Workflow automation

A workflow rule does something automatically when something happens: when a deal reaches a stage, create the follow-up task; when a customer goes quiet, tell the account manager. Rules live under Workflow Automation in the sidebar.

Every rule has three parts:

1. 1A trigger: the event that starts it. A record type plus something that happens to it.
2. 2⟦Conditions⟧: which of those events actually count. Without conditions the rule fires on all of them.
3. 3⟦Actions (in order)⟧: what to do, run in sequence.

Conditions are not optional in practice. No conditions: this runs for every {{entity}} event, not just the ones you have in mind. This is how a helpful rule becomes an email storm: "notify me when an opportunity changes stage" with no condition notifies you about every stage change on every deal in the company, forever. Add the condition that says which ones you meant.

Rules run on real data and are not undoable. A rule that creates a task on every customer creates thousands of tasks, and there is no single button that takes them back. Test with a narrow condition first, widen once you have seen it behave.

Check that they are working. Rules fail quietly by nature: nobody notices an email that was never sent. The run history shows what fired and what failed, and it is worth looking at after creating a rule rather than assuming. See "A rule is not firing".

Folders, once there are a lot of them. A workspace that automates seriously ends up with dozens of rules, and search only helps somebody who already knows the name of the one they want. Move to folder… on a rule's menu puts it in a folder, and the list groups by folder as soon as anything is in one, with Not in a folder at the bottom.

A folder is a name on the rule rather than a thing you create first: it appears the moment something is put in it, and disappears when the last rule leaves. Type the same name on two rules and they are in the same folder; clear the name and the rule comes back out. One level, deliberately — nesting would be more to maintain than it is worth for finding the five rules about invoicing.