Workiva Support Center

Process files enable you to automate a workflow by assigning tasks and requesting approvals, all in one place. In this article, you'll learn how to create a process and add actions. 

Note: You will need the Editor workspace role in order to create a process.

Note: Workiva Calendars, Calendar-related features (such as using business days in processes), process templates, process monitoring charts and insights, and the process copy summary card are currently only available in some of our Financial Reporting and Financial Services solutions.

Create a process

Before assigning your tasks, you’ll need to create a process file.

Note: While multiple collaborators can edit a process, only one user at a time can make edits. If multiple users are editing a process at once, some updates might not be saved.

To create a new process:

1. In the Workiva platform, click Create. From the menu, click Process and select Process.

2. In the process settings, under the General tab:

   • Enter the Process name.
   • Select the Start order:
     • All at once starts all actions as soon as you start your process
     • One at a time waits for the first action in the process to finish before starting the next one
     • Manual allows you to manually start each action once you start your process
   • Choose how you want to close your process (closed processes can be reopened if needed). This setting can be changed at any time while a process is still running.
     • Select Automatically to automatically close the process once all actions are completed or canceled.
     • Select Manually to keep the process open and editable until a process owner manually closes the process.
   • Edit the process file Permissions to control who owns or who can edit or view the process.

   

3. In the process settings, under the Calendar tab:

   • Add existing calendars (ex: a calendar of business holidays) to see their events in the process’s calendar. This makes it easier to track task due dates against relevant calendar events.
   • If you typically set your task due dates relative to a specific schedule (ex: you have a task that needs to be completed by the 5th business day of a two-week cycle), configure business days to make it easier to update those due dates if the schedule changes or if you need to reuse this process again in the future.
   • Set the First business day and Last business day.
   • Set the typical working days.
   • Add any exceptions using the Add exception button or by toggling the dates on the calendar to the right. For example, if your typical working days are from Monday to Friday, but your business has a day off on a Friday, add that date as an exception.
   • Review the calendar to the right to make sure your configurations look correct. Unshaded dates indicate business days, while shaded dates indicate days off. The circled numbers indicate the n-th business day of your schedule.

   

4. If you are going to add certification actions to your process, make sure to review the certification settings under the Certifications tab.
5. Click Save. Now you can start building your process.

Tip: You may be able to use process templates for faster building! Click Explore templates, select the appropriate template for your needs, and click Apply template to quickly add pre-built actions. You can then edit the actions from there.

Add an action or group

After creating your process, you can add your first action from the Add action button in the toolbar. There are four types of actions:

• Tasks notify users of an assignment to complete
• Content requests are tasks attached to a specific section of a file, automatically granting the selected user permission to add their content. Learn more about adding content requests to processes.
• Certifications are tasks specifically for sending out letters to be signed. Learn more about adding certification actions to processes.
• Bulk certifications are for sending out copies of a single letter to multiple people at once. A separate certification action for each assignee will be added to the process.

After adding an action, fill out the fields in the Action details right panel. Each action must include the following information:

• Title: The name of the action
• Assigned to: The assignee that needs to complete the task

You can also add:

• Due date (optional): This is when the assignee needs to complete the task by. If business days have been configured in the process settings, you can also set the due date by entering in the number of the business day (ex: you can set the due date to the 10th business day of the business’s schedule).
• Assignee reminders: You can use the system default, choose to not send reminders at all, or customize the reminders according to your personal needs. See Send reminders in Processes for more details.
• Approval by (optional): The approver who will approve the assignee’s content or return it for further rework
• Approval due (optional): This is when the approver needs to approve the task by. If business days have been configured in the process settings, you can also set the approval due date by entering in the number of the business day (ex: you can set the approval due date to the 5th business day of the business’s schedule).
• Approver reminders: If you add an approver, you can customize the approver reminders. You can use the system default, choose to not send reminders at all, or customize the reminders according to your personal needs. See Send reminders in Processes for more details.
• File (optional for a Task): The file where content is needed
• Section (optional for a Task): The specific section in the file where content is needed
• Instructions (optional): Any additional information needed to complete the task
• Tags (optional): Identifying information about the action using a category and a value (ex: Priority: Low)

You can also add Groups from the Add button to control the start order of the actions within the group:

• Enter the Title of the group.
• Select the Start order:
  • All at once starts all actions in the group as soon as the group starts
  • One at a time starts actions in the group one at a time as soon as the group starts
  • Manual allows you to manually start each action in the group once the group starts

For example, if you have a process whose actions start all at once by default, but you have a set of actions that you want to start manually, you can add those actions to a group and set the group’s start order to Manual.

Create a process via file

You can also create a process by uploading a file (CSV, TSV, TXT, XLS, or XLSX) containing the actions’ details:

1. In the Workiva platform, click Create. From the menu, click Process and select Process from file.

2. Upload a file (CSV, TSV, TXT, XLS, or XLSX) containing your process actions’ details. You can click Download template, fill the following columns out with the appropriate values for each process action, and then upload that file.

   • Type (required): This column only accepts the values "Task", "Content Request", or "Certification".
   • Title (required): The title of the process action
   • Assigned to (required): The assignee's name or email
   • Due date: The action's due date for the assignee in the format YYYYMMDD (Ex: For March 21st, 2026, enter in "20260321")
   • Approval by: The approver's name or email
   • Approval due date: The action's approval due date for the approver in the format YYYYMMDD (Ex: For March 21st, 2026, enter in "20260321")
   • File (required for content requests): The name of the Workiva file where the action needs to be completed
   • Section (required for content requests): The name of the section in the Workiva file where the action needs to be completed
   • Instructions: Any additional information needed to complete the action

   A file following the template looks like this:

3. If using your own file, your file may have different column names than the ones found in the template. For example, your file may use "Name" for action names, while the template uses "Title". Select the row in your file that contains the column names, and click Confirm selection and continue. If your file has no column names, click The file has no column names.
4. Review the column matching. For example, if your file uses "Name" for action names, that "Name" column will be matched to our "Title" column. This means that the values under "Name" will be imported as values under "Title" in the Workiva process file in order to match our system’s requirements and reduce errors. After reviewing the column matching, click Confirm matching and continue.
   
5. Review the suggested changes by AI to clean up the data in your file, and click Continue.
6. Review the updated file and any errors that were found.
7. Click Finish. Then click Create process to begin creating a process from the information in the file.

Once your process is created, make sure that your actions are set up correctly and that the process settings are correct before starting the process.

Move an action or group

To change the order of your actions or groups, click the three-dots menu next to an action or group, and use the Move up or Move down actions. You can also move an action to a group using the Move to group action.

To move multiple actions and/or groups all at once, select one or more actions and/or groups, and use the Move dropdown.

Duplicate an action or group

To duplicate actions or groups, click the three-dots menu next to the action or group, and select Duplicate action or Duplicate group, respectively. The duplicate action or group will be placed directly below the original action or group.

Bulk edit actions

You can edit various fields for multiple actions at once. Select one or more actions and/or groups of actions to edit, click the Edit actions dropdown, and select the field you want to edit.

Learn more about bulk editing actions in a process.

If your process has certification actions, learn more about bulk editing certification actions in a process.

Delete an action or group

To delete an action or group from the process, click the three-dots menu next to the action or group, and select Delete action or Delete group, respectively.

To delete multiple actions and/or groups all at once, select one or more actions and/or groups, and click Delete.

Review your process before starting the process

To ensure that your process runs smoothly, we recommend that you do the following before starting the process:

• Review your process settings. Once you start your process, you won't be able to change the following settings: the Start order, your Business days configuration (you can only change the Last business day), and the certifications Automatic approval setting.
• Check your process's health by clicking Check for issues in the left-hand panel. This will raise issues, such as tasks that are missing required information or tasks with due dates that have already passed, to help you more quickly resolve them.
  
• Verify that all actions and their details are correct by exporting all process actions as a CSV file.

Start your process

After building your process, click Start process in the toolbar. Starting a process will start your actions according to your process’s start order, and each assignee will receive an email with a link to view their task.

Note: Only a process owner can start the process (this process owner will become the process manager). Furthermore, if any process actions contain assigned files, the process owner must have owner permissions to those files in order to start the process.

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