The time based workflow takes action after a specified period of time elapses.
With the release of CRM.me 3.0.5 comes a preloaded Time-Based Workflow titled, "Contact follow up Task". This will create a task for the Contact owner to follow up with the contact if there has been no activity for 1 month. The"Contact follow up Task" workflow will be used as an example throughout this article.
Module
Select the main module that the workflow will be triggered from.
Example Workflow
Our goal is to create a Task for a Contact who has had no activity for a period of one month. The action will be a task. The cause for task creation is based on a Contact record. For this Time-Based workflow we will use Contacts/Leads module.
Time Triggers
Select the field and value from the module upon which the time trigger will be based on.
Example Workflow
The time based event which will trigger this workflow is one month of inactivity for a contact.
Triggers
From the list on the left, drag or double click any additional fields you wish to trigger the workflow on. The module fields will appear at the top for selection. Related modules can be expanded to select a trigger field from a related module.
Depending on the field type you select, you have the option to select the different rules:
- Equals – The selected field value is equal to the entered value.
- Does Not Equal – The selected field value is not equal to the entered value.
- Is Null – The value in the selected field is Null.
- Is Not Null – The value in the selected field is not Null.
- Starts With – The first character or number in the selected field.
- Ends With – The last character or number in the selected field.
- Contains – The selected field contains the entered value.
- Becomes – The selected field value changes to the one specified.
- Was – The selected field value changes from the one specified.
- Changes – A new value is entered in the selected field
- Does not Change – The value in the selected field does not change.
- Is Empty – No data is in the selected field.
- Is Not Empty – There is data in the selected field.
Modify Structure: Click this button to set the operators for the filters listed. By default, the report will filter to meet all the requirements of the filters listed (AND):
This can be modified for more advanced filtering, so you can change the requirements to meet filter #1 AND either filter #2 or filter #3:
To remove a trigger, hover over the top right hand side of the filter and click the little garbage can icon.
Example Workflow
This Time-Based workflow only has a time related trigger. Additional triggers can be added. For example, Status equals "Customer". Adding a trigger which is not time based will make the triggers more strict as more criteria must be met to trigger a workflow
Actions
Populate this section if you want to update or create a new record when the workflow is triggered. You can create any number of actions. Actions are categorized into the following:
- Update – Change the record that triggers the workflow with the specified value(s).
- Update Related – Update a related record in a different module of the record that triggers the workflow .
- Create – Create a new record that will be associated to the record that triggers the workflow.
- Create Related – Create a new related record. A related record is a record that will be associated to a related record of the record that triggers the workflow (IE: create a Task on all related Contacts of an Account record).
Example Workflow
The action in this workflow is to create a Task when a Contact record has not had activity for a period of one month. Select Create > Task
- Name: Follow up with contact
- Owner: User who owns the trigger record.
- Status: New (this is the status of the task, not the Contact)
- Read/Write Privileges: Same as triggered record. Since the owner of the task is set to the owner of the record, the read and write privileges are set to the same user.
Messages
Populate this section if you want to send out an email message when the workflow is triggered.
- Template – Select the template of the email you would like to send out.
- Send After – Select how soon the system will send out the selected template after the workflow is triggered.
- Send From – Configure who the template will appear as come from.
- Default System From Name/Address – This is the name and address specified in the admin Email Configuration-->Email SMTP Configuration.
- Custom From Name/Address – Type in a custom from name and email address.
- Triggered Record Owner's From Name/Address – The name and email address of the owner of the triggered record.
- Add Recipient – Configure who will receive the email. You can set whether to send using To, Bcc, or Cc.
- A person associated with the triggered record
- A person associated with a related record
- All users in a specific role
- User who triggered the process
- A specific user
- A specific email address
- All users in a specific group
- Related contacts or leads
Example Workflow
There are no email messages used in the workflow.
General
Name – Enter the workflow name.
Description – Enter a short description of the workflow.
Trigger On – Tell the system when to trigger the workflow
- New Records Only – will only trigger if the trigger conditions are met at the moment the new record is created.
- Existing Records Only – will only trigger if the trigger conditions are met following a modification to an existing record.
- Both New and Existing Records – will trigger if the trigger conditions are met regardless of whether the record is new or an existing record that has been modified.
Is Active – Tell the system if the workflow is ON or OFF.
Example Workflow
Finally we have the Name, Description,Trigger On and Activity setting.
FAQs:
Q. Will new workflows I create trigger for records I already have in the system?
A. Workflow triggers only apply to record created or modified since the workflow was created or set to active. If you create a new workflow it will not retrospectively trigger for records that are already in the system.
Related: Workflow Overview│Workflow Email Templates│On Save Workflow
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