Workflow rules
Workflow rules are lite automation: "WHEN a condition matches, THEN create a task or notify admins." You pick a trigger from a fixed catalog (for example, CAPAs past their due date), and each run raises one summary task in My Tasks and/or notifies your organization's admins. Use it to stop overdue items from going unnoticed. The page lives at /rules (side nav: Rules).
Before you start
- The Workflow Rules module is off by default. An admin must turn it on in Settings > Modules (Governance, risk and compliance group).
- Any signed-in member can create and run rules once the module is on.
- Rules only find what exists: a CAPA-overdue rule needs CAPAs, a finding rule needs Findings, a risk rule needs Risks, and so on for incidents, vendors, training, permits, and complaints.
The trigger catalog
There are exactly 8 triggers. Some take a Threshold days number; two can also filter on record severity.
| Trigger | What it matches | Threshold days | Severity filter |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAPA overdue | CAPAs past their due date and not yet closed, rejected, or cancelled | no | no |
| Finding open too long | Findings still open or in progress for more than the threshold days | yes, default 30 | minor / major / critical |
| High residual risk | Risks with a residual risk score of 15 or more and not closed | no | no |
| Critical incident open | Critical-severity incidents that are not closed | no | no |
| Vendor review overdue | Active vendors whose next review date has passed | no | no |
| Training overdue | Training assignments past their due date and still assigned | no | no |
| Permit expiring | Active work permits expiring within the threshold days | yes, default 1 | no |
| Complaint unacknowledged | Complaints sitting in "received" for more than the threshold days | yes, default 3 | low / medium / high / critical |
Create a rule
- Open Rules in the side nav.
- Click New Rule (top right).
- In the New Rule dialog, fill:
- Name (required), for example
Chase overdue CAPAs. - When (trigger): pick one of the 8 triggers. Helper text under the select explains what it matches.
- Threshold days: shown only for triggers that use it. Leave empty to use the default shown in the placeholder.
- Only records with severity: shown only for the two triggers that support it.
Any severityis the default. - Then (action):
Create task,Notify admins, orTask + notify. - Task severity (
Low,Medium,High) and Assignee: shown when the action creates a task. The assignee can be any member orUnassigned.
- Name (required), for example
- Click Create rule.
The rule appears as a row with tags for its trigger, threshold, severity filter, action, task severity, and assignee. New rules are enabled. Use the pencil icon to edit and Save rule.
Run the rules
Rules run in two places:
From this page. Click Run now in the header. The button is disabled unless at least one rule is enabled. When the run finishes, a Run summary dialog lists each rule with how many records matched, whether a task was created, and how many admins were notified. Each rule row also picks up tags like 2 matched last run and Ran <date time>.
With the Task Center refresh. Whenever anyone clicks Derive from modules on the My Tasks page, all enabled rules run first, then module deadlines are re-derived. The toast there reports how many tasks came from workflow rules. This only happens while the Workflow Rules module is enabled.
Each run of a matching rule creates one summary task (for example, one task covering all overdue CAPAs), not one task per record. The task lands in My Tasks with the severity and assignee you set on the rule. Notify actions send an in-app notification to every admin of the organization.
Enable, disable, and delete rules
- Flip the toggle on a rule row to turn it On or Off. Disabled rules are skipped by every run and show a
Disabledtag. - Click Delete on a row and confirm. The rule stops running; tasks it already created are kept.
Try it
- Turn on the Workflow Rules module in Settings > Modules. Expected: Rules appears in the side nav.
- Open Rules for the first time. Expected: the empty state "No workflow rules yet".
- Click New Rule, name it
Chase overdue CAPAs, keep triggerCAPA overdue, actionCreate task, severityHigh, and create it. Expected: a rule row withCAPA overdue,Create task, andHightags. - Pick the
Finding open too longtrigger in a second rule. Expected: a Threshold days field with placeholderDefault: 30and a severity filter appear. - With at least one overdue CAPA in CAPA, click Run now. Expected: a Run summary dialog showing the rule matched at least 1 and
Task created. - Open My Tasks. Expected: a new summary task about overdue CAPAs with the severity and assignee from the rule.
- On My Tasks, click Derive from modules. Expected: the toast mentions tasks "from workflow rules" when a rule created one.
- Flip a rule to Off and click Run now. Expected: the run summary does not include the disabled rule.
- Turn every rule off. Expected: the Run now button is disabled.
- Delete a rule and confirm. Expected: the rule disappears; the task it created earlier is still in My Tasks.
If something goes wrong
- Rules is missing from the side nav. The module is off. Enable it in Settings > Modules. Typing
/ruleswhile it is off redirects to the dashboard. - Run now is grayed out. No rule is enabled. Enable at least one, or create a rule first.
- The run says "0 matched". Nothing currently meets the condition. Check the source module: is the CAPA really past due and still open? Is the finding older than the threshold days?
- Too many or too few records match a threshold trigger. Check Threshold days. Empty means the default (30 for findings, 1 for permits, 3 for complaints). A severity filter set on the rule also narrows what counts.
- No notification arrived. Only actions
Notify adminsandTask + notifynotify, and only organization admins receive them. - Duplicate-looking tasks after several runs. Each run of a matching rule raises a summary task. Close or complete the task in My Tasks once handled, and run rules on a cadence rather than repeatedly.
- Rules did not run from the Task Center. The piggyback run only happens when the Workflow Rules module is enabled for your organization, and only when someone clicks Derive from modules.