Skip to main content

What are workflow tags and how are they used in ANVL?

Workflow Tags help you organize and report on data across workflows—especially when similar questions appear in many different procedures.

Written by Jake Landgraf
Updated yesterday

This article is intended for workflow editors and administrators with permission to manage workflows.

Answer

Workflow tags are labels that help ANVL organize workflow data for reporting and analytics. They make it possible to group similar workflows, group similar questions across different workflows, and surface that data in reporting tools such as Power BI and other analytics views. ANVL supports configurable workflow building, reporting drilldown, and advanced/custom analytics, which is why tagging matters so much.

There are two levels of workflow tags:

  • Workflow template tags apply to the workflow as a whole

  • Question-level tags apply to individual questions

These two tag levels do different jobs:

  • the workflow template reportName identifies and labels the workflow in reporting

  • the question-level reportName identifies and labels the question response in reporting

A simple way to explain tags is:

  • hierarchy helps show where work happened

  • tags help show what is happening across workflows, sites, and programs

Steps

  1. Use workflow template tags when you want to control how the entire workflow is labeled and grouped in reporting.

  2. Apply workflow template tags to every workflow you expect to report on.

  3. Use consistent workflow template tags across similar workflows.

Common workflow template tags include:

  • reportName

  • workflowType

  • language tags such as Language and languageCode

  1. Use question-level tags when you want to analyze the same question or topic across multiple workflows.

  2. Apply the same question-level tag when the same question should roll up together in reporting.

  3. Use question-level tags consistently across sites and workflow templates.

This is especially useful when similar questions appear in many workflows, such as:

  • PPE checks

  • hazard identification

  • electrical safety checks

  • escalation-related questions

  1. Use the workflow template reportName to label the workflow in reporting.

  2. Use the question-level reportName to label each reportable question in reporting.

  3. Do not treat those two reportName tags as interchangeable. They support different levels of reporting structure.

  4. Review tags before publishing.

  5. Make sure the tags use valid JSON formatting.

  6. Test reporting after tag changes, especially if the workflow is already in use.

  7. Use tags to support:

  • aggregation across workflows

  • filtering in analytics

  • trend analysis across sites or programs

  • drilldown into workflow data and question-level responses

  1. Keep tag names consistent.

  2. Reuse existing tags for similar workflows and similar questions whenever possible.

  3. Avoid inventing slightly different tag values for the same concept, because that makes reporting harder to trust.

Important notes

  • If a workflow is expected to appear in reporting, apply the workflow-level reporting tags consistently.

  • If a question is expected to appear in question-level reporting, apply the correct question-level tag consistently.

  • Consistency matters more than complexity.

  • Mobilize may pre-populate some tags, but they should still be reviewed before publishing.

  • ANVL supports workflow-level reporting, question-level drilldown, advanced/custom analytics, and Power BI integration, which is why strong tagging practices are important.

Related Articles
What is a Program Lead in ANVL?
How do workflows support reporting and insights?
How do I manage workflow template tags?
How do I manage question-level tags?
How do I use the Power BI Workflow Drilldown Report?
Did this answer your question?