Apptio Planning Release 5.6
Release Date: August 4-17 2025
Upgrade to PostgreSQL
We're upgrading all Main environments to PostgreSQL as part of the 5.6 release. This upgrade delivers improved performance, scalability, and long-term platform support.
Your environment will be upgraded on your designated upgrade day during Week 1 (Aug 4–10) or Week 2 (Aug 11–17) of the release window. Upgrades are processed alphabetically, with any remaining environments completed in Week 2.
No action is required from your team. We recommend validating your core workflows post-upgrade to ensure everything continues to function as expected.
What's Changing:
- Backend Migration: Apptio Planning is moving from the current database to PostgreSQL.
- Improved Performance: Users can expect faster load times and more responsive interactions, especially in large plans.
- Better Scalability: The new infrastructure will support larger data volumes and growing planning needs.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your Customer Success Manager.
Note: Federal customers will be upgraded between August-December.
Updated Line Items View
The Updated Line Items View enhances visibility into recent changes across versions, making it easier for users to review, track, and manage updates efficiently throughout the planning process.
A new toggle on the Expenses page allows users to switch between viewing all line items or filtered to show only line items updated since the last submission or snapshot.
The Action column indicates the type of change made: New, Updated, or Deleted.
Notes:
- Imported line items will be marked as new, with timestamp and username of the user who imported the data.
- Generated financials will reflect the last updated values of the source item (e.g. labor, labor activity, contracts or assets) that triggered the change.
- Deleted or updated line items due to Update Reference Data and Update Actuals will not be included.
- Plans created from a baseline will inherit the Last Updated values from the original plan.
This feature makes it faster and easier to spot what's changed, who changed it, and when-helping teams collaborate and validate plan updates with confidence.
Multi-Level Approval Workflows
The new Multi-level Approval Workflow offers a flexible, asynchronous approach to managing approvals, designed to support more complex planning processes and review chains. This enhancement allows departments to define unique approval paths and introduces new permission levels to improve control and collaboration during planning.
Key Capabilities:
- Configurable Multi-Level Routing
- Set up custom approval chains for each Department.
- Define up to 10 sequential approval levels.
- Each level can include specific users responsible for review and approval.
- Asynchronous Department Approvals
- Departments move independently through their defined approval chains.
- Enables parallel planning and approvals across teams.
- New "Edit " Permission Level
- Allows users to make changes to plans without being able to submit them for approval.
- Useful for collaborators or contributors who shouldn't trigger approval workflow changes.
- "Edit" permission is available for both Multi-Level Approval and Hierarchical Approval workflows.
Comparison: Hierarchical vs. Multi-Level Approval Workflows
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Follows the Department hierarchy, progressing level by level through parent Departments.
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Custom-defined per Department, with sequential approvals flowing in order (L1 → L2 → L3, etc.).
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Multiple Owners can be assigned per Department or Department Group, with only one approval required to advance.
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Supports up to 10 approval levels per Department. Multiple approvers can be assigned per level, with only one required to approve.
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Supports Group Department submissions, where submitting a Group automatically submits and approves all child Departments together.
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Requires synchronous planning and submission (child Departments must submit before the parent Group can advance).
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Supports asynchronous planning and review.
Departments can submit and advance independently through the approval chain.
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Rejecting sends the plan back one level in the hierarchy. The Owner at each level must continue rejecting to push it down to the leaf Department.
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Rejecting a Department sends it back to the beginning of the workflow, requiring the Department to re-submit to Level 1.
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Supported by leaving the Owner unassigned at a level, rolling approvals up to the next higher-level Owner.
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• Owner: Can edit, submit and approve or return plans. Receives email notifications when plans are approved or returned.
• Edit & Submit – Can edit and submit plans.
• Edit – Can edit plans but cannot submit.
• View Only – Can view plans but cannot edit or submit.
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• Owner: Can edit and submit plans. Receives email notifications when plans are approved or returned.
• Edit & Submit – Can edit and submit plans.
• Edit – Can edit plans but cannot submit.
• View Only – Can view plans but cannot edit or submit.
Approval Level permission:
• Approval Level: Set an approval level (1–10) to define the user's position in the approval workflow.
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See Approval Workflows for more details and configuration instructions.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue in the New View where entering text in the Description field on the Labor tab resulted in an error and the value was not saved.
- Enhanced full screen mode on the New Expenses page to make better use of the browser's full vertical height.
- Fixed an issue where automatic publishing from Automated Data Management (ADM) to TBM Studio failed due to fiscal period misalignment.
- Resolved an issue where users were unable to add values to fields marked as mandatory for data entry.
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Ngoc Le
Principal Product Manager
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