# 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 > 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 in Inventory Settings, 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.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/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 shipments to one carrier 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.