> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rescueconsole.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Workflows > Writing the checklists your team follows, what starts them, what their steps do, and how a run works on a record. A workflow is a checklist your team follows: what happens when an animal arrives, when an application comes in, when a volunteer joins. You write it once under **Settings → Operations & forms → Workflows** (or search for "Workflows"), and it runs many times, each time on one record. A running checklist is called a run. The checklist is written here. The work happens on the record: an animal, a person or an adoption application, where each run appears with its steps to tick. ## Who can write and run workflows | Runs on | Read the checklist and its runs | Start and tick a run | Write the checklist | | ------------------------- | ------------------------------- | -------------------- | -------------------- | | **Animals** | **read** on Animals | **write** on Animals | **admin** on Animals | | **People** | **read** on People | **write** on People | **admin** on People | | **Adoption applications** | **read** on Animals | **write** on Animals | **admin** on Animals | Somebody who cannot write a checklist still sees it, what starts it, and its steps, without the controls to change them. ## Starting from the standard workflows When you have no workflows yet, a banner asks **Start with the checklists most rescues run?** and offers them all at once: * **Taking an animal in**, on animals. * **Reviewing an adoption application**, on adoption applications. * **Starting a new volunteer**, on people. * **When a foster application arrives**, **When somebody offers to volunteer** and **When a donor form arrives**, on people. These start by themselves when that form arrives, and each begins with a step that sends an email when somebody ticks it. If you have **write** on Communications, the email templates those steps send are added with them, unless you already have a template with the same key. Every step arrives required and on the task list. Change any of it once you have run it a few times. If you started from these and a newer standard workflow is missing, the banner offers the ones you don't have yet. ## Making a workflow 1. Press **New workflow**. 2. Give it a **Name**, such as "Dog intake". 3. Choose what it **Runs on**: **Animals**, **People** or **Adoption applications**. This cannot be changed later. 4. For a checklist on **People**, choose what it is **For**: **anything about a person**, **volunteering**, **fostering**, **adopting** or **giving**. This decides what can start it by itself. 5. Add a **Description** if you like: what it is for, and when to start one. 6. Press **Create workflow**. The new workflow opens with no steps. A checklist with no steps cannot be started. ## The workflow list Each workflow is a card with its name, what it runs on, its description, how many steps it has and how many times it has run. The chip says **In use** or **Turned off**. When something starts it by itself, a line says so, such as "Starts automatically when a new animal is added." Press **Edit steps** to open its steps, and **Close** to fold them away. ## What starts a workflow Every workflow can be started by hand on a record. Under **Starts**, you can also choose an event that starts it by itself. **only when somebody starts it** means it never starts by itself. What is offered depends on what the checklist runs on and, on People, what it is for. | Runs on | Can start by itself | | --------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Animals** | when a new animal is added; a number of days after the animal is added | | **Adoption applications** | when an application is received; when the application is approved; when the application is rejected; a number of days after the application is received; a number of days after the adoption is finalized | | **People**, for anything about a person | when a new person is added; a number of days after the person is added | | **People**, for volunteering | when they are approved as a volunteer; when their volunteer form is received, approved or rejected | | **People**, for fostering | when they start fostering an animal; when their foster form is received, approved or rejected | | **People**, for adopting | when their application is approved; when their adoption is finalized; a number of days after their adoption is finalized; when their adoption form is received, approved or rejected | | **People**, for giving | when their gift lands; when their donor form is received | The form events come from [Submissions](/everyday/submissions): a form is received when it first belongs to a person, and approved or rejected when somebody decides it on the submission. For a choice that waits a number of days, set the number of days (1 to 365) beside it. It starts once per record, ever: finishing the checklist does not make it start again. If the day is missed, it still starts the next day, but not later than that. An event does not start a workflow on a record that already has an open run of the same workflow. Changing what a People checklist is **For** clears a starting event that no longer fits. ### Only when A workflow that starts by itself can also have conditions: the record has to meet all of them for the workflow to start. The box under the card reads **Every time it happens** until you add one. Press **Add a condition**, choose a field, a test and a value, then **Save conditions**. | Runs on | Fields a condition can look at | | ------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Animals** | status, species, breed, sex, size, altered, health status, intake source, name, medical flags, behavioral traits, microchip number, color primary, or a custom field | | **People** | email, phone, roles, preferred contact, status, or a custom field | | **Adoption applications** | status, or a custom field; and the applicant's email, phone, roles, preferred contact, status or custom field | The tests are **is**, **is not**, **contains**, **is filled in**, **is empty**, **is more than** and **is less than**. Where a field has a list, such as a status or a species, **is** and **is not** offer the list. For a custom field, choose **a custom field…** and type its key, which is shown under [Settings → Data & customization → Custom fields](/settings/custom-fields). Conditions only decide whether an event starts the workflow. Somebody starting it by hand is not stopped by them. ## Steps Steps run in order, top to bottom. Use the arrows to move a step, and the bin to delete it. Type in a step's title or instructions and click away to save: each change saves as you make it. Changes to a workflow apply to runs started from now on. A run already under way keeps the steps it started with, so a finished run still says what was asked on the day. ### Adding a step At the bottom of the steps, choose the kind of step, type its title, and press **Add**. | Kind | What it is | | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Something to do** | A step a person ticks when it is done. | | **A check** | A step a person answers **Passed**, **Failed** or **Not applicable**. | | **Wait** | A pause before the steps below it: a number of days, a number of hours, or until a date and time. The title is optional. | ### Step settings | Setting | What it does | | ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Required** | The run is finished when every required step is done or skipped. An optional step left open does not hold the run open. | | **Add to the task list** | When a run starts, the step is also added as a task on the record, unassigned, due when the step is due. Ticking the step closes the task. Closing the task does not tick the step. See [Tasks](/everyday/tasks). | | **Due … days in** | The step is due that many days after the run starts. Leave it empty for no due date. | | **Runs** | **when somebody ticks it**; **as a check: pass, fail or not applicable**; or **by itself, once the steps above are done**, which is offered once the step has something to do. | | **Instructions** | What to do, in enough detail that somebody new can follow it. Shown under the step on the record. | A wait has one setting, **Waits**: how long, before the steps below it. The wait is measured from when it is reached, not from when the run started, so a wait after a step starts once that step is done. ### What a step does Beside **When ticked** (or **Does**, for a step that runs by itself), choose what happens: * **nothing else happens**: the tick is the record that it was done. * **send a message**: sends one of your [message templates](/communications/templates). Choose the template, who it goes **to**, and anybody to **Copy** or **Blind copy**. * **set a field**: sets a field on the record to a value you choose. * **create a task**: adds a task on the record. A step that does something says so on the record, beside its tick box, before anybody ticks it. A ticked step sends its message or sets its field once. Unticking and ticking it again does not do it a second time. #### Who a message goes to | Runs on | To | Copy and Blind copy | | ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **People** | the person | your team, by role | | **Adoption applications** | the applicant, or the animal's foster carer | the other of those two, or your team by role (blind copy: your team by role) | | **Animals** | the adopter, or the foster carer | the other of those two, or your team by role (blind copy: your team by role) | The team roles are organization admins, directors, shelter managers, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, animal behaviorists, adoption counselors, volunteer coordinators, foster coordinators, animal control officers, intake officers, animal care technicians and read-only members. A copy to a role goes to everyone with that role. The message goes to whoever that person is on the day the step runs. If there is nobody, such as an animal with no adopter yet, the step records that it could not send. #### Fields a step can set | Runs on | Fields | | ------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Animals** | status, health status, altered, size, intake source, microchip vendor, description, or a custom field | | **People** | a custom field | | **Adoption applications** | status, decision notes, or a custom field | #### A task a step creates The task's title, when it is due (a number of days after the step runs, or none), its priority (low, normal or high), and whether it is **for nobody in particular** or **for whoever ticks this step**. A task with a due date shows on the calendar. ### Checks A check is answered rather than ticked. **If it fails** says what a **Failed** answer does: * **record it and wait for a person**: the answer is kept, and the steps after it that run by themselves wait. * **put the application on hold**: on an adoption application checklist, the application goes on hold. On a People checklist started by a form, the form's submission goes on hold. * **reject the application**: on an adoption application checklist, the application is rejected. On a People checklist started by an adoption, foster or volunteer form, the submission is rejected if nobody has decided it yet, which starts anything set to run when that form is rejected. On an Animals checklist, only **record it and wait for a person** is offered. A failed check keeps the run open until somebody looks at it. **Reopen** clears the answer so it can be answered again. ## Turning off and deleting **Turn off** stops a workflow from starting, by an event or by hand. Runs already under way carry on. **Turn back on** undoes it. The bin deletes a workflow. A workflow that has ever run cannot be deleted, because that would erase the record of those runs: the app says "This workflow has been run, so deleting it would erase the record of those runs. Turn it off instead." ## Runs on a record A run appears on the record it runs on: an animal's **Today** tab, a person's record, an adoption application, and a [submission](/everyday/submissions) the run is about. Each run shows its name, how far it has got (such as **2 of 5**, then **Finished**, or **Stopped**), and when it started. * **Start a workflow…** on the record lists the checklists you can start there. Choose one and press **Start**. * Tick a step when it is done. **Skip** marks a step as not done on purpose, and it shows as skipped. * A step that runs by itself says "Runs by itself once the steps above are done, within five minutes." A wait says when it ends. * If a step's message, field or task could not be done, it says why, with **Try again**. A ticked step stays ticked: the work was done even if the email was not sent. A step that runs by itself and fails holds back the steps below it until **Try again** works. * **Open** shows the run on its own page, naming the record it runs on. * **Stop** ends a run that is no longer needed. A stopped run stays stopped. A run is finished when every required step is done or skipped and no check has failed. Reopening a step on a finished run opens it again. Steps with **Add to the task list** also appear under [Tasks](/everyday/tasks) and, once due, on the calendar.