Systems, methods, and computer readable media for designing and executing workflows can be equipped with a means for manipulation of workflow steps by grouping them, such as by placing them in containers. A container can be associated with a database transaction. In some embodiments, a container property can be set to indicate whether the container must participate, may participate, or may not participate in a database transaction. Further, containers may be placed in parent containers, and optionally inherit the transaction property of the parent.