---
title: Creating and editing a workflow
description: Create a workflow or start from a template, place steps and arrows, choose approvers and conditions, then activate the circuit.
url: "https://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/workflows-create-and-edit/"
updated: "2026-11-05"
category: "Platform / Flows & approvals"
---

# Creating and editing a workflow

This article is for administrators who build approval circuits: creating a workflow or starting from a template, placing steps and arrows, choosing approvers, routing the request with conditions, then activating the workflow.

## Before you start

| Permission (role matrix) | What it allows | Default |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Settings — Approval settings | Access: open **Settings › Manage Employees › Workflows** and read the workflows | Administrator, Payroll Manager, HR Manager, Auditor |
| Settings — Create approval workflow | Execute: create a workflow, duplicate a workflow | Administrator |
| Settings — Edit workflow | Execute: add or remove steps and arrows, rename, activate, deactivate, reset, delete, allow comments | Administrator |
| Settings — Approvers / levels | Execute: configure a step (approvers, deadlines, notifications, messages) and move steps | Administrator |

Without a write permission, the screen stays read-only: the editing buttons do not appear.

## The workflow catalogue

1. Open **Settings › Manage Employees › Workflows**, **Workflows** tab.
2. Workflows are filed by category, collapsed at first; the number in brackets counts its workflows. **Search a category…** filters the list.
3. Click a category to expand it. Each workflow shows its name, its **Active** or **Inactive** state, the **ILLIZEO** badge if Illizeo supplies it, its description and its number of instances.
4. Click a workflow to open it in the editor, in its place in the list.

## Creating a workflow

1. Click **+ New workflow**.
2. To start from scratch, click **Create a blank workflow**, then choose the category. The workflow is created with a **Trigger** and an **End**, and opens in the editor.
3. To start from an Illizeo template, choose it under **OR CHOOSE A TEMPLATE**: it joins the list of its category with its original state, which you check before using it.

A blank workflow is created active and leads straight to an "Approved" end: deactivate it while you build it. **Duplicate**, in the list or in the editor, creates a copy named after the original followed by "(copy)", in the same state: if the original stays active, deactivate the copy, because a trigger starts only one workflow.

![The New workflow window: the Create a blank workflow card, then under OR CHOOSE A TEMPLATE the Illizeo templates filed by category with their number of steps, and the Cancel button](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/workflows-create-and-edit-01.en_.png?resize=720%2C765&quality=80&ssl=1)
New workflow: start from scratch or from an Illizeo template.

## The editor

At the top, the workflow name, its state and its commands:

- **Modify** renames a workflow you created;
- **Reset**, on an ILLIZEO workflow, restores the original steps, arrows and comment option; your changes are lost, the activation does not change;
- **Duplicate**, **Activate** or **Deactivate**, **Close**;
- **Delete**, for a workflow you created. Illizeo refuses the deletion while requests of this workflow are in progress.

Below the header, **Enable comments** opens the discussion thread on the requests of this workflow. Then come the toolbar and the diagram of the circuit.

### Adding and linking steps

1. In the **Add:** bar, click a step type: it is placed at the end of the circuit. If a step is selected, the bar becomes **Insert after:** and the new step is inserted after it.
2. You can also drag a step type onto the diagram. The step is only saved once linked: click **Arrow**, then the starting step and the target step (Esc cancels).
3. Click an arrow to view it, choose its **Output branch** or delete it.
4. Drag over an empty area to select several steps, then delete them together (Delete key).

Every change is saved straight away. If the resulting circuit is not valid (detached step, second trigger…), Illizeo refuses it, explains why and goes back to the previous diagram.

![The workflow editor: header with the name, state and Duplicate, Deactivate and Close buttons, Enable comments switch, Insert after bar with the step types and the Arrow button, circuit diagram with a step selected (here the Absence approved end) and its Edit, Delete panel](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/workflows-create-and-edit-02.en_.png?resize=800%2C500&quality=80&ssl=1)
The editor: toolbar, circuit diagram and panel of the selected step.

## Configuring an approval step

Click the step, then **Edit**:

- **Step name** and the **Notification** sent to the approver: **Email + In-app**, **Email**, **In-app** or **None**;
- **Approver type**: **Hierarchical manager (N+1)** (if they cannot decide, the request goes up the hierarchy), **Manager (N+2)**, **Role member**, **Group member**, **Named person**, **Employment relationship** (HR referent, matrix manager, second manager…), **Several approvers** (several kinds on the same step) or **Approvers chosen in the request** (signature campaigns);
- **Action if no response**, **Response time** and **Escalate N+1 (days)**: see [Global settings, deadlines and automatic actions](https://illizeo.com/en/centre-aide/workflows-global-settings/);
- the **Preview** shows who will be asked.

Click **Save**. If the same person appears at several steps, Illizeo warns you: several approvals should come from different people.

![The form of an approval step: Step name, Notification, Approver type with the Hierarchical manager (N+1), Manager (N+2), Role member, Group member, Named person and further choices, Action if no response, Response time and Escalate N+1 (days), then the preview and the Save and Cancel buttons](https://i0.wp.com/illizeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/workflows-create-and-edit-03.en_.png?resize=800%2C615&quality=80&ssl=1)
Configuring an approval step: who decides, and what happens without an answer.

## The other steps

- **Trigger**: only events emitted by a module are offered. On a workflow started by its module (payroll, documents, signatures…), the trigger can be read but not changed.
- **Condition**: choose the **Condition type** and, where relevant, the threshold; then name the arrows leaving it **YES** and **NO**. The most useful conditions: "Employee population (rules on record or role)", "Absence type is one of…", "Expense amount greater than" (one threshold per currency), "Amount greater than", "Position is one of…", "Country of the contract", "Contract type", "Sub-company of the contract".
- **Notification**: the **Recipient** (Employee concerned, Manager (N+1), N+2, HR Manager, All participants…), the **Channel** and the **Message**.
- **End**: the **Final status**, Approved or Rejected.
- **Action**: an automatic operation specific to the category. To keep a trace, use "Create an audit entry"; to inform someone, prefer the Notification step.

On an approval or notification step, **Messages** opens the **Notification messages**: one message per language, sent according to the recipient's language; an empty field keeps the default message. If artificial intelligence is available for your workspace, **Translate missing languages** suggests the translations. Click **Save messages**.

## Good to know

- Requests in progress keep the circuit they started with; your changes apply to new requests.
- Not every condition and action offered is carried out by Illizeo. A request that meets a condition Illizeo cannot decide, or an action it cannot carry out, stops at that step until an administrator unblocks it. Check your circuit on a first request.
- An approval step with no approver found (role without an active member, person who has left) puts the request on hold without approving it. When the person named at a step is erased from the workspace, the people who configure workflows receive a bell alert so they can designate someone else.
- Choose approvers who have the right to decide: "Approve a request" at the Execute level and the approval category of the module. Others do not receive the request.

## FAQ

### The step I dragged disappeared after reloading.

A step that is not linked is not saved. Link it to the circuit with **Arrow** before leaving the editor.

### The message "No module emits…: this workflow will never start" is shown.

The workflow's trigger is no longer emitted by any module. Choose a trigger from the list offered.

### *Similaire*