How do teams keep track of their workflows' pending tasks ?

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Take a guided tour of Collaboration Workflows and learn how to use this feature step-by-step.

My Workflow's daily monitoring board

My Workflows board enables business users to keep track of their assigned workflow steps and pending tasks from one place, including editing, reviewing, or validating product data. Go to the Workflows menu entry, then My Workflows.

The board provides real-time activity indicators to organize your daily PIM enrichment workload and prioritize the items to enrich or review. It includes the number of products' tasks to be completed, their level of priority, and the assignment.

If the workflow includes enrichment steps and at least one review step, the assignees can view the number of tasks rejected by the reviewer. These tasks will require refinement or correction, as the Action required tag suggests.

If a task's due date is three days or less, the step will be tagged as urgent with the number of products due soon. Steps are marked as late when products have not been completed on time. 

Master your Task List logic and efficiency

When you click on one of your assigned workflow steps in the My Workflows board, you will be taken to the Task List, in the Product Grid. 

The oldest or most urgent tasks appear at the top of the list. The attributes-filled progress bar shows how many attributes are assigned to you and if they already have data. If your administrator has set up an allotted time for the step, the due date shows the task's indicative deadline. An urgent tag appears if the task is due in 3 days or less, and a late tag will appear if it is past due.

The attributes progress bar displays the total number of attributes assigned to you, compared to the ones already filled with data.

• “0/4” means you're assigned to enrich 4 attributes, and none of them have data.
• “2/4” means that among those 4, 2 attributes already have data, and 2 attributes don't.
• “4/4” means that all already have values, to be reviewed.

If the workflow includes at least one review step, the Action Required tag at the top of the task list helps you identify the rejected product tasks that require your attention.

To monitor and manage your assigned tasks efficiently, use the following tools available in your Task List:

• Refine Filters: Use the left panel to narrow down your Task List and focus on specific tasks.

• Manage Columns: Customize your Task List view by configuring which attributes and task details are visible.

• Bulk Actions: Select multiple products to perform collective attribute updates or completions, change families, or manage products' categories.

How can I tailor my Task List view?

The task list features the same flexible configuration as the product grid, allowing you to customize your view for maximum efficiency.

By clicking the Selection icon on the right of the columns, you can add any attribute or property as a column and reorder them via drag-and-drop to prioritize key data. For better navigation, use the three-dot menu on any column to pin it for horizontal scrolling or to sort tasks by specific values. You can also duplicate columns to simultaneously view and compare different scopes, such as various channels or locales, directly within the Task List.

How can I perform Bulk actions?

For more productivity, and when product tasks are already completed, you can move products through the workflow in batches. Hover over a product, then ☑️ check the box next to it to select either:

• Bulk Complete Done Tasks: Move multiple products to the next step instantly once all required Attributes are filled.
• Bulk Approve Tasks: Perfect for Gen-AI or translated content. Review a sample of the products, then send the rest through the Review step in one go.
• Perform any other Bulk Actions: Ideal for editing, adding, or removing attribute values at once, assigning families or categories, updating a status or other boolean attribute, associating products, etc.

✍️ Note: To use Bulk Complete Done Tasks or Bulk Approve Tasks, every assigned Attribute for the selected products must be 100% populated. The system will skip any products with empty assigned fields. These workflow-specific bulk actions remove the tasks from the list, and send them to the next step or complete the workflow if they are part of the final step.

How can I process my task queue faster?

To enable the Done & Next task management logic on the product page in the workflow context, follow these steps:

1. Select your products: Hover over the desired products and ☑️ check the selection box for each. You can also select all product tasks currently in view.
2. Launch the sequence: Click the Sequential Edit button.

This mode allows you to move seamlessly through your product list, automatically transitioning to the next item once your updates are saved, and marked as complete.

Alternatively, you can handle tasks one by one. Selecting a specific product from your Task List will direct you to its individual product page. This allows you to focus on and complete a single task independently of the broader workflow, clicking “Done” (or “Approve” or "Reject).

How can I work offline?

• Quick Export: Select your tasks and use the Quick Export button to enrich data in your favorite spreadsheet tool.

How can I seamlessly navigate my various assigned Workflows?

To navigate your tasks, use the workflow switcher in the top left of the panel. This allows you to move between your different assigned workflow steps and manage your task lists seamlessly. Each Workflow Step can have its own Task List view, based on filters and tailored columns configuration.

While you can view the entire workflow sequence, including the number of pending product tasks for every step, you can only access and interact with the steps specifically assigned to your user.

Contributor role: Perform a task on the Product Page

When you click a product in the Task List, you open its product page with focus automatically set on the attributes assigned to you. From there, you can complete one single task and mark it as Done.

To make it easier to work through multiple product tasks, you can enable Sequential Edit directly from the Task List. This activates the Done & Next behavior on the product page.

With Sequential Edit enabled, your filters remain active and, once you mark a task as done, you are automatically taken to the next product in your list.

You can rely on the Task details panel on the left for additional guidance. This is particularly useful for reminding you of a workflow step description or instruction and checking the attributes to be verified for each Channel/Locale pair.

You can change the filter from Display all my assigned attributes to any other filter if needed. The task details panel offers more context with the step description and attributes filled for each channel/locale pair. Once satisfied with your copy, Save the product record and view the attribute count and progress bar evolve. 

If the assigned task(s) are carried by a Product Model and/or its Variants, the Task tag helps identify the level(s) at which the task needs to be completed. This tag also makes it easier to navigate between the different levels of the same Product Model.

If you manage content across several channels or locales and seek to streamline multilingual and multichannel edits, the Compare & Edit feature, accessible via the three-dot menu in the product edit form, significantly accelerates your workflow. This interface allows you to view multiple values for the same attribute side-by-side in distinct columns. You can efficiently compare data, copy and paste values between contexts, and refine localized content simultaneously, ensuring consistency across your entire product catalog.

If you need to come back to your Task list, click on the Return to task list button.

Tasks can be approved or rejected if the workflow includes review steps. Rejected tasks are sent back to a previous step and marked with an Action Required tag. The attributes that need revision will be flagged with an alert icon with comments explaining the reason for rejection. This helps the contributor acknowledge the requested change and revise the edit before resubmitting it for review.

Reviewer role: Approve or Reject a task on the product page

When you click a product in the Task List, you open its product page with focus automatically set on the attributes assigned to you. From there, you can handle one single task and Approve or Reject it.

To make it easier to work through multiple product tasks, you can enable Sequential Edit directly from the Task List. This activates the Approve & Next or Reject & Next behavior on the product page.

With Sequential Edit enabled, your filters remain active and, once you mark a task as done, you are automatically taken to the next product in your list.

To make a quick fix on your own, edit the attributes and Approve it. Be sure that you have the correct user group's permissions to do so.

If you are not satisfied with the copy, you can send the product task back using the Reject button. Add a comment to explain your reasons and guide the contributor in correcting the product data. You can make as many back-and-forths as needed until you are 100% satisfied with the product data. Please note that when you reject a task, you must select which previous step to send it back to.

During contributor and reviewer exchanges, only the most recent comment is visible. Additionally, product data is continuously saved and updated in the product record. To view previous versions of an attribute's values, check the History tab.

Understanding the Workflow Log Tab

On the Product page, the Workflow log tab tracks the last 30 days of activities for entities part of workflows (products, product models, and variants). This view provides a detailed timeline of events to help you monitor the progress of your products as tasks flow through workflows and easily troubleshoot potential issues. It also indicates the author or source of the workflow event, and its other details such as worfklow, step, and step position.

This log dashboard records three main categories of workflow details:

• Workflow transitions log any product that started, completed, or re-entered a workflow.
• Task statuses track when a task is started, completed, approved, or rejected. Edge case, it also notes when a task is skipped because it is irrelevant (no assigned attribute in this step based on its step settings, mostly family).
• Rule execution indicates when a workflow-based rule is successfully executed, generates an error, is not found, or does not apply to the current context.

Discover the workflows widget in the dashboard

The widget displays essential details regarding your assigned workflow steps and associated pending tasks, categorized by their priority level.

Under the Tasks to enrich section, you can view the quantity of pending tasks, categorized as Late, Urgent, On track, or No due date. You can promptly handle your tasks by clicking on Go to workflows.

In the To get started section, we recommend up to two workflow steps that may require your immediate attention. By clicking on one of the boxes, which serves as a shortcut, you can efficiently manage your task list for the selected workflow.

Receive email notifications

Weekly email notification recap 

Every Monday, all assignees receive an email summarizing their assigned pending tasks for active workflows. This weekly recap includes the total number of tasks to complete or review, along with their level of priority. It's a helpful way to start the week and stay on top of all pending tasks.

Daily rejection email reminder

Each day, all assignees with rejected tasks receive an email notification highlighting the actions required for ongoing workflows. This daily reminder summarizes the total number of tasks requiring revision, helping prioritize the most critical pending items.

Customizing Notifications with the REST API and Event Platform

For teams looking for more advanced and real-time notification options, Akeneo PIM offers powerful tools to create fully tailored notification workflows. If you've got a specific requirement, please refer to your PIM administrator who can leverage the REST API and the Event Platform.

How to get real-time insights from the Workflows Dashboard overview?

The Workflows Dashboard empowers efficient oversight and management of ongoing enrichment processes. It enables any PIM owner, team leader, or manager to effortlessly monitor company or team workflows from one centralized location with just a glance. 

Go to the Workflows menu entry, then Dashboard.

The dashboard provides comprehensive insights on all active workflows, including details such as which workflows business users are engaged in, the number of pending product tasks, late or urgent alerts, and the individual assignees. These real-time activity indicators help quickly identify any risk of slowdown or bottleneck in the product data enrichment process.

Clicking on any of the workflows gives access to additional details that can help identify or anticipate an excessive workload, make informed decisions to accelerate your time to market, and continuously improve the efficiency of your Collaboration Workflow.

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For further refinement, you have the option to filter by any assigned user, allowing you to focus on their specific scope and emphasize their corresponding assigned steps.