Creating workflows: an introduction

You use workflows to automate business processes such as onboarding and offboarding employees, enforcing best practices for security, processing tickets, interacting with vendor APIs, and automating the updating of records. 

Workflows comprise a series of linked chain actions.  The begin block starts the workflow based on the criteria that you configure. For example, an employee's status changes to offboarding and this sets off an offboarding workflow. Or, a new field is added, or date or time values are changed. When the workflow begins, the automation blocks in the workflow are triggered and the processes that you configured in the automation blocks occur. For example, notifications are sent by email, fields are updated in records, or calls are made to external APIs.

Creating a workflow

Illustration: Mock-up of a workflow

Each workflow comprises:

• A Begin block
• One or more automation blocks
• An End block

To create a workflow, complete the following steps:

1. Click Configuration > Workflows and select an object. A list of the workflows that were created is displayed.
2. Click ADD +.
3. The Begin and End blocks are automatically added to the workflow canvas.
4. Click Blocks. In this scenario, the Update and Notify automation blocks are added to the workflow.
5. Drag and drop the Update and the Notify blocks onto the canvas.
6. Connect the blocks.

Workflow actions

1. Create a workflow that checks when an asset is 5 days from its end-of-life date.
2. Set the status to Retired.
3. Notify the asset's assignee and the IT team that the asset is nearing its end of life.

Configuring the begin block

In the begin block, you define the rules that trigger the workflow.

1. To edit the Begin block, click Edit  .
2. Set the Actions to Schedule.
3. Click ADD RULE.
4. Select the End of Life Date field, select Days backward as the operator, and enter 5  for the number of days.
5. Click SAVE.

Information
To check the fields that will be targeted by the workflow, always click SHOW IN LIST VIEW in the Begin block. The number of records that are processed and the time that the records are processed can affect performance. Schedule workflows to run at off-peak periods. 

Creating the automation blocks

In this scenario, the Notify and Update blocks are added as automation blocks. 

Configuring the Update block

1. To edit the Update block, click Edit .
2. Click Add field.
3. Select Status and set the value to Retired.
4. Click SAVE.

Configuring the Notify block

Information page

1. To edit the Notify block, click Edit  .
2. Enter a meaningful name for the Notify block.
3. Select Workstream, Email, or both.

Recipients

You can choose one or more of the following options:

• Select a role from the Role list. For example, you can send the notification to users with an IT role.
• Enter the names of one or more users.
• Select a field in the record such as the Assigned to field.
• Enter the email addresses of the recipients.

Message

You can click to add metadata fields to the email subject line and the body text.

1. Enter the subject of the email.
2. Enter the body text.
3. Click SAVE.

Save, validate, and activate

1. Connect the blocks together.
2. Validate the workflow before you launch it. If warnings or errors are detected, review your workflow, save it, and validate it again.
3. To check the progress of the workflow, click Run Logs.

Related articles

Types of automation blocks

Workflow blocks

Configuring workflows

Creating workflows