On-Call Scheduling subflows

Subflows in On-Call Scheduling enable you to build and configure on-call escalation and notification.

Using subflows for on-call escalation

A subflow consists of a sequence of reusable actions, data inputs, and outputs. In contrast to flows, subflows don't have a trigger but instead run when called from a flow, from another subflow, or from a script. The subflows enables you to easily configure channels, and notification and response messages. The following subflows are available for On-call:

On-Call: Assign
On-Call: Assign and Notify
On-Call: Assign by Acknowledgment
On-Call: Assign by Acknowledgement per Rota
On-Call: Assign by Acknowledgement Voice
On-Call: Check Assignment Response
On-Call: Conference Call Escalation
On-Call: Escalations by Email
On-Call: Escalation By Email per Rota
On-Call: Time-off approval

Using Workflow Studio, you can build and configure various components such as subflow inputs, outputs, actions, and flow variables such as escalation levels. You can use the contextual comments in the flow designer to help you configure the subflows. For more information on building and configuring subflows in Workflow Studio, see Workflow Studio.

Subflows activation and uses

Starting from the Zurich release, for the zBoot or new users, On-Call Scheduling uses subflows. Workflows are no longer supported.

For those upgrading from previous releases, existing workflows continue to be supported in the Zurich release. Each workflow has a corresponding subflow with similar name and functionality.

To activate the subflows, you must navigate to All > On-Call Scheduling > Administration > Trigger Rules and select the subflow for a trigger rule to activate and use the subflow. For more information, see Create an escalation trigger rule.

Note: To avoid configuration mismatches, any change you make to a trigger rule's subflow configuration must be also updated in the corresponding Notify Voice/SMS configuration for the preferred channel.

For using subflows in Service Operations Workspace (SOW), SOW version must be 8.0 or later.

Subflows installed with On-Call Scheduling
Subflows are installed with On-Call Scheduling to support building on-call escalation notification configurable flows.

Parent Topic:Reference for on-call scheduling

title	On-Call Scheduling subflows
description	Subflows in On-Call Scheduling enable you to build and configure on-call escalation and notification.
locale	en-US
canonical_url	https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/it-service-management/on-call-scheduling/on-call-scheduling-subflows-overview.html
release	australia
product	On-Call Scheduling
classification	on-call-scheduling
topic_type	reference
last_updated	2026-10-08
reading_time_minutes	1
breadcrumb	Reference for on-call schedulingOn-Call SchedulingIT Service Management