Approval workflows and processes, designed in a visual editor

A workflow is drawn on a visual canvas: each step is a block linked to the next, and the path can split depending on the record's data.

1. 1

   Choose what starts it: a record being created, changed or deleted — optionally only when a condition holds, such as an amount above a threshold — or a button on the record page.

2. 2

   Add the steps: conditions that split the path, approvals, notifications, waits, actions that update or create records, generate a PDF, call another system or run a script, and sub-processes you can reuse in other workflows.

3. 3

   Decide who approves: a specific person, any member of a role, or the user named in a field of the record itself — the site manager on a project, for example.

4. 4

   Test it against a real record or sample data. The test walks the path, simulates the approval decisions and shows what it would do, without saving, sending or calling anything.

5. 5

   Activate it. From then on, every run is kept in the history, with its route drawn on the canvas itself.

Whoever has to approve gets an in-app notification and finds the request in their list of pending approvals. The first decision counts and, by default, nobody can approve a request they made themselves. A rejection can end the process or follow a path of its own — sending the request back to be corrected, for instance.

Each approval can have a deadline, from one hour to one year. If nobody decides in time, the workflow approves or rejects on its own, hands the request to someone else or sends a reminder, whichever you chose. A workflow has up to 50 steps and is never triggered again by the changes it makes itself, which rules out endless loops.

At a construction company, a materials purchase above a set amount waits for the site director’s approval before it goes to the supplier; below that amount, it goes straight through. At a car repair shop, a repair order with a large estimate waits for the workshop manager’s sign-off, and the record keeps who decided and when.

At a law firm, the expenses of a case are approved by the lawyer in charge, named on the case record. In real estate, an offer below the asking price goes through the agency director; at an association, each membership application is validated by the board before the member becomes active.

An automation rule reacts in a single step: when a record changes, it updates a field, sends an email or a text message, or stops a save. A workflow makes sense when there are several stages, waits, or someone has to decide. When the logic fits neither, a server-side script — see custom code — does whatever is needed, and can run as a step of the workflow itself. For tasks that call for reading and judgement, such as reviewing new requests every morning, there are AI agents.