A structured process, built from Stages and Actions, that a record moves through to represent its status in a business process, such as a sales pipeline.

is the set of Stages

Stage

A step within a Workflow that shows a record's current status, displayed as a coloured badge on the record.

a Record

Record

An individual entry within a Collection, like a row in a database table, representing one item or entity such as a customer or an order.

moves through from start to finish. Turn one on for a Collection

Collection

A container for records in Kinabase, similar to a table in a spreadsheet or database, used to organise one type of data such as Projects or Contacts.

and every record gains a current stage - shown as a coloured badge - so you can see at a glance where each one has got to.

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

Automation

A rule that automatically runs one or more Steps, such as sending a notification or updating a record, when its Trigger conditions are met.

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

Role

A named set of Permissions you assign to colleagues to control what they can see and do in Kinabase; every organisation also has a built-in Everyone role.

, workflows are a natural fit for approvals and hand-offs. Only a manager can click Approve; only the finance team can click Mark as Paid.

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 badge on the record and as a column in your tables and lists.

On a record's Details tab, the available actions appear as buttons beside the stage badge. Clicking one opens a short confirmation - and, where you have configured it, prompts for the extra fields or signatures that action requires. A record's full stage history is kept in its sidebar.

In a collection's list, you can select Group by → Stage to cluster records under their current stage.

Kinabase does not have a board or kanban view. Grouping by stage gives you a stage-by-stage breakdown within the Table and Side by side views. See Views.

3. Learn more

Everything above is configured per collection. These guides take you further:

Configuring workflows

Enable a workflow on a collection, define its stages and actions, and set per-stage permissions.

Automations

Use the Stage Change trigger to run follow-up actions automatically whenever a record changes stage.

Forms

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.

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