Outcomes
Know when to use workflows instead of manual checklists.
Understand triggers, conditions, branches, actions, approvals, and runs.
Prepare a safe first workflow in dry-run mode.
Examples
Use these patterns while learning this chapter.
Example workflow
Closed-won deal handoff
Sales marks a HubSpot or CRM deal as Closed Won and operations needs the work package ready within minutes.
Conditions
- Deal amount is greater than 5000
- Customer email exists
- Deal owner exists
Actions
- Create project from deal name
- Create kickoff task list
- Create draft invoice
- Send welcome email after approval
- Notify Slack sales-ops channel
Safety checks
- Invoice creation requires approval
- Email preview is reviewed before launch
- Slack failure goes to retry path
Try it: Use Event Explorer to pick a real closed-won deal, run Sandbox, then confirm it would create one project, tasks, invoice, and notification.
Example workflow
Project risk review
A project reaches 80 percent completion and leadership wants a risk summary plus a customer review meeting.
Conditions
- Progress is greater than or equal to 80
- Project status equals active
- Client contact exists
Actions
- Ask AI to summarize risks
- Email project manager
- Create client review meeting
- Post update to project group
Safety checks
- AI output is reviewed before client email
- Meeting invite includes only project participants
- No budget details are sent to members without permission
Try it: Preview with a project that has missing client contact and confirm it routes to the no path.
Step 1
Pick one repeatable process
Start with a process that has a clear trigger and the same follow-up steps every time.
What to do
- Choose a workflow like closed-won handoff, payment failure follow-up, SLA escalation, or new employee onboarding.
- Write the business rule in one sentence: "When X happens, do Y if Z is true."
Check before continuing
- The process has a clear owner.
- The expected outcome is measurable.
- The process does not require judgment at every step.
Step 2
Map the source event
Every workflow begins with an event from the internal event bus or a connector.
What to do
- Open Automation Studio.
- Choose a trigger event such as deal.closed_won, invoice.payment_failed, ticket.sla_breached, or employee.joined.
- Use Event Explorer when you want to build from a real recent event.
Check before continuing
- The selected event includes the fields you need.
- You know which user or team owns failures.
Step 3
Keep dry-run enabled
Dry-run lets you preview writes without changing records or sending external updates.
What to do
- Keep Dry-run mode on while building.
- Use Preview and Sandbox before activating.
- Review the planned actions and rendered values.
Check before continuing
- No emails, invoices, role changes, or external webhooks will execute until dry-run is disabled.
- High-risk workflows have approval enabled.
Pro tips
- Build the first workflow with one trigger, one condition, and one notification action.
- Use names that describe the business outcome, not the technical implementation.
- Keep a manual fallback for the first week after enabling a workflow.
Avoid these mistakes
- Do not automate a broken process before the team agrees on the desired behavior.
- Do not disable approvals for workflows that create invoices, assign roles, or send bulk emails.