Work and Automations Overview
The work and automation system in Setup turns decisions and follow-ups into trackable work, and lets Automations do that work for you. It has four building blocks: Work Items, Flows with their Stages, the Work Queue, and Automations.
Work Items
A Work Item is a single piece of work for a person or group to complete. You can create Work Items on their own, or an Automation can create them as one of its steps. A Work Item can be assigned a Flow, or it can have no Flow at all when it is simple enough to finish in one step.
Flows and Stages
A Flow is the path a Work Item follows, made up of Stages. Assign a Flow when a Work Item should pass through several states before it is done. A Work Item without a Flow has no Stages to move through.
The Work Queue
The Work Queue is an inbox where Work Items are routed for groups and users to triage.
Automations
An Automation runs on its own: when something happens, on a schedule, as a critical date approaches, or on demand. Its steps can send an email, in-app notification, Slack message, or webhook; create or update Work Items; generate a report; set a custom field; or wait. Run History shows what each Automation did.
Approval workflows
The most powerful pattern in the system is the approval workflow. An Automation can hold a change for approval as a Pending Action, gating the event until someone approves the Work Item. Approving the Work Item lets the Automation complete and release the change. A common example is holding a lease publish for approval before it goes live.
Where to go next
For a deeper look at each building block, read on in any order:
Work items, Flows, and the Work Queue explains each of the three and when to use a Flow versus no Flow.
How approval workflows work walks through gating an event, such as a lease publish, behind a Pending Action.
Automation triggers and steps is the reference for every trigger and step an Automation can use.