A workflow rule consists of the following elements:
The steps to create a workflow rule are divided into 4 parts.
There are three options based on which the rule will be triggered for a record that meets the rule criteria. One of these options need to be selected when you create a workflow rule and you cannot change it later by editing the rule. They are:
When new leads are created in Zoho CRM you may want to send an email automatically or a series of emails at set intervals. You may also want to create tasks for these new leads. Also, sometimes when specific fields are updated, you may want to trigger a workflow. This execution option lets you specify an action (Create, Edit, Delete, etc.) based on which workflow rules will be triggered.
For Edit , Create or Edit actions, an option to recur the workflow is provided. You can check Repeat this workflow every time a record is edited , if you want the rule to recur.
You may want to get an email reminder a week before a deal's expected closing date, or may want to send an email to the customers reminding them of the monthly rentals or subscription renewals. In these cases, it is not necessary that the records should be created or edited for the rule to get triggered. It is plainly based on the value in the date fields. This execution option lets you pick a date field from a record and allows you to define the day for the rule to be triggered.
Please note, with this option, a maximum of 5000 records will be triggered every 10 minutes. If there are more than 5000 records in a 10 minutes period, the remaining records will be executed in the next 10 minutes.
Rules can be triggered when the score of a record is either increased, decreased or updated. For example, leads from the service industry are your prime prospects and you want to prioritize them based on the scores. You may want to closely follow-up with the leads that have a score of 10 or more. In such cases, you can create a workflow rule based on scores. When the score of a lead is updated and if the score is 10 or more, a task can be created to prioritize and follow-up on the lead immediately.
Multiple conditions in a workflow rule help you address cases where you have clearly defined action items for the records that met the specified criteria and the ones that do not.
Example : In a deal follow-up scenario, you may have the following requirements which can be best configured with Workflow conditions.
Workflow Conditions |
Records that match the criteria: Deal Amount is >= USD 6000, Campaign Source is Trade Show |
Records that match the criteria: Deal Amount is >= USD 2000, Campaign Source is Trade Show |
Records that do not match any of the criteria: |
Action 1 |
Send an email to the Sales Manager about the big deal. |
Assign a task to the record owner to close the deal in a week's time. |
Assign a task to the record owner to close the deal in a week's time and also to provide a 15-day trial. |
Action 2 |
Assign a task to the record owner to cross check the discount guidelines and the final discount value. |
- |
Update the field value as Eligible , for the field - 15 Day Trial . |
Criteria Pattern Editor in the custom list view helps you to develop the advanced filters using simple logical operators like and / or .
To edit criteria patterns
Example :
You would like to trigger a workflow rule for all the potentials whose Type is New Business, Stage is Need Analysis or Qualification, and Amount is above $50000.
Type is New Business; Stage is Need Analysis or Qualification; and Amount > $50000 .
You can create this criteria easily using the Criteria option given below:
The criteria pattern will be automatically set as:
Since the criteria pattern does not match the requirement, you can edit it as:
A workflow rule is meaningful only if an action is associated to it. These actions include email notifications, tasks, field updates, webhooks, custom functions, activities - tasks, meetings and calls, and create record. Except create record, all the other actions are grouped under the Actions (under Automations) that can either be Instant or Scheduled . These actions once created, can be associated with many rules.
Instant action includes email notifications, tasks, meetings, calls, field updates, webhooks, custom functions, and record creation that are triggered immediately when the rule is executed. There are two options to associate these actions.
To associate an instant action
If you are creating a workflow rule, directly go to step 4
While configuring the rule you must:
Select the module and layout to which the new record will be added.
Select the owner of the record. You can either select the logged in user (the person who creates the workflow rule) or any other CRM user.
Similarly, you can select a reference user . That is, any user lookup field that you have added in the layout. For instance, if the Contacts module has a user lookup for Accounts and Vendors , then you can select a user from these lookup modules as the record owner. You can even select a user from the custom user field (only single user field can be used) as a record owner, but it should be a single user field.
Enter the values for fields like record name, amount etc. The values that you enter here will be pre-populated for the record that is created. By default, the mandatory fields (both standard and custom fields) from the layout will be displayed here, you can also add the additional fields present in the layout and enter a value. You can either enter the values or use merge fields. For example, the email field values can be entered using the merge fields.
To set up record creation
Adding more fields to a meeting and call layout, makes those mandatory and you cannot save the action unless you associate a field and a value to it.
Scheduling a call as an instant action will be displayed only for rules created for Leads and Contacts modules.
Scheduled actions include email notifications, tasks, field updates, webhooks, and functions that are triggered on a specified time after the rule is executed. You can schedule the actions to be triggered based on the Rule Trigger Time . You can see the list of scheduled actions in a record's details page under Timeline > Upcoming Actions .
There are two options to associate these actions:
To add scheduled actions
If you are creating a workflow rule, directly go to step 4
Custom actions let you create tailored actions and associate them with the desired workflow rules. Sometimes you may need to create actions other than the default one's available in Zoho CRM, in such cases you can use the Zoho Developer Space. and create your own actions.
Let's consider a few scenarios where custom actions can be helpful:
Notes on Per Day Limits
Your Criteria Pattern in Editor |
Your Criteria Pattern in View Mode |
( 1 and 2 ) or ( 3 and 4 ) |
(( 1 and 2 ) or ( 3 and 4 )) |
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 |
(1 and 2 and 3 and 4 ) |
( 1 or 2 ) and ( 3 or 4 ) |
( ( 1 or 2 ) and ( 3 or 4 ) ) |
When you want to make sure that no one edits a workflow rule unless absolutely necessary, you can lock the rule. When a rule is locked, it cannot be edited. One has to unlock the rule in order to edit it again. A locked rule sends out the message to fellow administrators that it is not meant to be edited unless absolutely required. A workflow rule can be locked after it has been created.
To lock a workflow rule
There are two views for workflow rules that are created - the List View and the Summary View . By default, you will see the list view, which is a list of all the workflow rules for All modules/Selected module.
The Summary view lists out the Criteria and Field Updates associated to the rules that will help you get a clear picture of all the rules and where they are used to avoid any confusion.
To use summary view
To reorder the workflow rules
You can see insights on the usage of your workflow rules that have the action to send email notifications associated to them. Based on the open rate of the email template associated with your workflow rules, the best performing workflow rules are listed for every week.
To track the workflow usage,
You can also delete the workflow rules from the list view and also while viewing the rule. When you delete a workflow rule, all the scheduled actions for the records will also be deleted.
To delete workflow rules
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