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
Zoho Books blocks invoicing without VeriFactu even though it is not mandatory until 2027
I would like to highlight a very serious issue in Zoho Books for Spain. 1. The Spanish government has postponed the mandatory start of VeriFactu to January 1st, 2027. This means that during all of 2026 businesses are NOT required to transmit invoicesProblem : Auto redirect from zoho flow to zoho creator
Hi there, I've been waiting for zoho team to get back on this for last couple of days. Anyone else have the problem to access zoho flow? everytime I click on zoho flow it redirects me to zoho creator. I tried incognito mode but it still direct me to zohoWhy am I seeing deleted records in Zoho Analytics syncing with Zoho CRM?
I have done a data sync between Zoho CRM and Zoho Analytics, and the recycle bin is empty. Why do I see deleted leads/deals/contacts in Zoho Analytics if it doesn't exist in Zoho CRM? How can I solve this problem? ThanksZoho Books is now integrated with Zoho Checkout
Hello everyone, We're glad to be announcing that Zoho Books is now integrated with Zoho Checkout. With this integration, you can now handle taxes and accounting on your payment pages with ease. An organization you create in Zoho Checkout can be added to Zoho Books and vice-versa. Some of the key features and benefits you will receive are: Seamless sync of customer and invoice data With the end-to-end integration, the customer and invoice details recorded via the payment pages from Zoho CheckoutSync Issue
My Current plan only allows me with 10,000 rows and it is getting sync failure how to control it without upgrading my planAdd Zoho PDF to Zoho One Tool Applications
It should be easy to add from here without the hassle of creating a web tab:JOB WISE INVOICE PROCESS
I WANT TO ENABLE JOB WISE TRACKING OF ALL SALES AND PURCHASEPDF Template have QTY as first column
I want to have the QTY of an item on the sales orders and invoices to be the first column, then description, then pricing. Is there a way to change the order? I went to the Items tab in settings but don't see how to change the order of the columns onRAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) Type Q+A Environment with Zoho Learn
Hi All, Given the ability of Zoho Learn to function as a knowledge base / document repository type solution and given the rapid advancements that Zoho is making with Zia LLM, agentic capabilities etc. (not to mention the rapid progress in the broaderIn App Auto Refresh/Update Features
Hi, I am trying to use Zoho Creator for Restaurant management. While using the android apps, I reliased the apps would not auto refresh if there is new entries i.e new kitchen order ticket (KOT) from other users. The apps does received notification but would not auto refresh, users required to refresh the apps manually in order to see the new KOT in the apps. I am wondering why this features is not implemented? Or is this feature being considered to be implemented in the future? With theIMAP mail after specify date
Hi My customer's mail server is on premise and mail storage is very huge. So It never finish sync. and finally stop sync. Cloud CRM have a option like zoho mail sync mail after some date.Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM Integration – AI-Powered Sales Automation
Hello Zoho Community 👋 I’m excited to share a recent integration we’ve worked on at OfficehubTech: ✅ Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM This integration connects Zoho CRM with Claude AI through our custom MCP Server, enabling intelligent AI-driven responsesSearch Bar positioning
Why is the Search bar on the far right when everything is oriented towards the left?Import Error: Empty values for mandatory fields - Closing Date
Hello, I've tried multiple times to import a CVS Potential list from another Zoho account. But the error message I get is: Empty values for mandatory fields - Closing Date There are valid dates in this field, so I don't understand why this error messagesFeature Requests - Contact Coloured Picklist Visibility & Field Visibility During Ticket Creation
Hi Desk Team, I have 2 feature requests for you. Since Coloured Picklists are now available in Desk, It would be great if the colours were visible on the Related Details (Contact Information) when creating a ticket. In the screenshot below, I have 2 fieldsAccounts Receivable Balances Differs in Balance Sheet, Customer Balance Report, AR Ageing Summary, and AR Ageing Details.
Hello Zoho Accounts Receivable Balances Differs in Balance Sheet, Customer Balance Report, AR Ageing Summary, and AR Ageing Details. Please clarify and fix the issues here. ThanksHow to integrate XML with Zoho CRM
Hi, I have an eCom service provider that gives me a dynamic XML that contains order information, clients, shipments... The XML link is the only thing I have. No Oath or key, No API get... I want to integrate it into Zoho CRM. I am not a developer norFeature Request - Ability to Customise Contact Info Card on Ticket Details View
Hi Desk Team, I've added a "Contact Priority" and "Account Prioirty" field and it would be very useful to agents if they could see that information in the Contact Info card on the Ticket Details view. It would be great if we could choose some fields toTax in Quote
Each row item in a quote has a tax value. At the total numbers at the bottom, there is also a Tax entry. If you select tax in both of the (line item, and the total), the tax doubles. My assumption is that the Tax total should be totalling the tax fromZoho Flow integration with Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp
Hi there, any plans of adding integrations with Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp into Zoho Flow? Seems that more and more business are delivering automated updates such as "your order is received", "your order has been shipped" and so on via these two platforms. Not sure if Whatsapp has the API access needed i am pretty sure that Facebook Messenger has... Kind regards Bo ThygesenCampaigns unsubscribe/manage preferences links
Hi, Where can I edit the unscubscribe and manage preferences link in the footer of the email. I would like it so that when you click 'manage preferences' an form opens up that allows the person to choose what type of emails they do and don't wish toemail address somehow still not verified (?!)
L.S. After creating a new email template in CRM I was about to send a group email to my clients, then Zoho CRM announced that they would change the sender address to some kind of Zoho-e-ddress because my email address "has not been verified". Not onlyMarketing Tip #17: Add credibility to your online store with Review Widgets
One of the fastest ways to build trust in an online store is to show real customer feedback right where people are deciding to buy. Third-party widgets let you embed things like Google Reviews, Instagram feeds, or even a WhatsApp chat button. These addadding several team members to an Opportunity
How can we add several team members to one opportunity for collaboration? I have researched and only found something called Deal Team which I cannot find in my CRM to configure.Bulk update Profile Permissions
Dears, What should we do if we add new forms or reports and need to update more than 20 permissions? Updating them one by one feels pretty harsh, doesn’t it?Filter in fields from Jira extension
We have installed the Jira extension so we can maken Jira issues from Zoho desk. In Zoho desk I can also see the Jira issue status for example but I can not filter on this field. I would like to setup an filter showing me the closed Jira issues. How canZoho Creator customer portal limitation | Zoho One
I'm asking you all for any feedback as to the logic or reasoning behind drastically limiting portal users when Zoho already meters based on number of records. I'm a single-seat, Zoho One Enterprise license holder. If my portal users are going to add records, wouldn't that increase revenue for Zoho as that is how Creator is monetized? Why limit my customer portal to only THREE external users when more users would equate to more records being entered into the database?!? (See help ticket reply below.)Add Reporting feature to display variance/change columns when comparing periods
When running reports to compare periods (for example, Profit and Loss comparing current year to previous), I would like to be able to display variance columns in both (a) amount or (b) percentage.Link Contacts to Billed Accounts
Hello, I want to do a survey on all my customers of 2025. For that I want to select all contacts linked to accounts who where billed in 2025. How to I create this link to I can then use Zoho Survey with this database of contacts?Pre-Zoho Sales Info - Best Way to Add to Desk / CRM
My company has been using Zoho One since 2021, with sales data going back through 2020. However, we have been in business much longer, and we have historical sales information that we want to have at our fingertips when talking with customers (usuallyCRM function REST API response format
Is there a way to control the JSON response returned by the CRM function REST API? If I call a function using either OAuth or an API key it returns a 200 OK response with a string in the format shown below. I am using a particular feature of an externalUsing MPN across multiple SKUs and inventory tracking
I have several different SKU's that share a common MPN and would like to track inventory by MPN. SKU1 has MPN1 assigned SKU2 has MPN1 assigned Here is an example If I start with 5 of MPN 1 in stock I want each SKU1 and SKU2 to show as 5 in stock, If IUnable to Access Application:
Whenever I try to access my application from the desktop, say I am editing it and want to test something in the desktop environment I get: An error has occurred. An internal error has occurred. Please check the URL , or try refreshing the page I can editEvernote (ENEX) import limitations
I have been with Evernote since 2010, but the latest price increase is ridiculous. I am currently testing Zoho Notebook as a replacement. I am impressed so far - if it were not for critical need to import legacy Evernote notes, I would 100% migrate toCannot see Application from Lookup field
Hi all, I am trying to access data for an application on our account via a lookup field; however, the application doesn't appear in the dropdown at all. Can anyone shed any light on this, please? I have asked Zoho support; however, they're just as confused,Zoho CRM Meetings Module Issues
We have a use-case that is very common in today's world, but won't work in Zoho CRM. We have an SDR (Sales Development Rep) who makes many calls per day to Leads and Contacts, and schedules meetings for our primary Sales Reps. He does this by loggingZoho Books integration sync from Zoho CRM does not work
Hi Zoho Community & Zoho Support We just tried to get a sync some products into Zoho Books from CRM using the native sync and we're getting an error: "It looks like some mandatory fields you're trying to map are empty. Please provide valid field namesDisable Auto Send Email Notification in Invoice Creation
Here is what I am facing Make payment via Razor Pay (All Good) Capture payload data on my webapp Send this data, along with other data to Zoho books to create the invoice However in this step - An email goes to the client + The Invoice remains as draftP & L Sub-categorized accounts
How can I show sub-categorized Income and Expense accounts on the P & L report?Report showing Bill Details with Project and Sales Invoice Number
Hi There, I am hoping that someone can help, I am looking for report that can show the bill and expense details along with project its as assigned to and the invoice number that the sales has been raised in. The goal is I can filter a customer/projectNext Page