How workflows work

Every workflow is one sentence: when this happens, do that. You build it from a trigger, one or more actions, and the filters that decide which events count.

Triggers: when this happens

A trigger is the event that starts a workflow, such as:

• A form submission is created
• An invoice changes status, for example from Pending to Overdue
• A tag is added to a worker
• A new row appears in a spreadsheet, or an email arrives with an attachment

A workflow has exactly one trigger. Assignar Pay triggers fire within seconds of the event. Assignar Ops triggers, and most triggers from other systems, check for new activity every few minutes. Each trigger's description says which kind it is.

Filters: only the events you care about

Most triggers can be narrowed before the workflow runs: one client or project, one form, a minimum amount, or a particular status change. For example, Invoice Status Changed with To Status set to Paid fires only when an invoice is paid.

An event the filters leave out never starts a run, so it costs nothing and does not clutter your run history. See Connect apps for the filters each Assignar trigger offers.

Actions: do that

An action is a step the workflow performs after the trigger. Actions find records, create them (a cost code, a purchase order, a spreadsheet row), send something (an email, a text, a chat message) or update something (an invoice's status, a worker's tags).

Each action can use data from the trigger and from every step before it. A workflow started by a form submission can put the form's answers, who submitted it and when into an email.

Between actions you can add branches (over $10,000, notify the director; otherwise just log it), loops (for each line item, add a row), delays (wait a day, then send the reminder) and approval steps that pause until a person decides.

Runs: what happened

Once you publish a workflow it runs by itself. Every time it fires is one run, and each run is recorded: what set it off, what every step received and produced, and whether it worked. Runs are also what your Connect balance counts; see Usage and billing.

Assignar Pay steps act with the permissions of one person, shown as Runs as in the Connect toolbar. A step that person could not do in Assignar Pay fails in the workflow too. See Share workflows.

An example

Every submitted Site Safety Checklist should reach the safety manager's inbox:

1. Trigger: Assignar Pay Form Submission Created, filtered to the Site Safety Checklist form.
2. Action: an email step, with the submission's answers placed in the message.

Build your first workflow walks through building it.