Moving from Habitude to Arbor Workflows: What You Need to Know

Arbor Workflows is now part of Arbor's School and MAT MIS Products. 

Below is everything you need to know about what's changing, how to navigate your new space, and how we are supporting you through the switch.

The switching journey may look different depending on your journey so far with Habitude and Arbor. This guide aims to cover what can be done but if you do require more help please do get in contact via Arbor Support Channels.

Key Changes to Access, Login, and Permissions

School accounts as well as MAT accounts

As withHabitude, you have a MAT Workflows account which enables you to build and edit workflows and turn them on/off for schools in the MAT. 

A big change is that in addition to this the schools in the MAT will have their own instances of Arbor Workflows. In here they can see the workflows that have been pushed down to them and they cans also build their own workflows for use just in their school. 

As your schools may well not have been building their own workflows in Habitude, you may want to agree with them which types of processes are to be defined and pushed down from the MAT and which you are happy for the schools to build and run themselves.

Unified Login via the MIS

You no longer access need a standalone URL or login to access your workflows. You are now able to access Arbor Workflows from within the MIS.

This short video walkthrough covers the steps listed below and examples hows to access Arbor Workflows via the School MIS:

• On School Sites, navigate to: School > Arbor Workflows

This short video walkthrough covers the steps listed below and examples hows to access Arbor Workflows via the MAT MIS:

• On MAT Sites, navigate to: Administration > Arbor Workflows > Dashboard

This means that to access workflows, a user must have an account on either the School or MAT Arbor MIS. 

From here, you have a few options to launch your space:

• Select 'Create new workflow' to start a build from scratch or go to the Workflow Index page in Arbor Workflows.

   

• Select a workflow from your list to reveal a slide-over pane where you can click 'Edit workflow' (taking you to the workflow builder) or 'Track workflow activity' (taking you to its live progress page).

   

• Select 'Launch MyThings' to view your personal task queue.

   

• What about external users? If you have external participants interacting with your workflows—such as parents, contractors, or other professional bodies—they will still interact via email communication and be invited to complete a task. They may be prompted to enter their email address to access their specific forms or tasks, but they will not need an MIS login to complete them. 

Users vs.  Roles

In the past, you managed users manually within Habitude via the "Users" section in your settings. This section will become invisible and it should now be considered an archive of historical users. You can no longer manually create users or define legacy roles (such as Super Admin, Admin, or Community) there.

Instead, user access is governed by Arbor Business Roles and Permissions. This access has been built in line with the Arbor Managed permissions which act initially as the default in your MIS account. An organisation can choose to manage these themselves which may mean that permissions for those organisations are not the same as reflected in the default. An overview of this is as follows:

• Permissions-Based Access: Access is tied directly to a staff member's existing role in your MIS instance (e.g., School Business Manager or Senior Management Team). Find out about default permissions here: School MIS and MAT MIS Business Roles and Arbor Workflow Permissions

• No More Manual User Setup: When a new staff member joins your school and is added to Arbor MIS, they are automatically available to be assigned as a decision-maker, form-filler, or follower in a workflow, provided their role grants them the right permissions.

• Role Syncing: If a staff member's details change (like an updated email address), you don’t need to change it twice. If you use their Arbor Business Role, Simply update it in the MIS and click 'Sync' within the Arbor Workflows area to pull all changes through instantly. If you use a Custom Role, this will need to be updated within the Arbor Workflows Settings > Roles area.

Arbor Workflows has its own Permission Set which is managed via your Arbor MIS.

By default, we use Arbor Business Roles in the MIS to provision a default set of Arbor Workflows permissions. All Users will see the 'Arbor Workflows' button in the MIS, but not all Users will be able to manage or create Workflows without the correct permission set. If you use bespoke permission sets in your MIS, you will need to review these to ensure the correct users have the correct permissions in Arbor Workflows. Please see further information in this article: School MIS and MAT MIS Business Roles and Arbor Workflow Permissions

Previously visibility was governed by the user level within Habitude (Super admin, Admin, Community) and then also level within workflow (Editor, manager Follower). This is now overridden by MIS permissions. 

This means a staff member who historically could not see a specific workflow or collection may now be able to view it if they hold a high-level administrative role within the core MIS. We highly recommend reviewing your MIS roles to ensure workflow access lines up with your security preferences.

This video summarises the difference between Arbor and Custom Roles:

How Do Workflows Behave Now?

As before, every workflow begins with a Trigger Form to capture initial information. From there, you can design your process using a combination of steps.

Task Steps

• Decisions (Approvals): These feature a strict Approve/Reject function. Decision-makers can add text comments when submitting their choice. If they select "Reject", the workflow can be explicitly configured to either stop entirely or rewind to a specific previous step. This step also features automated 'Updates' that can act as reminders or instant rejection notifications.

• Checklists: Useful for tracking multi-task operational items. This step includes 'Updates' that act as automated reminders or completion notifications.

• Forms: Inserted mid-workflow to request additional data fields from specific internal users. Includes 'Updates' to nudge users or confirm completion.

Automated Steps

One of the most powerful benefits of bringing this engine into the core ecosystem is that your automated steps can communicate directly with your actual MIS records without requiring manual data entry.

• Send Message: Automatically fires notifications out to parents, staff, or external stakeholders. It will do this via Arbor Comms where the recipients are users in the MIS. 

• Arbor Data (MIS Data Integration): Pushes data instantly back into your live MIS system. Depending on your tier, you can automate:

  • Student Records: Create a brand-new student record automatically after an admissions form is finished.

  • Staff Records: Generate a new staff profile seamlessly as part of an onboarding track.

  • Documentation: Automatically attach signed forms or uploaded files directly to a student’s "Documents" tab for SEN, Medical and Pastoral notes. 

  • Absence & Attendance: Log a staff absence in the MIS the moment a "Leave Request" workflow passes its final approval decision.

• Add Follower: Loops in relevant staff members as passive observers, allowing them to track a workflow's progress on their dashboard without needing to take manual action.

• Add a Delay: Pauses the workflow for a designated timeframe (e.g., waiting 3 days before firing a follow-up email step).

• Trigger Another Workflow: Chains separate processes together, meaning the completion of one workflow automatically kicks off the start of a brand-new one.

Understanding Your Tier Features

Your access to these steps, step limits, and advanced features depends on whether you are an individual School or a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), and which specific package tier you are on. You have access to Arbor Workflows you will have either upgraded, renewed or purchased the 2026 or later version of these tiers.

School Tiers

MAT Tiers

• Essentials Tier: Allows your central team to create central workflows (constrained by the features of your lowest school's tier), manage workflows via MAT MIS business roles, and view individual school workflows while accessing a central team template library.

• Plus Tier: Enables "Push Down" capabilities—meaning the central team can design a master workflow template once and deploy it to every school in your Trust instantly. Also includes custom roles, the asset library, central MIS updates and advanced filters/views across school and central templates.

• Advanced Tier: Our ultimate automation suite. Includes all Plus features, alongside the ability to archive and restore historical workflows, connect natively to cloud-based spreadsheets (Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel), update approved third-party software applications, and deploy approved third-party templates.

What Happens to my Habitude Workflows?

All of your existing Habitude workflows have been successfully migrated directly into your new Arbor site. However, to ensure a flawless experience, there are two quick actions required by your system administrators:

1. Review Your Email Settings: We highly recommend opening your migrated workflows and reviewing any "Send Email" steps to ensure the "From" sender address has a selection selected. This step has also been replaced with 'Send Message' which you may prefer to swap the step to to future proof the functionality.

2. Update Your Terminology: Take a quick look at the wording inside your custom forms or template emails. Any legacy text references to "Habitude" should be updated to "Arbor Workflows" to provide a consistent, clear brand experience for your parents, staff, and contractors.

3. Check your permissions on the Arbor MIS

4. Check who has workflow level access on the Publish tab.

5. Review how you will trigger legacy workflows and manage this with users. For example, workflows should be accessed from the MIS now rather then the external URL. This may require some clear communications to staff about the changes.

Where to Find Help and Training

The old Habitude Knowledge Base has been retired. All technical documentation, "how-to" guides, and step-by-step building references have been fully migrated to this help centre - with many more helpful and updated guides.

The New Arbor Workflows Help Centre

You can access our refreshed, comprehensive documentation library at any time via the "Help" icon directly inside your Arbor workspace, or by visiting the official online library.

Need immediate support? If you are an active Arbor MIS user, you can launch a live chat with our specialist support team or our trained AI support agent at any time. Just look for the speech bubble icon in the bottom-left corner of your school's Arbor site.

Foundation E-Learning Modules

All customers on an active Arbor MIS package automatically receive free access to 'Arbor Foundations: Arbor Workflows' e-learning module via the main Arbor Training Hub. This self-paced, digital lesson are perfect for onboarding new staff members or getting a quick refresher on how to structure trigger forms and build basic workflow paths.

Arbor HQ: Arbor Workflows

Arbor HQ has a dedicated area for Arbor Workflows where users share questions, ideas and tips. HQ also hosts online events such as webinars and 'Office Hours' which act as live Q&A, demonstration sessions. You can join HQ by following this information: Joining the Arbor HQ Community.

Within the 'Meet-ups and Events' area will be recordings to previous webinars and Office hours which can act as great training. 

Bespoke 1:1 Training

If your team wants to dive deeper into complex automation, master conditional logic, or needs hands-on help converting dense, multi-step paper processes into streamlined automated paths, you can book our Bespoke 1:1 Training Service. Find out more here: Arbor Workflows Bespoke Training

This premium service pairs your team directly with an expert Customer Education Specialist for a mandatory two-hour consultation and guided live-build session. Together, you will map out your school or Trust's specific administrative pain points and build a fully functional, production-ready workflow structure live in your actual site.