Automation
Build and activate a workflow in Naffes CRM
A workflow in Naffes CRM is a trigger (something that happens in the CRM) followed by steps that run in order. This walkthrough goes from New workflow to a first clean run, including the checks worth doing before anything reaches a customer.
Before you start
- Plan: workflows start on Starter. By default Starter allows 5 workflows, Pro 50 and Enterprise has no cap; the Free plan has none. Going past the cap is blocked, and the screen offers an upgrade instead. Compare plans.
- Write the rule as one sentence first, for example: when a deal is won, create a handover task for its owner due tomorrow and alert the delivery team. That sentence is your trigger and your step list.
Steps
Open Workflows
In the sidebar's Tools section, open Workflows (/workflows-v2) and click New workflow. It starts as a Draft; rename it to something that says what it does.
Choose the trigger
Click the Trigger card and pick the event, such as Deal won, Message received (WhatsApp / SMS) or Webform submitted. To narrow it, add clauses under Only run when (field, operator, value). All clauses must match.
Add steps
From the Steps palette, click a step to append it or drag it into place on the canvas. Steps run top to bottom, and each is configured in the inspector panel. Use the
{{field}}syntax to insert data from the record that fired the run, such as{{deal.name}}.Add a gate or a wait if needed
Under Flow you will find Gate — stop if not met, which ends the run and skips everything below it when its condition is not met. To send the run one of two ways instead, switch it to Fork under Paths in the inspector; the run then follows the first path that matches. Wait delays the next step by minutes, hours or days; a bare number is read as minutes.
Save
Click Save. Saving publishes a new version at once, and a Draft workflow becomes Active immediately.
Test and monitor
Click Test run for a simulation that sends and creates nothing, then View trace to see each step's result. Once real runs happen, the Runs tab lists every run with per-step results. Use Pause and Activate as needed.
Because saving activates a Draft, finish any customer-facing workflow before its first save, or click Pause right after saving, test, then Activate. Test run uses the version saved on the server, so save your edits first.
What can start a run, and what a run can do
| Building block | What is available |
|---|---|
| Triggers: 27, including | Deal created, updated, stage changed, won, lost or deleted; contact created or lifecycle stage changed; activity logged; message received or sent; webform submitted; bot handed a conversation to a human; quote accepted or declined; invoice issued or overdue; payment received |
| Steps: 20, including | Update a deal field, assign the owner, move the stage, add or remove a tag, create a task, send or draft an email, add a note, post to Slack, notify people in the app, send a WhatsApp message, WhatsApp template or SMS, HTTP request, two AI steps, wait, and a condition |
| Conditions | 13 operators including equals, contains, greater than and is empty; the updated triggers can also test whether a field changed, and from or to which value |
A worked example: trigger Deal won, then Create task titled Handover {{deal.name}} due in one day, then Notify people in the app for the delivery team. For automatic customer messages, see sending a WhatsApp template automatically; for the engine as a whole, see automation.
Troubleshooting
- Nothing runs: check the status is Active, not Paused, and that the Only run when clauses really match the record. The issues chip in the editor toolbar points at incomplete steps.
- An action step failed: the engine retries it up to 3 times with growing delays, records the failure and carries on with the remaining steps. A broken condition, by contrast, stops the run.
- Messages go out slowly: sends are paced per workspace, by default 20 WhatsApp messages, 20 SMS and 60 emails a minute, to protect your numbers. At the limit the run pauses and resumes on the same step, so nothing is dropped.
- No Deal stuck or Email received trigger: neither exists today, and On a schedule workflows cannot be created from the screen yet.
Questions
Questions 2
Is there a library of ready-made workflow templates?
No. Every workflow starts from an empty canvas, and the builder has no for-each loop step.
Can I retry a failed run from the screen?
Not yet. Retrying runs, version history and rollback are available through the API only. On screen you can read each step's result, fix the setup and save.