Templates in Cutover allow you to work more efficiently. With template workflow, you now have the ability to select a user to approve or reject templates that have been created after a set review period. With Cutover, you can ensure compliance and be notified of expired recovery plans. In this article, we'll cover the template workflow process in its entirety, as well as how to edit and manage templates with this workflow enabled.

Templates allow you to create runbooks based on settings you've previously defined, making your process more efficient. To learn more about creating runbook templates, refer to our Create a Template help center article.

To enable the approval flow, select the Single Review option in the Approval Flow section when you create a runbook type. This option sets up a review cycle requiring approval from an appointed user (not you) every 12 months.

If you leave this section blank, your template will not have an approval workflow.

Template workflow allows you to select a user to approve or reject templates that have been created after a set review period. While this workflow can be applied to any runbook type, the Recovery Plan runbook type includes the template workflow by default.

To make changes to a template in the template workflow and to submit templates for approval, you will need to have the Runbook Admin role type. You also have the ability to make other users an admin of the template too.

Once you've created a template, you can submit it for approval. Approval requirements are determined by the Approval Flow configured for the template's Runbook Type.

An Approval Flow can contain one or more approval stages, with each stage requiring a specified number of reviewers. Reviewers are assigned when the approval request is created.

3. Assign reviewers for each approval stage. If you have selected multi-stage approvals a message will display if you have not added the correct number of reviewers.

4. Click Submit request.

A multi-stage approval would look like this:

Once submitted:

A banner at the bottom of the template indicates that approval is pending.

Reviewers will receive an email notification with the subject: Your review has been requested for [Template Name]
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An indicator will also appear above the Templates option in the main navigation, allowing reviewers to quickly identify templates awaiting review.

Approval Flows can contain one or more approval stages.

For example:

Each stage can require one or more reviewers.

Reviewers assigned to a later stage cannot submit a review until the preceding stage has been approved.

The template details panel displays:

This allows template administrators and reviewers to track approval progress throughout the process.

To review a template, click Open template in Cutover from the email notification, or open the template directly from the Templates page.

Each reviewer can submit a review only once for a given approval request.

When the required number of reviewers approve a stage:

If any reviewer rejects the template:

To submit the template for approval again, create a new template version and request approval.

The template administrator can cancel an approval request while it remains open.

When an approval request is cancelled:

Once a template has been approved or rejected, the approval status appears next to the template name.

The template creator is also notified by email when the template is approved or rejected.

Note: Templates cannot be merged into an approved or rejected template version. For more information, see Template Actions.

A previously approved template can be submitted for review again.

You may want to request re-approval if you would like another review of the current approved version without making any changes to the template itself.

To request re-approval:

Note: This option is only available when template approvals are enabled for the Runbook Type.

Approved templates remain valid for the approval period configured in the Approval Flow.

As a template approaches its approval expiry date, a banner is displayed indicating that re-approval is required.

Once the approval period expires, the template must be approved again before it can continue to meet the approval requirements defined for its Runbook Type.

If an administrator changes the approval period configured for an Approval Flow, expiry dates for existing approved templates are automatically recalculated.

All approval activity is recorded and available for review, including:

This provides a complete history of the template approval lifecycle for auditing and compliance purposes.

When a template with template workflow is approaching expiration, you will be notified of the upcoming expiration in order to review the template. Email notifications are sent to runbook admins 90, 60, 30, and 7 days before expiration.

Once a template has expired, email notifications are sent to runbook admins on the day of expiry, as well as 7, 14, and 30 days past expiration.

Templates with a status of Approved or Approved (pending re-review) are checked for upcoming expirations, and runbook administrators are notified as needed. Templates with a status of Pending or Rejected are not checked for expiration, as they are considered out of policy due to their status.

The default review cycle for templates is 12 months and begins the moment a template has been approved. For example, if a template was approved on January 3, 2025, it will be up for review on January 3, 2026.

To add this review cycle to other runbook types outside of the Recovery Plan, you will need to have the Workspace Manager role type. Click the Settings icon > Runbook Types.

Next, follow the steps below:

When creating and managing templates, email notifications will be sent during the following circumstances:

Once a template has been through the approval process, you are able to view more information about the template via the Template Details menu.

To view the Template Details settings, click the "i" icon on the right-hand side of the template.

In the below options, you are able to view the approval settings, and other details.

The Display settings include the following options:

The runbook type is displayed but this cannot be edited.

Show team/ user names in list

When a task is assigned to a team or a user, an avatar is displayed. This setting enables the full assigned team or user name to be displayed on the task list for easier readability.

Substreams inherit parent color

When a sub stream is created, it adopts a random color selection. When this setting is enabled, it colors any tasks that sit within the sub stream to be the same colour as the parent stream.

Show task description on start

This setting displays any task description within the runbook in a modal when the task is started. This is to ensure the user has all the information they need when beginning their task. If this setting is not enabled, the user will have to check the description field towards the bottom of the task edit panel.

Lock template copies to folder (Available for templates only)

When a runbook is created from a template, you can choose which folder the runbook should reside in. With this setting enabled, when a copy of the template is taken, the runbook by default will sit within the same folder as the template, which means in this scenario, you cannot choose where the runbook will reside.

Set as Master Template

When ticked in the Display settings section, a draft template can be used to create app-specific templates directly from the Workspace Data Sources view. Once a template is selected as a Master template, its title is displayed in bold in the Templates list. For further information about using your master template with Data Sources, please see our article here.

When a new version of a template is created, the previous version becomes invalid. This means that you will no longer be able to edit a previous version of a template, and it can only be viewed in read mode. Though that is the case, it may be helpful to view previous versions of a template for reference purposes.

You may want to create a new version of a template in the following scenarios:

You are able to view the version history of a template at any time by clicking the cog icon next to the template title > View version history.

The Template Version History modal will appear, as illustrated below:

Click on a previous template version to view it in read-only mode. You can return to the current version of the template or create a new template version by clicking the options available in the banner at the bottom of the screen:

All users of templates will need to create a new version of a template if edits need to be made after the template has already been approved or rejected. This is because approved and rejected templates cannot be edited once they have been approved or rejected, no matter if the template has been self-approved or approved through template workflow.

To create a new template version, click the cog icon next to the template title > Create new template version. A new template version will be created immediately after, deprecating the current template to a previous version.

When viewing a template’s version history, you are also able to view the template’s approval state as follows:

Pending: An approval decision has not been made. Therefore, the template approval is pending.

See our other articles here:

Create a template - no workflow

Create a runbook