Every workflow is built on the same sentence: 1. When this happens… and 2. Do the following… The first part is the triggers, the second is the actions. This article is an overview of everything you can choose from.
You find both in the panel on the left of the workflow tool. Click a group to expand it, and click + to add it. You can also drag a card into the middle area. In a hurry? Use the search field at the top.
First: choose the right workflow type
When you create a workflow, you choose what it should react to:
Documents – bills, credit notes and receipts. This is the type most workflows use.
Transactions imported from bank statements – entries coming in from the bank.
Emails sent to the Send & Scan address – reacts to the email itself, before the document is created.
⚠️ Important about receipts: If you do not add the trigger Type, your workflow applies only to bills and credit notes. If reimbursements and receipts should be included too, the type has to be set explicitly. This is the most common reason a workflow does not do what you expected.
Triggers: When this happens…
A trigger is a condition the document has to meet. If you add several, all of them have to be met before the workflow runs.
Document details
What is written on the document itself.
Bill amount – the invoice amount on the document. Used for amount limits.
Payment Amount – the amount on the document that is actually being paid. It can differ from the bill amount, for example on a partial payment.
Currency – the currency stated on the document. Use it together with an amount trigger so a limit does not misfire on foreign documents.
Payment Method – the requested payment method.
Type – bill, receipt or credit note. See the warning above.
Vendor name – the name of the vendor.
Vendor VAT – the vendor's TIN. More reliable than the name, which can be spelled differently from document to document.
Keyword – looks for specific keywords present on the document, for example "PBS" or "Leverandørservice". The keyword has to actually appear on the document.
Email subject – the subject of the email containing the document. Useful when a vendor always writes the same thing in the subject.
Coworker activity
What a coworker has selected on the document.
Bank account – the bank account that has been added to the document.
Category – the categories added to the document.
Department – the departments added to the document.
💡 These three are often set after the document has been added. For a workflow to react to them, you normally need Live workflows turned on under Settings > Advanced > Workflow.
System variables
What the system itself knows about the document.
Price change – a price change identified from the same vendor. A strong control: send documents for extra approval when the price suddenly goes up.
Uploaded by coworker – which coworker uploaded the document.
Uploaded by department – which department uploaded the document.
Uploaded via platform – which platform the document was uploaded from, for example Send & Scan or the mobile app.
Custom lists
This is where the lists you have created yourself under Settings > Lists appear, along with the ones imported from your accounting system. The contents therefore differ from account to account.
Typical examples are projects, cost numbers, VAT codes, approvers and payment methods for receipts. Every list can be used as a trigger, so the workflow only runs when a specific label is selected on the document.
Actions: Do the following…
An action is what the workflow does once the triggers are met. You can add as many actions as you like to the same workflow.
Common actions
Add category – codes the document to the chosen category automatically.
Add department – sets the department automatically.
Add bank account – selects the bank account the document should be paid from.
Add vendor – sets the vendor on the document.
Add note – adds a note to the document using dynamic variables.
Require attention – adds a custom message to a document that requires attention.
Mark as paid – closes the document without making a payment. Used for documents paid outside Corpay One, for example through Betalingsservice.
Disable automatic schedule – the bill is not paid automatically, even if Auto-Pay is on.
Lock document – prevents future changes to the document.
Archive document – moves the document out of the overview.
Cancel document – cancels the document.
Integrations & Payment
Disable invoice sync – the invoice entry is not sent to your accounting system.
Disable payment sync – the payment entry is not sent to your accounting system.
💡 These two are typically used together with Mark as paid, when a document is handled entirely outside Corpay One and has already been posted somewhere else.
Approval
Require approval – choose who should approve documents that meet the workflow triggers.
Below Require approval you also see every approval flow you have already created. Pick one of them to reuse a fixed order of approvers instead of building it from scratch.
The Create approval flow button at the bottom creates a new one without you leaving the workflow.
Custom lists
For each of your own lists there is an Add label from … action. It sets a specific label on the document automatically – a project, a cost number or a VAT code, for example. As with the triggers, what you see depends on which lists you have created.
Unique or non-unique approver
When you add approvers, you can choose whether an approver has to be unique.
Unique approver: A coworker can only approve the document in one step. If the same person is added in several places in the flow, they can only approve in the first step they appear in. This makes sure the approval is always done by different people.
Non-unique approval: The same person can approve in several steps. If a coworker is added in several places – as a member of several departments, for example – they can approve on behalf of all those steps without involving anyone else.
💡 Tip: If you need genuine dual approval, choose unique approver. Otherwise you risk one person approving all the way through.
Validation
On the right side of the workflow tool you find the Validation tab. It shows what is still missing before the workflow can be saved – a name, a trigger or an action, for example. The number next to it tells you how many things are outstanding.
Related articles
How to create workflows
How to create an approval flow
Test your workflow before you activate it
My workflow was not triggered – find the cause
What are lists?