Dubsado Workflows - Expert Tips & Strategies
Workflows are the most powerful feature in Dubsado, and also the most complex. It takes time to get comfortable with them, and there are a lot of small details that aren't covered in most tutorials.
In this post I'll answer some of the most common questions I get about workflows and share tips to help you build, edit and use them with more confidence. Some of these are quite specific and hard to find answers to elsewhere, so hopefully this saves you some time.
Before diving in, make sure your account foundations are already in place. If you're still getting started, grab my free Dubsado setup checklist first. It walks you through everything you need to set up before you start building workflows.
Note: This post was written for Dubsado 2.0. If you've already switched to 3.0, the interface looks different but the underlying logic is the same.
How Do I Start a Workflow?
There are a few different ways to activate a workflow in Dubsado depending on how your process is set up.
Start a Workflow using a lead capture form
You can connect a lead capture form to a workflow so it triggers automatically when someone submits the form. There are two ways to do this:
Option 1. Connect the form to a single workflow
This works if all your leads follow the same process.
Go to the lead capture form Settings → under Default Workflow, select the workflow you want to connect.
Every time this form is submitted, it will trigger that workflow automatically.
Default workflow setting in lead capture form
Option 2. Use a workflow element inside the form
This works if you want different leads to trigger different workflows based on their answers.
Add a workflow element to your lead capture form. This creates a dropdown question in the form. Set up the answer options and assign a different workflow to each one.
Workflow element block inside lead capture form
Start a workflow from a public proposal
You can connect a workflow to a public proposal so it triggers automatically when a client submits it.
Go to the Form Settings and toggle on "Create new project once proposal is completed." Once that's on, select your workflow under Default Workflow.
Default workflow setting on a public proposal
Start a workflow manually
This lets you choose exactly which projects a workflow applies to.
Open the project → go to the Workflows tab → select the workflow from the list and click Apply.
Apply a workflow manually inside a project
Once applied, you can edit the workflow inside that project without changing the original template. If certain steps don't apply to a specific project, you can remove them after applying, as long as they haven't already run.
How Do I Create a New Workflow?
There are two ways to create a new workflow:
From scratch: In your workflow templates, click Add Workflow, give it a name, and start adding actions.
Duplicate an existing workflow: Select the workflow you want to copy and click the Copy icon. You can edit the duplicate without affecting the original. This is the faster option if your new workflow is similar to one you've already built.
How Do I Know Which Clients Are in a Workflow?
You can check the status of every project running a specific workflow directly from the workflow template.
Go to the workflow template → click the gear icon ⚙️ on the right → scroll to the bottom and click View Workflow.
You'll see a chart showing each project and client name, along with whether their workflow is active, completed, or paused. You can also see the status of every individual step, whether it's completed, in progress, deleted from that project, or failed to run.
Workflow overview chart
What Does "Update Project Workflows" Mean?
At the bottom of any workflow template in Dubsado 2.0 you'll see a button that says Update Project Workflows.
Update project workflow button
If you click it, you’ll see the following warning message:
Warning when clicking update project workflow
If you've made changes to a workflow template and click this button, those changes will be pushed to all projects currently running that workflow. It's a way to bulk update without going into each project individually.
A few important things to know before you use it:
The warning popup will always appear, even if no projects are currently running the workflow
Any new actions you've added will be placed at the end of the workflow for active projects
Actions that have already been completed in a project will not run again, even if you've edited them
It's a useful feature but use it carefully. Make sure the changes you're pushing actually make sense for projects that are already mid-workflow before you click.
Tutorial Video
In this video I walk through all of the tips above, including how to start workflows, how to create them, how to track which clients are in a workflow, and what Update Project Workflows actually does.
Want help with your Dubsado Setup?
If you've worked through these tips and your workflows still aren't running the way you want them to, it might be worth having someone take a proper look. Find out what a done-for-you Dubsado setup actually involves, or if you're ready to talk through your specific situation, book a discovery call and we can figure out what makes sense for you.