Create workflows

Create a workflow to automate your business processes and make your team more efficient. Set enrollment criteria to automatically enroll records and take action on your contacts, companies, deals, quotes, and tickets. You can also take action on associated records, such as updating an enrolled contact’s associated company.

After creating your workflow, it will appear in the Created in workflows tab in the workflows dashboard. Workflows created from other tools such as forms, emails, tickets, or deals will display in the Created in other tools tab. Learn more about organizing your workflows. 

Select workflow object and type

From the workflows tool, you can create a workflow from scratch or use a workflow template to guide you along. Depending on which setup flow you choose, you will also be prompted to select an object and workflow type.

To get started creating a workflow:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Automation > Workflows. 
• You can create a new workflow from scratch or from a template:
  • To create a new workflow from scratch, in the upper right, click Create workflow > From scratch.
  • To create a new workflow from a template, in the upper right, click Create workflow > From template.
• To edit or clone existing workflows, hover over the workflow and click Clone or Edit. 
  
  

Start from scratch

To create a workflow from scratch:

• In the left panel, select [object]-based to select your workflow object. This determines what type of records can be enrolled in the workflow. When creating a workflow from scratch, you can select from the following objects:

• • Contacts
  • Companies
  • Deals
  • Quotes (Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise)
  • Tickets (Service Hub Professional or Enterprise)
  • Custom objects (Enterprise only)
  • Conversations
  • Feedback submissions (Service Hub Professional or Enterprise)
  • Subscriptions
  • Payments
  • Goals

• In the right panel, under Choose type, select your workflow type:
  • Blank workflow: start with a blank workflow and add your own enrollment triggers, actions, and delays.
  • Scheduled workflow (Operations Hub Professional and Enterprise only): set a schedule for your workflow to recur at regular, pre-determined intervals such as daily, weekly, monthly, or annually. After, add your own enrollment triggers, actions, and delays. Learn more about creating scheduled workflows.
  • Specific date or Contact date property (contact-based workflows only): start with a blank workflow and add actions that execute based on a specific date, or dates set on a specific property on enrolled records. Learn more about creating Specific date or Contact date property workflows.

• Click Next.
• Click the edit pencil icon to give your workflow a name and add a description.
• Click Save.

Use a template

Use a workflow template aligned with your goals to streamline your automation processes. You can also browse through the templates to explore different workflow automation options. 

To create a workflow using a template:

• From the templates library, search for a template that matches your workflow goals: 
  • To filter templates by function or objective, in the left sidebar, select a category. 
  • To search for a specific template, in the top right, enter a search keyword. 
• To review a template's details, click Preview. In the dialog box, you can check if the template is compatible with your HubSpot subscriptions. You can also review the following details:
  
  • Purpose: the purpose and goals of this workflow. 
  • Included triggers and actions: the enrollment triggers and workflow actions that are included in this template. 
  • What you'll need to prepare: any assets that you'll need to prepare to populate the placeholder actions, such as marketing emails or forms. 
• Once you've selected your template, click Use template. In the workflow editor, the template will be displayed with placeholder actions. You can edit, add, and remove actions in the editor. 
  
  

Set enrollment triggers

Enrollment triggers are a set of criteria that automatically enroll records in the workflow. If you only want to enroll records manually, leave the enrollment trigger box blank. Learn more about manual enrollment.

To watch an overview of this process, check out the video below:

See the full HubSpot Academy lesson: Workflows deep dive

• In the workflow editor, click Set up triggers. Learn more about setting enrollment triggers in workflows.
• In the right panel, select a filter type for your enrollment trigger. Set up the trigger, then click Apply filter. 
  
  

• By default, records will only enroll in a workflow the first time they meet the enrollment triggers. To enable re-enrollment:
  • In the right panel, click the Re-enrollment tab.
  • Click to toggle the Re-enrollment switch on.
  • Select the triggers that you want to use for re-enrollment. Learn more about adding re-enrollment triggers to workflows.
• Add more enrollment triggers if needed.
• When you're done, click Save.
  
  

Add actions

Add actions to your workflow. For example, you can use a workflow to send a marketing email or assign your records. Learn more about the different workflow actions available in HubSpot.

After adding an action, you can clone or move it to streamline the workflow building process. And if you'd like to leave a note on a workflow action for reference, learn how to add comments to workflow actions. 

Please note: the actions available to you depend on your subscription. Locked actions locked require an account upgrade to use. 

To add actions to a workflow:

• Click the + plus icon.
• In the right panel, select an action. Learn more about choosing your workflow actions.
• Set up the details of the action, then click Save. Or, if you're adding the action as a placeholder, click Save without filling out the action details. Placeholder actions must be filled out before you can turn on the workflow. Learn more about placeholder actions.
• Click the plus icon + to add more workflow actions.
• When building larger workflows, you can use the workflow minimap for a quicker view of your workflow architecture and faster navigation. To use the workflow minimap:
  • In the upper left of the workflow. timeline, click Show minimap.
  • With the minimap open, you can hover over workflow actions to view the action name, and click an area of the minimap to navigate there.
  • To close the minimap, click theleftarrow icon in the top right of the minimap.
    
    

• If your workflow requires any changes before it can be published, the end marker will be yellow. Click the link in the alert and review the changes that need to be made.

Manage settings

Learn more about managing your workflow settings.

To manage your workflow settings:

• Click the Settings tab to manage the workflow's settings.
• On the General tab, select days and times that you want actions to execute, enroll contacts from Salesforce, and associate campaigns with the workflow.
• On the Unenrollment and suppression tab, set unenrollment and suppression criteria to automatically remove or exclude records from the workflow.
  
• On the Notifications tab, set up email notifications to alert users and teams when a workflow's enrollment rate increases or decreases beyond a certain percentage. 
  
  

Turn on your workflow

After setting up your workflow, turn it on to begin automating. If you've saved any placeholder actions, they must be completed before you can turn on the workflow. After you turn your workflow on, you can view the workflow history to monitor the records that are enrolled.

To watch an overview of this process, check out the video below: 

See the full HubSpot Academy lesson: Workflows deep dive

To review and turn on your workflow:

• In the upper right corner, click Review and publish.
• Choose to enroll records that currently meet the enrollment triggers or only enroll records that meet the triggers in the future:
  • To only enroll records that meet the enrollment triggers after the workflow is turned on, select No, only enroll [objects] which meet the trigger criteria after turning the workflow on.
  • To enroll existing records that meet the enrollment triggers, select Yes, enroll existing [objects] which meet the trigger criteria as of now.

• • If you have a Marketing Hub Starter, Professional, or Enterprise account, in contact-based workflows you can view a static list of contacts that meet the criteria by clicking Use lists to see these contacts. The list will automatically be saved and can be accessed from your lists dashboard.
    

Please note: the number of existing contacts displayed on the review page is an estimate. To view an exact number of contacts, create a static list of contacts that meet the criteria by clicking Use lists to see these contacts.

• Review the rest of your workflow settings, including connections and unenrollment, then click Turn on.

• In the dialog box, click Yes, turn on.