Workflows
Define the stages a record moves through
A Workflow
Think of a sales pipeline: a deal starts at Lead, then moves to Qualified, Proposal Sent, and finally Won or Lost. Or a job lifecycle: Booked → In Progress → Awaiting Sign-off → Complete. The workflow is that ordered set of stages; each record sits at exactly one of them at a time.
Records move between stages using Actions - labelled buttons such as Approve or Send to Production that you configure on the workflow. An action can do more than change the badge: it can ask for extra information, require a signature, and set off an Automation
1. When to use a workflow
A workflow suits any collection whose records follow a repeatable process with distinct phases.
Use one when records have a lifecycle
If a record is naturally "in progress" - an order being fulfilled, an application being reviewed, a candidate being interviewed - the phases of that process are your stages.
Use one to control who does what
Because each action can be limited to specific Roles
Use one to keep data complete
An action can require fields to be filled in before a record advances - a reason for rejection, a delivery date, a signature - so no record moves forward with information missing.
If a task is a one-off, sits outside the record's main lifecycle, or spans several collections, a Form is often a better fit than a stage. See Forms.
2. How stages appear to your team
Once a workflow is enabled, the current stage shows as a coloured chip on the record and as a column in your tables and lists.
On a record's Details tab, the stage moves you are permitted to use appear beside the current stage chip. Permission to change stage is separate from permission to edit the record's fields:
- If only one move is permitted, it appears as its own labelled button.
- If several moves are permitted, they sit under a Next stage button with no default, so you choose the next stage rather than accepting one. Each choice shows a small coloured square that matches the target stage, including moves that take a record back or close it.
- If the two permitted moves read as a pair such as Approve and Reject, they appear as two buttons.
Clicking a move opens a short confirmation - and, where you have configured it, prompts for the extra fields or signatures that action requires. If a stage change cannot run yet, it stays listed with a lock and the reason. A record's full stage history is kept in the Info panel, under History. Automations you run from the record sit under the Actions button and in the Info panel, not among the stage moves.
In a collection's list, you can select Group by → Stage to cluster records under their current stage.
Grouping by stage gives you a stage-by-stage breakdown within the Table and Side by side displays. To see each stage as a column, use a Kanban view instead - see Using Kanban Views.
3. Learn more
Everything above is configured per collection. These guides take you further:
Enable a workflow on a collection, define its stages and actions, and set per-stage permissions.
Use the Stage Change trigger to run follow-up actions automatically whenever a record changes stage.
Collect structured input for one-off or cross-collection actions that sit outside a record's stages.
Need more help? Ask your System admin, or contact our support team via Help & Support.