First decide whether the workflow applies to future events or existing data. These choices affect which data is processed. The scheduling options also depend on whether the trigger is based on an event or on an item's properties.
Open the workflow settings
You need Spotilla administrator permissions, and the workflow feature must be enabled for your account. Scheduling and execution history are managed in the browser. The Android and iOS apps do not have an equivalent configuration view.
Open Workflow tool from the browser menu. Select Datatable, open the workflow folder if necessary, and click the pencil icon on the workflow's row. Click Test and save to go to the settings. For a new workflow, the corresponding button is Test and create a workflow. The button opens the settings page; it does not yet save the workflow or run a test.
The settings page contains Test your workflow, Repetition and scheduling settings and Workflow basic info. Before scheduling, make sure the trigger, conditions and action targeting are correct. If needed, see the guide to triggers and conditions.
Event-based workflow: permitted execution times
Open Repetition and scheduling settings. The event trigger settings restrict when an event is allowed to start the workflow. They do not start regular processing of existing data.
Select Always to allow the workflow to start on any day and at any time. This selection clears the restrictions for weekdays and individual dates. To restrict the times, clear Always and select the permitted weekdays and the start and end time for each day. The default range is 00:00–23:59. Both boundaries and the entire final minute are included in the permitted time. A time range that extends overnight must be split across two weekdays.
You can add exception dates using the Add new day button in the same section. Select a date and choose the desired year or Every year in the Year field. If the year is not listed, use Enter the years you want.
Weekday restrictions and individual dates are alternative rules that allow execution. An individual date allows processing throughout that day, even when the weekday's time restriction is not met. For example, a Monday time range of 08:00–16:00 does not prevent the workflow from starting at 18:00 if that same date has been added as a permitted individual date.
Times are checked in your account's time zone, which defaults to Helsinki time. The check takes place when the event is processed. A start rejected outside the permitted time is not postponed until the next permitted time.
Daily execution limit
The Limit how many times per day the workflow can be completed field is optional. Leaving it empty means there is no daily limit; any value entered must be an integer of at least 1.
The limit is checked before a new execution is queued. The counter includes executions whose start time is at or after the beginning of the current local day and whose status is already Finished. Executions that are in progress, stopped or interrupted by an error are not included in this counter. The limit therefore does not count all attempts to start the workflow. Executions already in the queue can cause the final total to exceed the configured limit.
Property-based workflow: choose how to process items
Open Repetition and scheduling settings. A property trigger offers the following separate options:
- Manually start the workflow: select the checkbox in this section to process the current data once, immediately after the final save. This one-time processing starts only for an active workflow. By itself, it does not enable processing of future events.
- Start the workflow regularly: select the checkbox in this section to process existing data repeatedly. Each run evaluates the items again. The same item may reach the actions on several runs and, for example, generate a new task or email each time.
- Start the workflow event-based: select the checkbox in this section to evaluate an item when it is created or updated. This also applies to future updates to an existing item. Processing targets the item that triggered the event.
Regular and event-based starts cannot be selected at the same time. One-time processing can be combined with either option. When regular processing for a new workflow starts immediately after saving, it replaces the separate immediate one-time processing so that the same initial run is not performed twice. If the regular start is scheduled for later, one-time processing can start immediately alongside it.
One-time and regular processing go through the current data for the selected item type. The trigger conditions determine the branch. If the workflow also has a branch for when the condition is not met, items that do not meet the trigger conditions can be directed to it. The checkbox text about meeting conditions therefore does not exclude processing through the false branch.
Set the regular interval and start time
When you select regular processing, open Regular interval settings. Run the property trigger test first to make the interval fields available.
Enter the interval in the Months, Weeks, Days, Hours and Minutes fields. Use non-negative integers; empty fields mean zero. The field values are added together, and the total interval must be at least 15 minutes. For example, 1 hour and 30 minutes make a 90-minute interval. A month is a calendar month, not a fixed 30-day period.
The maximum values for the individual fields are 12 months, 4 weeks, 31 days, 24 hours and 60 minutes. They appear in the Maximum allowed value for the time interval column. Start limit for items shows your account's limits for the different time units. If the number of items the test would start the workflow for exceeds the limit, the corresponding interval field is disabled and the view prompts you to use a longer interval. The limit is not an option to process only some of the items.
For a new workflow, under The workflow will start for the first time, select either Immediately after saving or At a specified time. For the latter, select a future date and time.
When editing an existing regular workflow, you can see its next start time. Select either Start the workflow next time according to the current schedule or Start the workflow next time on the selected date and enter a new time. Times are handled in your account's time zone.
The time of the next run is calculated once the items for the current run have been queued. Processing does not wait for all item-specific actions or delays to finish. Delays from the previous run may therefore still be pending when the next run starts. A branch delay is different from the interval between runs; see the guide to branches and delays.
Test before enabling
For a property trigger, click the Test your workflow button in the section of the same name on the settings page. The test shows two counts based on the current data:
- Number of items the workflow will start for: items that meet the trigger conditions, plus items directed to the false branch if such a branch exists.
- The number of items affected by the workflow: items whose estimated path ends in a create, update or email action. This is a count of items, not a count of records to be created, messages or individual actions.
The planning test does not perform actual create, update or email actions. It skips delays and does not test whether later data can be saved or whether email will be delivered. The counts reflect the data at the time of the test; the data and condition results may change before actual processing. Run the test again if you change the conditions or branches.
For an event trigger, the section instructs you to trigger the selected event yourself. Save the workflow as active and carry out a controlled test with a real item during a permitted time. This is an actual execution: it may change data, create new items or send email.
Enable the workflow and check the result
Open Workflow basic info on the settings page. The default status of a new workflow is Out of use. Select Active in the Status field when you are ready for actual processing. Save the changes by clicking Save, or Create new workflow for a new workflow. One-time processing or regular processing that starts immediately may begin after this save if the workflow is active.
Reopen the saved workflow and check its status, the selected processing method and the next start time for regular processing. After the first actual execution, also check the items that were created or changed to ensure that their data, links and responsibilities are as intended. Check the result of an email action with the recipient. The history status alone does not prove that all intended data changes succeeded. The guide to creating and updating data can help you check the targeting.
Check the execution history
Open the History tab on the Workflow tool page and select a workflow in the Select workflow field. Expand the workflow's history rows using the expand icon next to its name. Check the Execution started, Execution status and Trigger columns. You can filter the rows using the filters in the start time and execution status columns.
The history describes item-specific executions. The entire set of items in regular or one-time processing does not have a single shared success status.
- In progress: the execution has a next step pending. It may, for example, be waiting for a delay to end.
- Finished: the branch ended at the final action block. Also check the action's actual result in the item.
- Stopped: the branch ended without the final action, for example because of a condition. This does not mean that a user disabled the workflow. Changes may already have occurred in earlier steps.
- Interrupted by error: an error was recorded during processing. Earlier actions may already have taken effect.
The item name in the Trigger column opens the item's details. The history does not provide a way to open an error for an individual step. If an error needs investigation, record the workflow name, the triggering item, the start time and the execution status. Check the data already created before processing again so that the correction does not produce unnecessary duplicate records.
Disabling, safeguard limits and deletion
You can prevent further processing by changing the status to Out of use in the workflow's basic info and saving. Each subsequent step requires the workflow to be active. Disabling does not undo changes already saved, items already created or messages already sent. The history status of a pending execution may not change to a completed status as a result.
The service may set the workflow's status to Disabled automatically by the system if a safeguard limit is exceeded. Safeguards monitor, for example, repeated updates to the same item, loops formed by workflows and the number of actions within the monitoring periods configured for your account. In regular processing, create and email actions are counted together, while update actions are counted separately. The time unit for the safeguard limit is selected from the first positive field in the order months, weeks, days, hours, minutes. It is different from the repetition interval formed by adding the fields together or the daily limit for an event trigger.
Investigate the reason for automatic disabling and correct the conditions, action targeting or interval before activating the workflow. If you restart regular processing, use the scheduling option when editing to set a new future start time and check the next execution.
To delete a workflow, use the trash icon on its row in the Datatable tab and confirm the deletion. Deletion also removes the workflow's execution history and the delay queues stored for later processing. It does not delete items previously created by the workflow or restore changed data. Keep any history information you need before deleting the workflow.