Kaizen 221 - Workflow & Actions Reports APIs
But as their automated ecosystem has grown to nearly 100 workflow rules, a new challenge has emerged for the system administrators: Are these workflows actually doing what they were built to do? Are these automations actually working day-to-day?
A workflow can be perfectly configured yet have no impact if it never runs. A webhook could be sending data to a dead endpoint, or a critical email notification might go silent without anyone noticing.
While the CRM UI allows them to click into any single workflow to see its execution details or check the status of a specific webhook, this data is trapped in dozens of individual screens. To answer strategic questions like "What's the overall health of our automation?" or "Where should we focus our optimization efforts?", they would need to manually open, check, and compile data from over a hundred different places.
This is where the Reporting APIs become indispensable. They allow Zylker to aggregate all this scattered UI data into their central dashboard, which supports proactive governance at scale.
STEP 1: Find workflows with heavy or complex actions
Using Get Actions Count in Workflow Rules
During their initial audit, Zylker noticed something interesting: within the same module, some workflows had just one or two actions, while others had ten or more bundled together. While this inconsistency wasn't necessarily wrong, after years without a cleanup they wanted to review which workflows had become particularly complex and decide whether they needed updating or splitting.
To identify such rules systematically, they call:
GET {api-domain}/crm/v8/settings/automation/workflow_rules/actions/actions_count?ids={id1, id2, id3, ..}
This API returns a detailed count of how many actions each rule contains. Using the response from API, the admins can choose to work on the Workflow Rules by complexity. In the UI, this requires inspecting workflows one by one. But using this API, up to 100 Workflows can be inspected in a single API call. The entire system can be analyzed in a matter of seconds!
Here is what the response looks like:
|
{ "workflow_rules": [ { "id": "4876876000016390024", "conditions": [ { "sequence_number": 1, "instant_actions": { "actions_count": [ { "type": "field_updates", "value": 1 }, { "type": "add_tags", "value": 1 }, { "type": "email_notifications", "value": 1 }, { "type": "webhooks", "value": 1 } ] }, "scheduled_actions": [ { "actions_count": [ { "type": "tasks", "value": 1 } ] } ], "id": "4876876000016390025" } ] }, { "id": "4876876000011208001", "conditions": [ { "sequence_number": 1, "instant_actions": { "actions_count": [ { "type": "assign_owner", "value": 1 } ] }, "scheduled_actions": null, "id": "4876876000011208002" }, { "sequence_number": 2, "instant_actions": { "actions_count": [ { "type": "assign_owner", "value": 1 } ] }, "scheduled_actions": null, "id": "4876876000011208004" }, { "sequence_number": 3, "instant_actions": { "actions_count": [ { "type": "assign_owner", "value": 1 } ] }, "scheduled_actions": null, "id": "4876876000011208006" } ] } // ...other workflow rules omitted for brevity ] } |
The response is a granular breakdown, not just a simple total. For each workflow rule (id), you see every condition (sequence_number). Within each condition, the actions_count array under instant_actions and scheduled_actions lists the type of each action (email_notifications, webhooks, tasks, etc.) and the count (value) of that specific action type in that section.
In simple terms, the API tells us: For every workflow, for every condition, how many actions does it perform, and what kind are they?
STEP 2: Diagnose execution health: Is it working or just configured?
Using get Workflow Rule usage report API
Identifying complex workflows is important, but Zylker’s admins also need to figure out if they are are actually working. This is a crucial part of automation governance.
A workflow might be executing regularly, but an email notification configured inside it may bounce every time. A webhook may silently fail due to a server issue. These operational issues are difficult to detect by simply knowing whether a workflow has executed.
In the CRM UI, admins can click View Usage for a workflow. But this still exposes information one rule at a time and without aggregation across rules. When you operate nearly a hundred workflows, this method does not scale.
To understand action-level outcomes inside a specific workflow, Zylker uses:
GET {api-domain}/crm/v8/settings/automation/workflow_rules/{workflow_rule_ID}/actions/usage?executed_from={from_date}&executed_till={to_date}
This API returns rich statistics, including:
-
how many times the workflow executed
-
how many times each action inside it succeeded or failed
-
delivery metrics for emails (open, sent, delivered, bounced, clicked)
-
scheduled vs. instant action performance
-
which conditions executed successfully
Here is a sample response:
|
{ "workflow_rules": [ { "trigger_count": 3, // Total times this workflow was triggered "name": "High Value Lead Rule", // Workflow name "id": "4876876000013248001", // Workflow ID
"conditions": [ // Usage details grouped per condition { "instant_actions": { "actions": [ //Instant actions execution details { "queue_count": 0, //Asynchronous actions pending for execution in the queue "related_details": { //Email delivery metrics for bulk email_notifications actions "bulk_mail": false, "unopened": 0, "sent_percentage": 100, "opened": 1, "delivered": 1, "unsent": 0, "bounced": 0, "clicked": 0, "sent": 1 }, "name": "High revenue Lead added", //Action name "success_count": 1, // Number of successful executions "failure_count": 0, // No failures for this action "id": "4876876000016390103", // Action ID "type": "email_notifications", // Action type "associated_time": "2025-10-16T16:19:58+05:30" // When this action was added to the workflow }, ...... //omitted for brevity
] },
"scheduled_actions": [ // Scheduled actions usage metrics { "id": "4876876000016390118", // ID of the scheduled action block "actions": [ { "queue_count": 0, //Asynchronous actions pending for execution in the queue "related_details": { //Email delivery metrics for bulk email_notifications actions "bulk_mail": false, "unopened": 0, "sent_percentage": 100, "opened": 1, "delivered": 1, "unsent": 0, "bounced": 0, "clicked": 0, "sent": 1 }, "name": "High revenue Lead added", "success_count": 1, // Number of successful executions "failure_count": 1, // Number of failures "id": "4876876000016390103", "type": "email_notifications", "associated_time": "2025-10-16T16:19:58+05:30" } ] } ],
"usage_count": 2, // The number of times this condition matched "id": "4876876000013248002" // Condition ID },
// more condition blocks omitted for brevity ],
"reset_time": "2025-10-16T16:23:04+05:30" //When usage metrics were last reset } ] }
|
This single API call provides what would take hours of manual UI investigation, i.e., a complete performance audit. By scripting this for their key workflows, Zylker transforms workflow management from a time-consuming manual task to an easy, automated process.
STEP 3: Monitor system-wide integration health
The workflow usage report gave Zylker deep insight into individual workflows. But they still have unanswered questions about their external integrations.
Zylker relies on webhooks to push deal data to their project management tool, sync contacts to their marketing platform, and notify their support system. A single failing webhook can break an entire business process, and these failures often happen silently.
The CRM UI provides detailed views of each webhook's activity. However, identifying patterns across all integrations, like silent failures or volume anomalies, requires manually consolidating data from multiple screens. For teams with many integrations, this consolidation becomes time-consuming to perform regularly.
Zylker solves this by using the Webhooks Actions Usage Report API to get time-series data for all integrations at once, followed by the Get Action Failures API for diagnostics.
3.1 Track volume trends and spot anomalies using Webhooks Actions Usage Report API
They call the usage report API grouped by date and resource to see daily call volumes:
GET {api-domain}/crm/v8/settings/automation/webhooks/actions/usage_reports?group_by=date,resource&type=webhooks&from_date={date}
Sample Response:
|
{ "data_usage": [ { "date": "2025-12-09", "resource": { "name": "Premium Lead Alert", "id": "4876876000016390771" }, "count": 4, "type": "webhooks" }, { "date": "2025-12-09", "resource": { "name": "Deal to Project Sync", "id": "4876876000017550012" }, "count": 4, "type": "webhooks" }, { "date": "2025-12-09", "resource": { "name": "Contact to Marketing Platform", "id": "4876876000017550018" }, "count": 8, "type": "webhooks" }, { "date": "2025-12-08", "resource": { "name": "Deal to Project Sync", "id": "4876876000017550012" }, "count": 8, "type": "webhooks" }, // ...omitted for brevity ... { "date": "2025-12-07", "resource": { "name": "Deal to Project Sync", "id": "4876876000017550012" }, "count": 1, // Anomaly: very low number "type": "webhooks" }, // ... remaining entries omitted for brevity ... ], "info": { "max_limit": 2500, "per_page": 200, "count": 12, "page": 1, "more_records": false } } |
The response provides a daily log of which webhooks fired and how often. The real insight comes from analyzing two key patterns:
-
Missing activities: If a webhook that typically appears daily suddenly has no entries for multiple days, it indicates the upstream workflow has stopped. This is a silent business process failure.
-
Volume Anomalies: If a normally steady webhook shows a 300% spike in daily calls, it could indicate system errors generating duplicate records, or legitimate business surges worth investigating.
From the response data, Zylker can instantly spot that the Deal to Project Sync webhook's execution dropped to just 1 call on a specific day, which is a volume anomaly. Meanwhile, the Premium Lead Alert webhook may be missing entirely from recent dates, which is a missing activity alert.
3.2 Investigate Webhooks failures with Get Action Failures API - Webhooks
Volume anomalies tell Zylker that something is wrong. To understand what went wrong and where, they need detailed failure diagnostics.
For this, they use the Get Action Failures – Webhooks API:
GET {api-domain}/crm/v8/settings/automation/webhook_failures?from=2025-10-15&to=2025-10-22
You can optionally filter by:
-
webhook_id : to focus on a specific webhook
-
module : to see failures only for a specific module
-
from and to : to restrict the date range (max 90 days).
Sample Response:
|
{ "webhook_failures": [ { "webhook": { // The webhook that failed "name": "Premium Lead Alert", "id": "4876876000016390771" }, "entity_details": { // Record that triggered the webhook "module": { "api_name": "Leads", "id": "4876876000000002175" }, "name": "Freelancer.com", "id": "4876876000016474049" }, "failure_time": "2025-10-21T17:08:07+05:30", // When the failure occurred "failure_reason": "page_notfound", // Why it failed (e.g., page_notfound, unauthorized, timeout) "id": "4876876000016474075", // Failure entry ID "workflow_rule": { // Workflow that triggered this webhook "name": "WF-C", "id": "4876876000016390881" } }, //... omitted for brevity ], "info": { "per_page": 200, "count": 17, "page": 1, "more_records": false } } |
With a single request, Zylker now has a clear picture of exactly which workflows are causing failures, which records are impacted, and the precise technical reason for the failure. With this information at hand, they can promptly fix the issues and ensure that critical integrations do not silently break.
STEP 4: Ensure reliable communication through Email Notifications usage reports
Emails sent through workflows drive essential actions at Zylker. Sales managers get notified when high-value leads enter the system, account directors get alerted on lost deals, and service teams receive escalations. If these triggered emails are not sent consistently or begin spiking unexpectedly, decision-makers may be blind to critical updates.
To understand how workflow-triggered emails are being used over time, Zylker uses the Email Notification Actions Usage Report API.
Sample Request:
GET {api-domain}/crm/v8/settings/automation/email_notifications/actions/usage_reports?group_by=date,resource,type&type=email_notifications&from_date=2025-12-01
Sample Response:
|
{ "data_usage": [ { "date": "2025-12-09", // When the email was triggered "resource": { "name": "Lost Deal Alert", // Email notification name "id": "4876876000013500873" }, "count": 5, // Number of times it was sent that day "type": "email_notifications" }, { "date": "2025-12-09", "resource": { "name": "High Value Lead Notification", "id": "4876876000016390889" }, "count": 2, "type": "email_notifications" }, { "date": "2025-12-08", "resource": { "name": "Lost Deal Alert", "id": "4876876000013500873" }, "count": 8, // Higher usage on this day "type": "email_notifications" } // ... additional entries omitted ], "info": { "max_limit": 2500, "per_page": 200, "count": 18, "page": 1, "more_records": false } } |
By reviewing usage trends over time, Zylker can spot early signs of issues at either layer. If an email notification that normally triggers every day suddenly shows zero usage, it could mean the workflow condition has stopped matching, or it might indicate a failure due to factors like bounced addresses, inactive users, or restricted mail settings. Likewise, an unexpected spike in email executions might reveal either a legitimate business surge or a workflow repeatedly triggering because of duplicate records, import errors, or incorrect criteria.
In either case, Zylker is now in a position to take informed decisions.
Conclusion
Zylker began this journey wanting stronger workflow automation. Along the way, they learned how to discover, configure, update, and extend workflow rules and actions using APIs. But as their automation ecosystem grew, a new responsibility emerged regarding governing what they had built.
The Reports APIs complete that responsibility.
-
Action Counts reveal how complex each workflow has become
-
Workflow Usage Reports show whether actions are actually executing, succeeding, or quietly failing.
-
Webhook Usage and Failure Reports give a clear picture on the Webhook execution health.
-
Email Usage Reports highlight patterns in email communication actions.
With this complete toolkit, Zylker no longer just has automations. They understand them, analyze them, and continuously improve them. Their workflows have evolved from fragile scripts to managed business assets with known performance characteristics and early warning systems.
This concludes our Kaizen series on Workflow & Actions APIs. We hope this series has helped you to build, manage, and govern automation systems in your own organization.
If you have any feedback or questions, please let us know in the comments or reach out to us at support@zohocrm.com.
Until next time, Happy coding!
Additional Reading:
Topic Participants
Anu Abraham
Sticky Posts
Kaizen #198: Using Client Script for Custom Validation in Blueprint
Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – 1 More to the Big Two-Oh-Oh! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.Kaizen #226: Using ZRC in Client Script
Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. In today's post, lets see what is ZRC (Zoho Request Client) and how we can use ZRC methods in Client Script to get inputs from a Salesperson and update the Lead status with a single button click. In thisKaizen #222 - Client Script Support for Notes Related List
Hello everyone! Welcome to another week of Kaizen. The final Kaizen post of the year 2025 is here! With the new Client Script support for the Notes Related List, you can validate, enrich, and manage notes across modules. In this post, we’ll explore howKaizen #217 - Actions APIs : Tasks
Welcome to another week of Kaizen! In last week's post we discussed Email Notifications APIs which act as the link between your Workflow automations and you. We have discussed how Zylker Cloud Services uses Email Notifications API in their custom dashboard.Kaizen #216 - Actions APIs : Email Notifications
Welcome to another week of Kaizen! For the last three weeks, we have been discussing Zylker's workflows. We successfully updated a dormant workflow, built a new one from the ground up and more. But our work is not finished—these automated processes are
Recent Topics
Collapsing and expanding of lists and paragraphs
hello Would you ever implement Collapsing and expanding of lists and paragraphs in zoho writer ? Best regardsSaving issue
First problem I opened a MS word file in writer. after the work is done, it does not save instantly, I waited for like 10min and it still did not save. second problem When I save a file, then file gets saved as another copy. I just did save, not saveDoes Zoho Writer have Dropdowns
I want to add a drop down field in Zoho writer. Is this possible?Fix image at bottom of a page fot automatic proposal creation
I'm working on a proposal document to automate our proposal creation process. So far it works fine, but I experience some problems with an image I want to have fixed at the bottom of the page AND above the footer. This section of the document consistsNotifications Feeds unread count?
How do I reset the unread count on feeds notifications? I've opened every notification in the list. And the count never goes to zero.Tables for Europe Datacenter customers?
It's been over a year now for the launch of Zoho Tables - and still not available für EU DC customers. When will it be available?Zoho Finance Limitations 2.0 #3: Can't assign a Contact to a Finance Record (estimate, sales order or invoice)
If you use a business to business scenario with different contact people within the company you can't assign a finance record (estimate, invoice, etc...) to that person. Why this matters? No way to find out which person placed the order without manualRanking by group in report
Dears, I am new to Zoho Analytics and I would like to ask you guys help to creating a ranking column. Report type: Pivot Matter: I want to create a ranking column on the right of Percentage. This ranking is group by column Type, and ranking by Final Score/Percent.Zoho CRM for Everyone's NextGen UI Gets an Upgrade
Hello Everyone We've made improvements to Zoho CRM for Everyone's Nextgen UI. These changes are the result of valuable feedback from you where we’ve focused on improving usability, providing wider screen space, and making navigation smoother so everythingZoho Community Digest — Febrero 2026
¡Hola, comunidad! Un mes más os traemos las novedades más interesantes de Zoho para febrero de 2026, incluyendo actualizaciones de producto publicadas oficialmente, cambios de políticas y noticias del ecosistema. Pero antes de lanzarnos a las actualizaciones,Disable Zoho Contacts
We don't want to use this app... How can we disable it?Department Overview by Modified Time
We are trying to create visuals to show the work our agents do in Zoho Desk. Using Zoho Analytics how can we create a Department Overview per modified time and not ticket created time? In order for us to get an accurate view of the work our agents areFilter button in the Zoho Sheet Android App doesn't toggle on
I am a new Zoho Sheets user and experiencing a specific issue with the filter functionality in the Android mobile application. Detailed Issue Description: The filter icon appears correctly in the toolbar. Upon tapping the filter icon/button, the toggle【Zoho CRM】商談タブへのデータインポート
Zoho使用前にエクセルで管理していた商談情報を、Zoho一括管理のため、商談タブにインポートしたいのですが、お客さまの氏名だけが紐づけられませんでした。 「Zoho CRMにインポートする項目を関連付ける」のところが画像のようになっています。 （弊社では、「姓」を「★個人データ名」という項目名に変更し、フルネームを入れて使用しています。） どのようにしたら氏名をインポートできるかご存じの方がいらっしゃいましたら、ご教示いただきたく、よろしくお願いいたします。 （投稿先が間違っていましたらご指CRM Cadences recognise auto-responses
I have leads in a Cadence. I get an auto-responder reply "I'm out of the office..." Normally Cadences seems to know that isn't a real reply and keeps the lead enrolled in the cadence. However, today, Cadences has UNENROLLED a Lead who sent an auto-reponseSalesIQ Chat Notifications
I am the admin of our salesIQ implementation. About two weeks ago, I started hearing/seeing notification for ALL chats messages from monitored agents/chat participants. I don't need to see these, we have a manager who deals with this. I can't stop theHow to Create a Fixed Sliding Time Window (D-45 to D-15) in Zoho Analytics ?
Hello, I would like to create a report in Zoho Analytics based on a sliding time window between D-45 and D-15, with a fixed snapshot of that specific period. The data displayed should strictly reflect activity recorded between D-45 and D-15 only, withoutExport Zoho Books to another accounting package?
Is an export feature to Quickbooks or Accpac available (or a form that is easily imported by them)? My reasons: 1) my accountant, who prepares my corporate tax return, prefers to work with their own accounting system. If I can convert Zoho books a form that is easily importable into Quickbooks or an Accpac format, this process would be easy. 2) I don't want to keep my data in a proprietary format on the cloud somewhere without a way to easily extract it to a format that can be read my a well establishedAnchor Links in Dashboards
Hello, Our dashboards frequently have multiple sections that would be more easily skipped between using anchor links. Please consider adding an anchor link feature to the text widget? This could be done by adding an anchor link option to the text widget next to the "remove" option (see screenshot). The option would assign an ID to the <div> containing the text widget in the live dashboard. Then, the chosen ID could be linked using a traditional <a href="#link_id"> in the html section of the textIntroducing Auto-trigger for Screening Bot
Still manually sending screening tests after every application? Not anymore. With Auto-trigger for Screening Bot, screening now begins automatically. When a candidate applies for a job that has an attached assessment, Recruit checks whether the test hasSEO for your Zoho Sites Website
Join our live webinar to learn how to use Zoho Sites' SEO tools to boost your website's ranking. Our product specialist will demonstrate everything you need to know about optimizing your web pages to make them search engine friendly. Register here for free: https://www.zoho.com/sites/webinars/Importing into Multiselect Picklist
Hi, We just completed a trade show and one of the bits of information we collect is tool style. The application supplied by the show set this up as individual questions. For example, if the customer used Thick Turret and Trumpf style but not Thin Turret,New 2026 Application Themes
Love the new themes - shame you can't get a little more granular with the colours, ie 3 different colours so one for the dropdown menu background. Also, I did have our logo above the application name but it appears you can't change logo placement positionAdd line item numbers to sales order/invoice creation page
It would be really helpful if there were line numbers visible as we are creating a sales order and/or invoice. There are line numbers visible in the PDF once the sales order is created. I would like to be able to see the line numbers as I am buildingAPI to Apply Retainer invoice payment to Invoice
Hi Team, I could not find API to apply the Retainer invoice payment to existing Invoice. Can you please help ? Attaching the screenshotReconciling a month with no transactions
I'm treasurer for a small non profit cemetery association and I'm trying to reconcile a bank statement for a month that did not have any transactions. Do I skip the month entirely and go a month with transactions?push notification to Cliq when user is @mentioned in CRM notes
push notification to Cliq when user is @mentioned in CRM notes. Currently users that is @mentioned gets an email to be notified. User/s that is @mentioned should get a Cliq notification.Customize your Booking page using Zia
We’re excited to introduce an AI-based enhancement that automatically customizes your booking page effortlessly. By simply providing your business website URL, Zoho Bookings can automatically design a booking page that matches or complements your brandMultiple header in the quote table???
Hello, Is it possible in Zoho CRM to add multiple headers or sections within the Quote product table, so that when the quote is printed it shows separate sections (for example “Products” and “Services”)? To clarify, I’m asking because: This does not appearFeature Request: Render Markdown (.md) files in Zoho Cliq
Hi, We regularly share Markdown (.md) files in Zoho Cliq. However, when we open these files in Cliq, the content does not render as Markdown—it displays as plain text. This forces us to copy/paste the content into an external Markdown viewer to read itZoho Workdrive download was block by security software
Hi Team, Recently workdrive download was blocked by huorong security. Could you please advise how to put zoho workdrive as white list? every time we put "*.zohoexternal.com" or "workdrive.zohoexternal.com", the warning msg will still pop in next dowZoho mail to contacts and leads, but not to accounts?
We use the accounts tab a lot for our business because they can be linked to the sales orders. Now we want to use the mail add on to link communication of our emails to our accounts. However this is only possible for contacts and leads? It would be convenientAPI keys not showing in ZeptoMail dashboard
Hi there, I'm hoping someone can provide some assistance as support isn't replying. I am trying to configure my transactional emails, but the dashboard doesn't show any of my API details - the `div` is there but it's emtpy. Every time I click "GenerateDoes Zoho Learn integrate with Zoho Connect,People,Workdrive,Project,Desk?
Can we propose Zoho LEarn as a centralised Knowledge Portal tool that can get synched with the other Zoho products and serve as a central Knowledge repository?Reading from and writing to Zoho Projects Custom Module with Deluge
Does anyone know if there is a way to read from and write to the Custom Modules that Zoho now supports. I would love to be able to loop through a set of data and create the entities I need to for this new custom module I'm looking to put together.How Does Knowledge Base Search and Article Recommendation Work?
Hello, I would like to understand how the Knowledge Base search engine works. Specifically, does it search based on: The article title only? The full article content? Both, the article and the content? Keywords? Tags? Also, how does the system determineZoho Books/Inventory - Restrict Items With Pricebook
Hi Zoho Team, I'm trying to address as use case where a client needs to restrict which products certain customers can purchase. I have been able to find a way to do this based on the current Zoho Books or Zoho Inventory configuation. My feature requestBest Way to Integrate Zoho Campaigns with Amazon SES Without Third-Party Tools
I am looking for the most seamless and efficient method to integrate Zoho Campaigns with Amazon SES. My goal is to avoid using any third-party automation tools like Zapier, Make, or Pabbly, and instead, leverage Zoho's native capabilities for this integration.Release Notes | January 2026
We have rolled out a set of powerful new enhancements across Zoho Vertical Studio that bring several long-awaited capabilities to your applications. These updates focus on deeper customization, smarter automation, better reporting, and improved usabilityscope for phonebridge in CRM and phonebridge API documentation
Hi I cannot find the scope to be used for phonebridge in CRM API V2 calls. I am getting OAUTH_SCOPE_MISMATCH for scope group ZohoCRM.modules.ALL,ZohoCRM.setttings.ALL Also I am not able to locate the documentation for the same, All I have is phonebridge API documentation for desk and url [ https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v2/phonebridge/ ] from a web forum. It makes a reply and error in case of missing arguments, but scope error is returned when all arguments are provided. Regards Devel DevNext Page