Share Workflows Among Departments

Workflow sharing lets one department own a workflow while other departments use it. You keep a single original, edit it in one place, and every department you share it with gets a read-only copy that stays in step with the original. It suits accounts with several locations or teams that should all run the same process without each keeping its own version.

Who can share

Admins of the department the workflow belongs to, and master admins. Sharing works for recurring workflows and step libraries, and not for a workflow that is a draft under version control. If you don't see Share with Departments in a workflow's menu, sharing is not enabled on your account.

Share a workflow

1. Open Workflows and find the workflow.
2. Click the three-dot menu at the right of its row and choose Share with Departments.
3. Tick the departments that should receive it. The list shows the departments you administer, other than the one the workflow lives in.
4. Click Save.

The copies are created in the background and appear in each department's workflow list within a few moments. On the original's row a share icon shows how many departments it is shared with; click it to change the sharing later.

What the other departments get

• The workflow appears in their Workflows list with a Shared From badge naming the department it comes from.
• They can run it, schedule it and report on it like any other workflow. Runs belong to their department, with their own people, due dates and history.
• They cannot edit it. The editing options are absent from its menu, the editor refuses with Shared copies cannot be modified, and the workflow page says that all changes must be made to the original.

Keeping copies in sync

Every time the original or one of its steps is saved, the copies are updated automatically. Titles, step content, subtasks, data fields, assignments, conditional logic, due-date rules, reminders, run links and automations all carry across. There is nothing to publish or push; edit the original and the copies follow. Runs already in progress in the other departments are snapshots and are not changed, exactly as with edits to any workflow.

Stop sharing

Open Share with Departments again, untick the department, and click Save. The copy in that department is removed. Any runs of it still in progress in that department are deleted too; the dialog warns you how many before you save, so check for work in flight first.

Shared workflow or shared department?

Before sharing existed, the way to give several departments one process was a shared department that everyone joined. That still works, and it is the right choice when the people, not just the workflow, should be pooled. Share a workflow instead when each department should run the process with its own people and its own runs. See Organize Users into Departments.

Video walkthrough

This video shows a workflow being shared from a central department to three location departments, and what one of those departments sees.