Manual Workflows

Manual workflows allow you to execute multiple actions on a conversation in just a couple of clicks. This can save your team time as well as ensure consistency across the team. If you're just getting started with workflows, check out Get Started with Workflows for a general primer. This article will teach you more about manual workflows specifically.

You must have the Inbox: Manage workflows permission to be able to create a manual workflow. See User Roles and Permissions for more on those settings.

Create a Manual Workflow

Head to Manage > Inbox(es) > Your Inbox > Workflows or open your Inbox and click the gear icon to open Settings and select Workflows. Click New Workflow. 

1

Name your workflow and choose Manual from the Type dropdown. Click Next Step. 

2

Choose the actions you want to happen when a Help Scout User runs the workflow. 

3

Confirm the details of your workflow and select Activate Workflow to finish. 

Run a Manual Workflow

You can apply a manual workflow to a single conversation or as a bulk action. 

Single Conversation 

Click into the conversation and choose the lightning bolt dropdown menu. Choose the workflow you want to run from that list. Simple — two clicks and the manual workflow takes care of the rest! 

Bulk Action

Select multiple messages in a folder view or a search results list, click the lightning bolt dropdown from the multi select menu, and then choose the manual workflow to run. 

Examples and Inspiration

Manual workflows make executing multiple actions a snap and make sure that your team consistently carries out all of the actions needed each time. Here we have some example situations where a manual workflow can simplify your team's life!

• Add a tag, change the status, and send a predefined email all at the same time

  Did you get a lot of interest in the new product or feature you're shipping out next week? Make sure all of your customers are getting the same messaging, you're getting all of their responses tagged with the right tags, and then set the conversation to pending so you can follow up. Next week you can use an automatic workflow to send an email and close these. 

  

• Assign to a team, leave a note, and copy to a folder

  Your customers need to have invoices created by a different team and you want to remind your Billing team remembers to check a specific box when they create that invoice. You can use a manual workflow to assign the conversation to your Billing team, leave a note to remind them to check the tax-exempt box, and then copy that conversation to a folder that only the Billing team sees.

  

• Forward a conversation, tag, and close it

  You regularly get emails that need to be forwarded to someone who doesn't work in Help Scout with you. You can set this workflow up to forward the email out, tag it so that you can find all of these emails later, and change that status to Closed.