# Workflow Automation

Rules that send an email alert or raise a notification when a record is created, edited, or reaches a date, and the log that shows whether they fired.

A workflow rule watches one module and does something when a record in it changes. Today that something is an email alert or an in-app notification, so think of this as automated telling rather than automated doing.

Go to **Settings > Finance > Workflow Automation**. Three tabs: **Workflow Rules**, **Workflow Actions** and **Workflow Logs**.

> **Note:**
>
> **Workflow Automation is marked Beta**
>
> The rail carries a Beta pill against it. It works, and the guardrails around it are still being built out, so keep your first rules narrow and watch the logs.

![The Workflow Rules tab of Workflow Automation, headed Workflow Rules above the line Automate actions like email alerts and notifications when records are created, edited, or on scheduled dates, with a blue Workflow Rule button at the right. Tabs above read Workflow Rules, Workflow Actions and Workflow Logs, and the rail entry carries a Beta pill. A Module filter set to All Modules and a Status filter set to All sit above an empty panel reading No workflow rules yet, with a Workflow Rule button inside it.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/settings/workflow-rules.png)

*A new workspace starts here, with no rules and the two filters that matter once there are.*

## The three tabs

- **Workflow Rules**: The rules themselves: which module, what triggers them, and what they do. Each rule is active or inactive.
- **Workflow Actions**: The reusable things a rule can fire, split into Email Alerts and In-app Notifications. Build these first, then point rules at them.
- **Workflow Logs**: Execution history: which rule ran, when, and whether the email got through.

## Building a rule

A rule is a module, a trigger, optional criteria, and an action. The module is chosen when the rule is created.

> **Warning:**
>
> **The module cannot be changed after the rule is saved**
>
> The builder says so at the point of choosing. A rule pointed at the wrong module is rebuilt rather than repointed.

Triggers come in two kinds.

- **Event Based**: Fires when a record is Created, Edited, or Created or Edited. An edit trigger can be narrowed to particular fields, and to the first edit only.
- **Date Based**: Fires relative to a date on the record, a number of days before or after it, at an hour you set and on a frequency you choose.

Criteria narrow it further: a rule can be limited to records matching conditions you build, so an alert fires on invoices over a value rather than on all of them. The builder writes the rule back to you in plain words as you go, beginning **Execute when**.

## Checking a rule actually ran

Workflow Logs is the answer to "did it send?". Each entry carries the rule, the module, the execution time, a **Success** or **Failure** status, and the email alert it tried to send.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Build the action before the rule**
>
> A rule with nothing to fire is half a rule. Create the email alert or notification template on Workflow Actions first, then the rule that points at it.

> **Note:**
>
> **A recipient can still switch the notification off**
>
> In-app notifications from rules arrive under the **Workflow Rules** type on each person's own notification settings. A rule firing correctly and a colleague not seeing it are compatible facts.