Does this article apply to you? This article covers Enhanced Automated Workflow features. To check if your account has access, go to Automated Workflow in AMS+. If you see a "Welcome to the New Automated Workflow" banner at the top of the page, you're all set.
This article explains how Enhanced Automated Workflows decide when to trigger. Understanding this helps you build workflows that run exactly when you expect them to — and troubleshoot when they don't.
Requirements
- Automated Workflow must be activated in your agency's AMS+ account.
- Only the Account Owner can activate it. Learn more.
- You must be logged into AMS+ as an Agency User.
- You must be assigned to a Security Group with the Manage Automated Workflow permission.
In this article
- How triggering works
- Existing records and newly activated workflows
- Conditions are checked again before delayed actions run
- Troubleshooting trigger behavior
How triggering works
An Enhanced Automated Workflow triggers when two things are true at the same moment:
- All conditions on the workflow are met.
- At least one of those condition fields just changed from a non-matching to a matching value in that save.
Both have to be true at the same time. A record that passively matches all conditions — without anything changing — won't trigger the workflow.
Think of it this way: the workflow is watching for a record to arrive at the matching state, not just be in it.
What this looks like in practice
Say your workflow has two conditions: Status is New Lead and Type is Prospect.
- If a record's Status changes to New Lead but Type is still Client, the workflow won't trigger — not all conditions are met yet.
- If Type then changes to Prospect, the workflow triggers — that change completed the match.
- If both conditions are already met and you update an unrelated field, the workflow won't trigger — nothing changed from non-matching to matching.
The order in which conditions are met doesn't matter. The workflow triggers as soon as the last one snaps into place.
Existing records and newly activated workflows
When you turn on a workflow that uses a created or updated trigger, records that already match all conditions won't trigger automatically. The workflow only runs when something changes.
Those records will trigger the next time one of their condition fields changes from a non-matching to a matching value.
Using a date-based trigger? Records with an approaching date may run the workflow shortly after activation if their conditions are already met.
Conditions are checked again before delayed actions run
When a workflow has delayed actions — for example, a follow-up email scheduled for three days after the trigger — the system cancels a delayed action as soon as the record no longer matches the workflow's conditions — it doesn't wait until the action's scheduled run time.
This means a workflow can trigger correctly and still have some or all of its actions cancelled if the record's data changes in the window between the trigger and the action's scheduled execution.
Troubleshooting trigger behavior
The workflow triggered when I didn't expect it to.
Check whether all conditions were met at the time of the save, and whether at least one condition field changed from non-matching to matching. If both are true, the workflow triggered correctly. The change that completed the match may not be the one you were thinking of.
The workflow didn't trigger when I expected it to.
One of two things is likely: either not all conditions were met when the save happened, or all conditions were already met before the save and nothing changed from non-matching to matching. The workflow doesn't trigger on passive matches — something has to change.
I turned on the workflow but nothing happened.
If your existing records already match all conditions, they won't trigger until one of their condition fields actually changes. This is expected behavior. See Existing records and newly activated workflows above.
The workflow triggered but the action never ran.
If the action was delayed, the record's conditions are re-evaluated before the action executes. If the record no longer matched at that point, the action was cancelled. Check whether the record's data changed between when the workflow triggered and when the action was scheduled to run.