Workflow permissions, group-only steps and the activity history
Workflow permissions in SimplyPrint split looking, doing, excusing and authoring into separate permissions, let you limit a step to one user group, and record what everyone did. This guide covers each permission, who can open a run, group-only steps, waiving, and the activity history and audit log.
On a team, the person who removes supports is rarely the person who decides supports must be removed. This article is part of the Workflows guide.
Table of contents
- The permissions
- Who can open a run
- Steps only one group can do
- Waiving needs its own permission
- The activity history on a run
- The account audit log
The permissions
You set these in Settings > Users & permissions, per user group, under Print Queue > Workflows:
Permission | What it allows |
|---|---|
See workflows in progress | Open the Workflows board and see where each print, project or order is in its workflow, including the task library's instructions |
Complete workflow tasks | Work the checklist: complete, skip, block and assign tasks, add notes, and move work to its next stage |
Waive required workflow steps | Let work move on without a required step, such as an inspection. Shown once "Complete workflow tasks" is on |
Manage workflows | Create and publish workflows, and set the rules that decide which one applies. Also needed for Settings > Workflows and for cancelling a run |
Manage the task library | Create, edit and archive the reusable tasks workflows are built from |
Completing tasks, managing workflows and managing the task library each include seeing workflows in progress.
Who can open a run
- The board needs See workflows in progress. It shows everyone's work. See the Workflows board.
- A run's own page checks the run itself, not a workflow permission. This is so the person a run is for, such as the student who asked for a print, can open the link in their "ready to collect" email from the School pickup workflow. Without Complete workflow tasks, they see the run with no buttons.
Steps only one group can do
A task can be written for one user group with Who can do it in the workflow editor.
- Only members of that group can tick it, undo it, count its pieces or skip it, and only they can be assigned it.
- People with Manage workflows always can, so a step never waits for a group with nobody on shift.
- Everyone else sees the step marked Only (group), without a tick.
- Blocking a step and adding notes stay open to anyone who can complete tasks.
Publishing refuses a task written for a group that isn't in your account.
Waiving needs its own permission
Skipping an optional step only needs Complete workflow tasks. Waiving a required one, such as an inspection, needs Waive required workflow steps, because the person who would rather not do a check shouldn't be the one who may excuse it. A waived step stays on the run's record as waived.
When the permission was introduced, groups that could both manage workflows and complete tasks were given it.
The activity history on a run
Each run keeps its own history under Activity: when it started, every stage it entered and left, every step done, reopened, counted, skipped, blocked or assigned, every note and stage action, and who did each one and when. It is shown on the run for anyone who can open it.
See: Working through a workflow: ticking tasks, notes, waiving, blocking and moving on
The account audit log
Every workflow change is also written to the account's audit log: workflows saved, published or archived, ready-made workflows added, rules saved or removed, shared tasks saved or archived, and on runs every start, move, completed or reopened task, counted piece, skip, block, assignment, note and cancellation. A refused action isn't logged, because it didn't happen.
The audit log is in Settings > Data & security > Audit log, on plans that include it (School, in a limited form, and Enterprise).
Related articles
Workflows
- Workflows: the stages and tasks work follows after it prints
- Building, editing and publishing a workflow
- Working through a workflow: ticking tasks, notes, waiving, blocking and moving on
- The Workflows board: see every print, item and order in its stage
- Ready-made workflows: Basic post-processing, School pickup, Item finishing and the order workflows
Shop
- Workflows in the Shop: order and item workflows, accepted pieces and moving on by itself
- Shop settings and permissions: import defaults, due dates, brands, production and access
Users and access
- User groups and permissions: what each one controls
- SAML single sign-on: user groups, group mapping, and teacher mapping
- Onboarding your school: getting students and teachers into SimplyPrint
Updated on: 06/11/2026
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