A group workflow is built once by the group and shared with chosen worksites. It's published as numbered versions (v1, v2, v3…). Each publish moves the targeted worksites to the new version, but every worksite keeps its own small edits — its customisations — on top. A new publish never removes them.
WHERE TO FIND IT
Open Group Workflows in the group portal. There are six tabs:
Published — workflows worksites can use.
Unpublished — never published, or pulled back from every worksite.
Archived — archived workflows. Worksites no longer see them.
Workflow Settings — enable or disable workflows for worksites.
Group Documents — create and manage document slots.
Audit — a log of every change: who made it, when, and what changed.
EDIT A WORKFLOW
Open a workflow and edit it as usual. Your edits are a draft: worksites don't see them until you publish, and the list shows an Unpublished changes chip. In the meantime, worksites keep running the last published version.
PUBLISH A NEW VERSION
Click Publish on the workflow in the list, or Save and Publish in the editor.
Choose the worksites or clusters that should get it, then click Publish.
Review the preview, which shows exactly what this publish will change.
Click Confirm publish, or Back to change your selection.
What the preview shows:
The new version number and how many worksites receive it, for example Publish version 3 to 12 worksite(s).
How many actions were Added, Changed, Removed or Moved.
New sites — worksites getting this workflow for the first time.
Site customisations that will keep their local value — fields changed by both the worksite and the group. The worksite's value wins, and the worksite is told the group version has changed.
Customisations that will be archived — customisations on actions you deleted.
Required fields that are still empty — you can't publish until these are filled.
Documents are never shown in the preview. Each worksite manages its own missing documents. If nothing has changed since the last publish, the preview says so.
THE PUBLISH REPORT
After you confirm, Altra opens the Publish report and publishes in the background, one worksite at a time. The page refreshes by itself.
Publishing… — still running.
Published to all sites — done. Each worksite is listed with its version, and new worksites are marked.
N site(s) failed — some worksites didn't get the update. Click Retry failed sites; the other worksites aren't affected. A worksite is always fully on the old version or fully on the new one, never in between.
The report also lists any customisations this publish archived. In the list, a workflow with failures shows a red N site(s) failed chip linking to the report. Once everything succeeds, it becomes a grey report link.
THE WORKSITES PAGE
Click the N site(s) chip on a published workflow to see, for each worksite:
The version it's running.
Its status: Active, Unpublished (you stopped it there), Waiting for the next publish (targeted, but hasn't received it yet) or No longer targeted (removed from your selection, but still running its current version).
How many customisations it has made and how many workflows are running.
From here, you can Unpublish a worksite: no new workflows can start there, running ones finish normally, and its customisations are kept. Republish gives the workflow back with the latest version and its customisations restored.
Removing a worksite from your selection doesn't take the workflow away; use Unpublish for that. When you publish to a cluster, a worksite that joins later only gets the workflow at your next publish.
REVIEW AND RESET CUSTOMISATIONS
A workflow with local changes shows an N customisation(s) chip. Click it to open the Customisations report:
Each row shows the action, its type, the changed field and how many worksites changed it.
Email actions carry an auto-sent email mark. A change there reaches relatives, so review it carefully.
Click N site(s) on a row to see each worksite's value, who changed it, and when.
Export CSV downloads the report.
An assignee role that no longer exists shows as invalid role. The group value applies until the worksite fixes it.
To force a field back to the group value everywhere, click Reset in all N site(s) and type RESET to confirm. This deletes that field's customisations across every worksite and emails their managers. There's no button to reset a whole workflow; that's intentional.
DOCUMENT SLOTS
A document slot is a named place for a file each worksite provides, for example Site fire evacuation plan or Welcome pack. Manage slots in the Group Documents tab:
Click Create slot, give it a name (unique in your group), and optionally upload a default file.
Worksites that haven't uploaded their own file use the default. Without a default, a worksite must upload a file before it can start the workflow.
Each slot card shows a coverage bar: how many worksites are bound (have their own file), using the default, or missing a file. View sites shows who is missing one, and CSV downloads the list.
Edit renames the slot, or uploads, replaces or removes the default file. Renaming never breaks files worksites have already uploaded.
Archive hides the slot from all worksites, but only once no published workflow uses it. Remove it from the workflow and publish first.
If you remove a default file, worksites without their own file can no longer start workflows that use that slot, and their managers get an email.
ATTACHMENTS IN ACTIONS
In the editor, Text, Event and Document to fill actions have an Attachment block with three choices:
None — no attachment.
Fixed file — the same file for every worksite. A new upload replaces it everywhere.
Document slot — pick a slot, or create one on the spot. Each worksite then supplies its own file.
If worksites have already replaced a fixed file with their own, the editor shows a banner: N worksite(s) have overridden this fixed file. Click Convert to document slot and choose a slot. When you publish, each of those worksites keeps its file, now linked to that slot.
ARCHIVE OR DUPLICATE
Archive hides the workflow from every worksite, so nobody can start it. Running workflows finish normally and their history is kept. Find it under Archived. Only a workflow that was never published can be deleted.
Duplicate creates a new draft with the same structure. Targets, customisations and publish history are not copied.
AUDIT
The Audit tab lists every change in your group: publishes, edits, customisations, resets, slot changes and document uploads. Filter by workflow or search. Each entry shows who made the change, when, and the old and new values.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I can't archive a document slot. At least one published workflow still uses it, and the error lists which. Remove the slot from those workflows, publish, then archive it.
A new worksite joined my cluster but doesn't have the workflow. Worksites only join at the next publish. Open the workflow, click Publish and confirm; the preview shows the new worksite under New sites.
How do we turn on group workflows? Altra enables it for each group and converts existing group workflows first, so no local change is lost. Contact Altra support to plan the switch.
RELATED ARTICLES
Workflows: an introduction
Creating a Workflow
Starting, Completing and Closing Workflows
Group Workflows: for Worksite Managers
Giving a group user (HQ) a staff type