Before you begin
Workflows are very powerful, which means that although they can save you time, a bad workflow configuration can bring down the entire system. For this reason, we recommend that you rely on our workflow library and limit workflow creation to users with the necessary technical skills.
Plans: Enterprise only
Audience: Administrators
Workflows allow you to automate certain actions in your CMMS, such as sending a notification whenever a work order is closed. They are single-table actions, meaning that you can only change a value based on another value in the same table. For example, you can only change information in a work order based on another work order field; you wouldn’t be able to change it based on a field in an asset.
Each workflow contains the following elements:
- An activity, which is the action the workflow performs. In the example of sending a notification whenever a work order is closed, the activity would be sending the notification. If you need your workflow to perform more than one action, you can add multiple activities.
- A trigger, which is the situation in which the workflow runs. In the example of sending a notification whenever a work order is closed, the trigger would be closing a work order. Unlike activities, each workflow can only have one trigger.
More complex workflows might require additional activities that function as conditions and loops:
- Loops go through a list of records and perform the same action against all of them.
- Conditions allow you to set up different actions based on whether or not the condition is met.
For example, you could create a workflow that prevents work orders from being closed if they still have open tasks (i.e. tasks without completion dates). In this example, the loop would get the date completed for each task in a work order, and the condition would check those completion dates and specify what happens if one is missing (i.e. reopen the work order).
To learn more about workflows, see the following articles:
- Create a workflow
- Add a loop activity to a workflow
- Add a condition activity to a workflow
- Activate or deactivate a workflow
- Delete a workflow
- Workflow activities
- Workflow triggers
We’ve also put together a Workflow library with articles that show you how to set up some of the most common workflow configurations. These articles provide step-by-step instructions for how to configure these specific workflows.
Tip
If you're new to setting up workflows, you might want to start with a simpler one that doesn't contain multiple activities, such as Send notifications based on maintenance type and Send notifications based on priority. These examples contain one activity each, without any loops or conditions.