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Workflows

Workflows react to changes inside your PSA in real time. When a ticket is created, updated, closed, merged, or any other event the PSA emits, a matching workflow rule fires and runs its action steps.

This product is branded differently depending on which PSA you use:

Your PSAProduct name
AutotaskWorkflows for Autotask
ConnectWise PSAWorkflows for ConnectWise
HaloPSAWorkflows for HaloPSA

Use Workflows when the trigger you care about is a change inside the PSA itself, rather than an inbound email, a form submission, or a schedule tick.

When to Use Workflows​

  • You want a follow-up action every time a ticket moves to a specific status.
  • You want to cross-post ticket activity into Slack, Teams, or an external system when a ticket is created or updated.
  • You want to keep other systems in sync with PSA state (for example, push asset changes to a CMDB).
  • You want automation that runs only when the PSA's own notification system is the source of truth.

If the trigger is an inbound email, see Email Processing. If it is a schedule, see Scheduled Tasks. If it is a visitor submitting a form, see Forms.

How It Works​

A workflow has three parts:

PartPurpose
Event sourceThe PSA that emits events (Autotask, ConnectWise, or HaloPSA). The event source is determined by which connection the rule is bound to.
Rule (with expression)The rule's expression decides which events it matches. If the expression is empty, the rule fires for every event from the chosen source.
Action stepsThe ordered work the workflow performs when a matching event arrives. Workflows support the same action library as every other product.

When a matching event arrives:

  1. The system creates a History entry with the event trigger type.
  2. The event payload is placed on a namespace named after the event source (autotask, connectwise-psa, or halo).
  3. The rule's action list runs in order.
  4. Intermediate work is stored in the custom namespace.
  5. The history entry is marked complete or failed based on the result.

Variables Available in Workflows​

NamespacePopulated byPurpose
autotask / connectwise-psa / haloSystemThe event payload from your PSA. Variable name depends on the event source.
metaSystemProcessing run, event, and subscription metadata (meta.history.id, meta.event.source, meta.event.type, meta.subscription.id, and so on)
customYouWorking data within the workflow

Full details: Variable Namespaces.

The Console​

Workflows live under Workflows (or the PSA-branded name) in the console sidebar. From there you can:

  • Home: landing page with a snapshot of your workflow rules.
  • Rules: list, create, edit, and test workflow rules.
  • History: review every event processed, with the full execution log and replay.

Every rule has a Test button that runs the action list against a sample event payload so you can verify the logic without waiting for the real event.

Typical Patterns​

Status-change follow-up​

  1. Rule expression matches tickets where status just changed to a specific value.
  2. Action list fires a notification, updates another field, or triggers an external system.

Cross-system sync​

  1. Rule matches any change to a specific entity type (for example, Configuration Items).
  2. Action list pushes the change to an external CMDB or sync destination.

Audit trail​

  1. Rule matches every event.
  2. Action list writes a line to an external log system for long-term auditing.

Start Here​