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Documentation Planning Workflow

Planning Workflow

How plans move from a blank draft to an approved, locked baseline — and how to manage multiple versions over time.

Version lifecycle

Every plan version progresses through a linear state machine. Roles are enforced at each transition:

DRAFT SUBMITTED
APPROVED or REJECTED
LOCKED
TransitionTriggered byRequired roleEffect
DRAFT → SUBMITTED Planner clicks Submit for approval planner or higher Version becomes read-only; approvers are notified
SUBMITTED → APPROVED Admin/Owner clicks Approve admin or owner Version status set APPROVED; can be locked
SUBMITTED → REJECTED Admin/Owner clicks Reject + adds comment admin or owner Version reverts to DRAFT; planner can revise
APPROVED → LOCKED Owner clicks Lock version owner only Version permanently frozen; used as baseline

Step-by-step: FY2026 Budget approval

Here is the full lifecycle for the example plan "FY2026 Annual Budget" with version v1:

  1. 1

    Planner loads data

    Imports fy2026_budget.xlsx, runs Recalculate. Version status: DRAFT.

    Plan: FY2026 Annual Budget  |  Version: v1  |  Status: DRAFT
    EBITDA (FY): 1,880,000  |  EBITDA margin: 36.9%
    NET_INCOME (FY): 1,300,000  |  NET margin: 25.5%
  2. 2

    Planner submits

    Clicks Submit for approval in the Workbench. Version status changes to SUBMITTED. A comment is added: "Q1 COGS revised down from 42% to 40% margin assumption."

  3. 3

    Admin rejects (first pass)

    Admin reviews and rejects with comment: "RND budget needs CFO sign-off. Increase to 110,000 per quarter." Status reverts to REJECTED → planner can re-enter edit mode.

  4. 4

    Planner revises & resubmits

    RND updated to 110,000/quarter (+10,000). OPEX rises by 40,000 FY; EBITDA decreases to 1,840,000 (36.1% margin). Status: SUBMITTED.

  5. 5

    Admin approves

    Admin clicks Approve. Version status: APPROVED. The approved snapshot is used as the official budget baseline.

  6. 6

    Owner locks

    Owner clicks Lock version. Status: LOCKED. Any future variances are measured against this locked version.

Cloning and snapshots

After v1 is locked you will often want to model a reforecast or adjust assumptions without touching the baseline. Clone version creates a new editable copy of any existing version.

# Version history after March reforecast
v1    FY2026 Annual Budget            LOCKED    baseline
v2    March Reforecast Q1 actuals   SUBMITTED   cloned from v1
v3    Downside Stress Test           DRAFT     cloned from v1
VersionREVENUE FYEBITDA FYEBITDA %Changed assumption
v1 (locked baseline) 5,100,000 1,840,000 36.1% —
v2 (March reforecast) 5,350,000 1,960,000 36.6% Q1 actuals loaded; Q2-Q4 uplifted +5%
v3 (downside stress) 4,335,000 1,100,000 25.4% REVENUE cut −15%; COGS fixed; OPEX flat

Use Version Comparison to diff any two versions row by row.

Comments and audit trail

Every state transition and user comment is logged to the Audit Trail. Examples from the FY2026 workflow above:

TimestampActorEventDetail
2026-01-10 09:14planner@acme.localImportImported 64 rows → v1
2026-01-10 09:18planner@acme.localRecalculatev1 recalculated OK (13 formulas)
2026-01-10 11:45planner@acme.localSubmit"Q1 COGS assumption revised to 40%"
2026-01-11 08:30admin@acme.localReject"RND needs CFO sign-off"
2026-01-12 14:10planner@acme.localSubmitRND updated to 110,000/qtr
2026-01-12 15:03admin@acme.localApprove—
2026-01-13 09:00owner@acme.localLockv1 locked as official FY2026 baseline