Workflow automation: what it is and what a rule actually does

Workflow automation is a set of rules that makes the next step in a process happen on its own when a record changes. In a small business, one rule looks like this: when a quote is marked Accepted, create the job. Nobody has to remember, retype the customer details or send a message to the office. The change on the record is the trigger, and the follow-on work is the action.

What a rule actually does

Every automated rule follows the same chain: a trigger, an optional condition, and an action. The trigger is an event, such as a record being created or its status changing. The condition checks whether this case qualifies, for example an order above a set value, or a customer with a particular tag. The action is what the software then does: create a record, send an email, move a related record, or call another system.

The rule does not decide anything the business has not already decided. It applies a policy you wrote down once, every time the event happens. That is why the approach suits steady, repeatable processes and fits badly with judgment calls, which should stay with a person.

Which handoffs to automate first

The handoffs worth automating first are the ones staff forget. They tend to be quiet, small and between two people or two stages:

• A quote is accepted, so someone has to create the job.
• Every purchase order raised from a job is received, so the job can move to the next status.
• A job reaches Ready for Production, so a works order is needed.
• An invoice is sent, so it should be exported to the accounting package.
• A quote has sat at Sent for several days, so the customer needs a follow-up.

Nothing about these steps is difficult. The failure is that they depend on memory, and memory fails on the busiest days. A rule that watches the status and acts removes that dependency. Start with one handoff that has caused a real delay, prove it works, then add the next.

> Tip: Add a short delay > A short delay on the trigger gives a person time to undo an accidental status change before the rule runs. It is a cheap safeguard on rules that create records.

What a rule should not try to do

Automation moves work along a known path. It does not repair a process that is unclear. If two people disagree about when a job counts as ready, a rule will enforce one version of the confusion faster. Agree the status definitions first, then write the rule.

Keep a log. A rule that fires silently is hard to trust, so you want a record of each run, showing what triggered it and what it did. Where a rule cannot decide, the sensible design pauses for a person to approve, reject or edit.

Workflow automation in Zigaflow

In Zigaflow, an automation is a rule attached to a module such as quotations, jobs, purchase orders or invoices. It can fire on a new record or a status change, test conditions such as tags, order value or the status of related purchase orders, and then perform actions like creating a job from an accepted quote. See Zigaflow Automations for the full list of triggers, conditions and actions.