Troubleshooting Workflows

Troubleshooting Workflows

1. A workflow was not triggered for some records.
  1. Confirm the source of the record. Make sure it was not created from the Sheet view or via import.
  2. If the record source is API , "trigger["workflow"]" must be included in the API json body. The workflows, approvals, and blueprints related to the API will be executed.
    {
    "data": [
    {
    "Company": "Zylker",
    "Last_Name": "Daly",
    "First_Name": "Paul",
    "Email": "example@zylker.com",
    "State": "Texas"
    }
    ],
    "trigger": [
    "approval",
    "workflow",
    "blueprint"
    ]
    }
  3. If the record source is a custom function, then the custom function code must be added to execute the workflow:
    zoho.crm.createRecord("Leads", {"Last_Name" : "test"}, {"trigger" : ["workflow"]})
  4. If the record source is Zoho Forms, make sure that the Trigger CRM workflows action is selected in the Zoho Forms integration page.

  5. Check that the record meets the criteria specified in the workflow.
    1. Common error which may cause this:
      The workflow has a criteria that "Subscription Is Overdue" but the record was created as "Subscription Is Over-due". The hyphen will prevent the system from triggering the workflow. 
    2. Solution:
      A possible fix here would be 'Subscription Starts with "Over"' or 'Ends with "due"'
  6. If you have several conditions, they will be triggered based on a nested If statement.
    1. Common errors which may cause this:
      1st condition: Annual revenue < 1000
      2nd condition: Annual revenue < 100
      3rd condition: Annual revenue < 10
      Now, if you create a record with Annual revenue as 9 or 99 or 999, it will always only trigger the first condition because 9, 99, and 999 are all under 1000. In this case, you will have to reorder the conditions as follows:
    2. Solution:
      1st Condition: Annual revenue < 10
      2nd condition: Annual revenue < 100
      3rd Condition: Annual revenue < 1000
      Now, if you create a record with the annual revenue as 9, it will trigger the first condition and if you create one with an annual revenue of 99, it will skip the first and proceed to the second condition. To summarize, the system will only check the second condition in the workflow rule if the record does not match the first condition. 
2. The scheduled actions option in workflow rules is not clickable. 
  1. Check if the Repeat checkbox is selected in the first step of the workflow rule, you cannot schedule any actions.

    Reason: Imagine a workflow rule is created with the condition "Whenever the Annual revenue > 10,000" that will create a task with high priority assigned to the owner of the deal. The user needs to make edits to the record to keep it up to date. If the scheduled action repeated every time the task was edited, this would create multiple, unnecessary tasks for the user. So, if the workflow rule is repeated, scheduled actions will not be available.
  2. Check whether scheduled actions are supported in your CRM edition.
3. The Convert action is not available in the list of instant actions in a workflow created for the Leads module.
  1. Check if the "Repeat" checkbox is selected in the first step, the Convert action will be hidden.
    Reason: This is similar to why scheduled actions aren't available when Repeat is checked. If a lead is auto-converted when the lead status is Qualified, the record will no longer be in the Leads module, so it does not make sense to show the Convert option when the workflow is set to repeat.
  2. If the criteria is empty, the Convert option will not be available.

4. I am not able to choose a date field in a date-based workflow.
Check if the date field was created from a formula, it will appear in the list of options while creating a date-based workflow.
  1. Date fields in CRM can be created in two ways.
  2. Drag and drop a date field directly onto the layout.
  3. Drag and drop a formula field and choose Date as its return type.
Fields that are created as a formula field with the return type as Date will not be listed in date-based workflows.
5. The workflow is triggered for records that do not meet the condition.
Common errors which may cause this:
Let's look at the following example where the admin wants a workflow to create a task only when Account Type is Partner, Annual revenue > 10,000 USD, and Industry is Software, or Enterprise Customer is Checked, or Number of employees > 50.
The system's criteria pattern would be ( ( ( ( 1 and 2 ) and 3 ) or 4 ) or 5 ) which would not function as required. 
Solution:
Adjust the pattern to (1 and 2 and (3 or 4 or 5)). Now the system will always check for 1, 2 and any one of 3, 4, and 5.

6. The workflow was triggered but the email was not sent to the leads or contacts.
  1. Check that the email recipient was chosen appropriately.
    Common errors: The Email field was selected as the recipient but the email address is actually in the Secondary Email field.
    1. Check if Email Opt-out is enabled.
    2. Check if the daily email limit has been hit.

7. Custom functions do not trigger but other actions appear to work.
  1. Go to Setup > Actions > Functions > Failures to find out the reason. 
    Common errors: The code is mapped to get a value from another record which is empty. For example, the code is set to fetch the Account Type and update it in the Contacts module. If the Account Type is empty, the code will run into an error and the workflow will not be triggered.
  2. The 'Day limit reached' error indicates that the limit for the day has been exceeded.
  3. Check whether the custom function calls are exhausted. If they are, you can either purchase additional calls or optimize your code.
8. Webhooks are not triggered but other actions appear to work.
  1. Failures can be tracked by navigating to Setup > Actions > Webhooks > Failures. Check if you can correct the errors in the webhooks.
    Limitations in webhooks:
    If the URL to notify has a Port Number then the webhook will not trigger.
    E.g.: www.mydomain.com:7656
    Allowed Port Numbers: 9443 and 9090
  2. It is not possible to encode a URL with webhooks.
  3. Headers cannot be provided in webhooks, only URL parameters. An alternative solution is to create functions, if they are available in the subscribed edition.
9. I need more workflow rules in CRM.
Users often create separate workflows for each scenario, but CRM has the option to create multiple conditions in one workflow. Check whether you can optimize your workflow rules by combing fragmented rules into one workflow..
10. Workflow rules do not trigger when the fields are transitioned from a blueprint.
Common cause:
Workflows are not triggered when a record moves from one transition to another. This is because the record is already being processed in one automation (the blueprint), so it does not trigger another automation (the workflow).
Solution:
The actions that were configured in the blueprint can be scheduled in the After part of the blueprint (except for scheduled actions). Then the workflow will be triggered when the record moves through the last transition.
11. Date and time-based workflow is not triggered.
The trigger time is based on the company time zone, not the personal time zone of the user. For example, the customer has chosen the date field to trigger at 08:00 hrs. The organization's time zone under Company Details is set to British Summer Time but the individual user has their time zone in their Personal Settings set to Central European Summer Time. This will result in the workflow being triggered an hour later than the user expects.
Solution: Adjust the time zone setup by going to Setup > Company Details > Time Zone.
12. The workflow does not show up in the timeline when it is triggered.
Check whether the instant action was executed for the record which you are viewing or if it has an action that was executed for a record in another module. 
Example: If there is a workflow for the Deals module which updates a field in a Contact, the timeline entry of the workflow will be available in the contact and not in the deal. So, when you check the timeline for the deal, you will not be able to see whether the workflow was triggered or not. You will need to check the timeline for the contact to see if the update was made.
13. In what order is the automation executed when a record is created?
If you have all the automation features configured in Zoho CRM, the order in which they are executed is: assignment rules, workflow rules, approval process, blueprint, and finally case escalation rules.
14. Can the result of an automation trigger another automation?
Yes one workflow can trigger another workflow depending on how the order of the workflow rules is arranged. It can trigger another workflow only if the first workflow is based "on a record action" and the trigger is "edit".
Example: 
  1. Workflow 1: When a payment receipt is collected, update the Payment field to "Paid".
  2. Workflow 2: When the Payment field is updated to "Paid" , trigger a webhook and send an email notification to the manager.
Process:
When a user updates the payment receipt to Collected, the first workflow will update the Payment field to "Paid" which will in turn trigger the second workflow and call the webhook and send the email notification, if the workflows are arranged as shown below:



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