields (Bold) 

Subject:

 

Integration System : Integration Event Status

 

Body: 

 

Integration System is Integration Event Status

 

Line break

 

Integration Event URL is Integration Event

 

Line Break

Business Processes: How to exclude the Notification details link

How to exclude the Notification details link - Business Process

In business Processes, you know that you will be able to configure the custom notifications. Usually you will see the link in the notification that gets generated. There could be different reasons ( like security, don't need to give extra details) as why you don't want to show up the link to the process. 

Go to Edit Workflow Notification and check the check box as shown below. This helps in not showing the link details.

Business Process: Rescind vs Cancel

Rescind vs Cancel

Its very important to understand the difference between Rescind and Cancel with in Business Processes. At times you get confused as why you are not seeing Rescind option or Cancel option during or after completing the BP.

Rescind is like rolling back your BP.
- You will happen to see this 'Rescind' only when the process is in a status of "Successfully Completed"
- It completely reverses all changes made to Workday data.
- Can only be done by security groups with appropriate permission (Role: Business Process Administrator)

Cancel is like aborting the BP in the middle.
- You will happen to see this 'Cancel' only when the process is in status of "In Progress"
- It completely reverses all changes made to Workday data.
- Can be done by security groups with appropriate permission as well as worker who initiated the process.

Business Process: BP Step Types

Business Process Step Types

For better understanding on Business Process Step types, below shows the categorization of the same. 

User Input                     : Needs an input from the user (You see these typically in the inbox as tasks )

Approval                       : Needs approval from a specific security group (Manager, HR Partner, etc.)

Background Processing: These step types does not need any user intervention. Taken care by Workday.

Create Link to Initiate Business Process

Create Link to Initiate Business Process

In workday, you can use the task: Create Link to Initiate Business Process to create an URL.

For example, if you want to send the navigation of Change Job for a worker to your business user or some one, you can create the link and pass it on to them.

Remember that you need have the access to the said BP in-order to access the same.

Interview Questions and Concepts - Business Processes

Business Processes

Business Process
Workday-delivered processes. You cannot create new business processes, but you can configure them to meet your workflow requirements

The definition of tasks that need to be done for an event to occur, the order in which they must be completed, and who must do them.

Helps define and implement business processes to suit the way your company works. You choose the tasks that compose a business process and what order they must be completed

• What steps need to be taken
• When does this action happen
• Who initiates the process

Business Process Components
created using a combination of actions, approvals, approval chains, to dos, and checklists

Action
Can be a single task, or it can be a sub-process that triggers a list of multiple tasks

Approval
An approval of a task or event

To do
A reminder to complete a task, either within Workday or outside the system

Condition rules
Control whether a step will be activated

BP configuration options
Workday delivers pre-configured default business process definitions. Although you cannot create your own business process, you can edit existing processes and control access through configurable security. We can also copy a definition, and modify it to meet the needs of a particular organization, if needed

The Business Process Configuration Options report details all available actions for a business process and which approval actions and sub-processes are allowed. Details the save options, restrictions, prerequisites, and more

Business Process Type
Workday delivered events of a specific business process type can be automated using workflow (hire, terminate, expense report)

BP Instance
A business process that the initiator has started

Event
A transaction for a worker when a BP is invoked (hiring someone)

Business Process Configuration Options Report
A report that can be run for any business or for any sub process, and it will return all business processes in which the sub process can be used.

Condition Rules
"If" statements for a process, if this condition is met, then this step is met.

Advanced Routing
Excludes users from workflow routing
Identify alternate routing for those users excluded from transaction

Step Delays
Post pone a task from appearing in the inbox until a specified time frame has been met and will halt entire process depending on delay completion

Business Process Custom Notifications
A message about a business process event that is sent to recipients or security groups.

Approval Chain
Sequence of approvals that starts with an individual and then goes up the hierarchy of the security group

Consolidated Approval
Allows you to combine multiple steps into one approval task

BP Effective Dates
When you edit a business process it has an effective date, and you can view the definition as of a date. By default, the definition of a BP will use is dependent upon when the parent process was initiated

Business Process Templates
Configure help text and instructional text on:
- Component tasks of a guide editor (on-boarding)
- Tasks that are available for manager self-service (change job)

The Manage Business Process for Worker Task
Task that ensures business process inbox tasks are managed for workers who are terminating or transferring

"Find Events" Report
Report that shows events by business process and allows for filtering with facets

Delegation
Temporarily reassigns your tasks to another user, enabling that user to perform individual actions on your behalf.
- Note* Delegation does NOT work while using the Proxy features, you MUST log in as the user

"Rescind" Business Process vs "Cancel" Business Process
Rescind
- Use when process is in a status of "Successfully Complete"
- Can be done by security groups with appropriate permission
Cancel
- Use when process is in status of "In Progress"
- Can be done by security groups with appropriate permission as well as worker who initiated the process

"Correct" a Business Process
To change information entered during the business process. A correction can be done while the business process is still "In Progress" or after it is "Successfully Completed"

"IF" Condition Rule
If this is true (complete step)...if this is not true (skip step)

Business Process Event
Transaction that occurs within the organization such as hiring or terminator of an employee

Business Process Definition
A task to be completed, assigns who needs to complete or approve

Business Process Components
Action, approval, approval chain, to-do checklist, multiple events

Business Process Framework
Based upon security group, who can start the process, preform steps within, and approve, correct, cancel or reassign the task

How do you find a business process definition within Workday?
Search bp:

What are notifications?
Notifications are to set when an action needs attention from a security group
Can be sent in Workday or to an email address

All business processes are only considered successfully complete when all steps in the process are executed
False

What is the name of the report that provides parameters for configuring a business process?
Business Process Configuration Options

Report that will return BP that are used as sub-processes
Business Process Configurations Options

Navigation required to set a step as the completion step of a BP
On related action of a step > BP > Set as Completion

A sequence of approvals that starts with an individual the goes to that persons manager and on up he management chain until it gets to the top or until some exit condition is met
Approval Chain

If you want to do a sub process what step type will you use?
Action

A business process definition will NOT be inherited if the subordinate organization has its own version of the process(T/F)
True

You can edit a BP def with an effective date in the past(T/F)
False

Ability to configure individual workflow steps so that selected individuals are excluded from the workflow touting based on their involvement in the BP
Routing Restrictions

Navigation required to add a new custom notification to a business process
Navigate to business process name's related action > business process > add notification

To be able to select the related action icon for BP steps what mode does the business process definition need to be in?
View Mode

Consolidated approvals allows a user to approve or deny several previous steps as a SINGLE action (T/F)
True