Adding Tasks Using Workflow Rules

Automating task creation helps sales teams stay on top of follow‑ups, ensure timely outreach, and maintain consistent engagement with prospects and customers. Records such as contacts and pipelines often require continuous nurturing, and manually adding tasks can be time‑consuming and prone to inconsistency.
Workflow Rules help to automatically generate tasks at the right moment, keeping teams organized and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.

Use cases

Auto‑creating follow‑up tasks when a new contact is added

When a sales rep creates a new contact, a workflow rule can automatically add a follow‑up task scheduled for the next day, ensuring timely engagement.

Creating reminder tasks for pipeline stages

When a sales opportunity enters an advanced stage, a task can be generated to remind the owner to review important details within a defined timeframe.

Adding tasks when deal value exceeds a threshold

If a pipeline record surpasses a high‑value amount, a task can be created to initiate additional follow‑up steps, helping ensure high‑priority opportunities are handled appropriately.

Setting up a workflow rule to add tasks

Access workflow rules

1. Go to Setup from the left sidebar.
2. In the Setup drawer, navigate to Process Management > Workflow Rules, or Automation > Workflow Rules. Alternatively, use the search bar in the drawer and type Workflow Rules.
   
3. Click button.

Set triggers

Triggers determine when the workflow rule runs and when the system should automatically create tasks.

In the Set Trigger & Conditions tab:

Select a Trigger module. Supported modules include Contacts, Companies, Pipelines, Tasks, and Email.

Under Trigger type:

• Choose Record created to generate tasks immediately after a new record is saved.
• Choose Record created/edited or Record edited to generate tasks when records are modified. Then choose whether the task is added Only the first time the record is edited or Every time the record is updated.
• Choose Date/time to generate tasks based on a date or time field on the record.
• For Emails module, the trigger types are either Inbound email which run when an email is received or Outbound emails which runs when an email is sent.

Add conditions (Optional)

Conditions ensure tasks are created only when records meet specific criteria.

While conditions are optional, once you add them, they become required for the workflow to run. This means the task will only be created when both the trigger and the conditions are met.

To add conditions,

• Click Add Condition.
• Select a field and define the conditional criteria.
• To add more conditions, click Add condition, select another field then define the criteria. You can define up to a maximum of 10 conditions.
• Choose whether all/any of the specified conditions must be met before the system creates the task.
• Click Add Group to create another set of conditions. Define the conditions within the group.
• Use And / Or logic to decide whether all groups must be met, or at least one group must be met. To delete a condition, click the Remove icon at the end of the condition

For more information on triggers and conditions, refer to Understanding triggers and conditions

Define actions

Actions specify what the system actually does once the triggers and conditions (if added), are met.

Workflow rules support Instant Actions (executed immediately) and Delayed Actions (executed after a defined delay).

Go to the Define Actions tab to configure actions.

Configure instant actions

Instant actions create tasks immediately once the workflow rule criteria are met.

1. Under Instant Actions, click the Select action dropdown and choose Add task.
2. Select where to add the task.

   • For Contacts, you can add a task for:
     Current record – the contact record
     Primary company – the company that the contact is primarily associated with

   • For Companies, you can add a task for:
     Current record – the company record

   • For Pipelines, you can add a task for:
     Current record – the pipeline (opportunity) record
     Primary contact – the main contact associated with the opportunity
     Associated company – the company linked to the opportunity

In the Configure Task Template drawer,

1. In the Subject field, type the subject manually or use Insert field option when the trigger module is Contacts, Companies, Pipelines or Tasks and Insert email subject if the module is Emails.

Note: When you click Insert field, BoldSales displays a list of available fields. This includes fields for that respective trigger module and fields from associated modules. These fields include system, custom and insight fields.
Recommendation: Use a subject line relevant to the task being performed, and include an appropriate placeholder when necessary. For example, New Contact Created – {{First name}} {{Last name}}, Lifecycle Stage Updated – {{First name}} {{Last name}} {{Lifecycle stage}}.

2. Set the Due date by selecting a date source (Execution date or Triggered record date or time fields), then specify the number of minutes/hours/days before or after that date and time. The table below shows the available date or time fields per module:

3. Choose the Status and Type. The table below shows the available status and type options:

The image below shows the Configure Task Template drawer.

You can click Edit to modify the task template before creating the workflow rule.

Configure delayed actions

Delayed Actions allow the workflow to add tasks after a set delay period. These actions are supported depending on the trigger type:

• When the trigger type is Record created, delayed actions are supported.
• When the trigger type is Record created/edited or Record edited, delayed actions is supported only when the Occurrence is set to Only the first time and are not supported when the occurrence is set to Every time. This helps to prevent confusion in case the field is updated later with a different value.
• When using the Date/time trigger type, delayed actions are not supported because the execution time is already determined by the selected date and time criteria.
• Both Inbound email and Outbound email trigger types in Emails support delayed actions.

To delay adding tasks:

1. Click Set delay under Delayed Actions and set the delay period.
   Note: The provision to add a delayed action is disabled until you set the delay period.
2. Select Add task as the action, choose where the task should be added, and configure the task template using the same steps described under Instant Actions.

Instant Actions can be converted to Delayed Actions and vice versa,

1. To convert an instant action into a delayed action, click the more actions menu for the instant action, select Set delay, and set the delay period (30 minutes to 3 hours). The action is converted and listed under Delayed Actions.
2. To convert a delayed action into an instant action, click its more actions menu and select Convert to instant action. The action is immediately converted and listed under Instant Actions.

Review and finalize

• Review your triggers, conditions (if added), and configured actions.
• Click Create to activate the workflow rule.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Can I create multiple tasks within the same workflow rule?

Yes. The number of tasks you can create depends on the trigger module. For example, in Contacts, you can add one action to add a task For the current record and another action to add a task For primary industry. In Pipelines, you can create tasks For current record, For primary contact, and For associated company, all within the same rule.

Can I delay tasks by more than 3 hours?

No. Delayed actions currently support delays between 30 minutes and 3 hours.