Choose when a workflow runs
Set a workflow to run when someone starts it, on a schedule, before a deadline, when something changes, or when a document arrives.
Screenshots are retaken from IQ Entities on every release. Updated 14 October 2026.
Every workflow starts somewhere: a person pressing Run, the first day of the quarter, a confirmation statement coming due, a director being appointed. The trigger also decides what each run is about, which matters as soon as a step has to act on a company or ask a person something. Workflows must be switched on for your organisation before Workflows appears in the sidebar.
The question that decides the trigger: does a person decide when this work starts, or does something in the calendar or the records?
Choose the trigger
In the workflow builder, choose the first card on the canvas, the one that begins Starts. A new workflow opens with it already selected.
Under When should it run?, choose one of the six triggers.
| Situation | Choose |
|---|---|
| Someone decides each time, for a company they pick | When someone runs it |
| A routine on a fixed cycle: a monthly check, a quarterly round, an annual review | On a schedule |
| Work that has to be done ahead of a filing or other deadline on the compliance calendar | Before a deadline |
| Work that follows a change in your records: a new company, an appointment, a resignation | When something changes in IQ Entities |
| A letter or document that arrives by email | When a document is emailed in |
| Another system (a practice management or HR system) should start it | When another system tells us |
When someone runs it
A workflow that starts by hand can be run from the Workflows page, from a company's page, or from a task. Under What is each run about?, choose One company, chosen each time if the steps act on a company: whoever runs it picks the company, or starts it from that company's page. Choose Nothing specific for work across the whole organisation.
To ask for more when it starts, such as a matter reference or the documents to work on, choose Add a question. Each question becomes a field on the form a person fills in to start a run, and Must be answered makes it required.
On a schedule
Choose Every day, Every week, Every month, Every quarter or Every year, then the day and the time. For a quarterly schedule, Which month of the quarter decides whether it runs in January, April, July and October or one of the two months after.
Days stop at 28, because a later day would be skipped in short months. A scheduled run is about nothing in particular, so add a Find records step to choose the companies it works on.
Before a deadline
Set How long before it falls due in days (the buttons offer 7, 14, 30 and 60), and under Only tasks whose name contains type part of the task's name, such as "Confirmation statement". Leave it empty to run for every task.
It runs once for each company, for each task that comes that close to its due date, including tasks already that close when you switch it on. If a due date moves, it runs again for the new date. Each run is about the company whose task is due, and steps can quote the task's name, its due date and the days left with Insert data.
When something changes
Under Run when, choose the change, grouped by area: an entity being created or updated, An officer is appointed, An officer resigns, A shareholding is recorded, A filing is updated, A meeting is scheduled, A resolution is recorded and others.
The record the event happened to becomes what the run is about. For an appointment, a resignation, a KYC request or a shareholding, the run is also about the person the event names, so a step can ask that person directly.
When a document is emailed in, or another system tells us
When a document is emailed in runs every time mail arrives at your organisation's inbound email address, set up in Settings. The run receives the documents and who sent them.
When another system tells us gives the workflow a web address once it is saved, to paste into the other system. Under Check each delivery, Trust the URL alone suits most systems; choose Check a signature (HMAC SHA-256) when the sender can sign what it sends, and enter the Shared secret you gave it.
Save it
Choose Done. The first card on the canvas now reads the trigger as a sentence.
Add the steps, then choose Save. Any trigger other than When someone runs it is switched on as soon as the workflow is saved.
Tips from practice
- Runs that start on their own act as you, the person who saved the workflow, and can do only what you can. Saving creates an API key for the workflow, listed with your others under Settings (see Create an API key).
- Prefer Before a deadline to a schedule for filing work. It follows each company's own due date, where a schedule runs for every company on the same day.
- A trigger that fires too often pauses itself. See Change or pause a workflow.
- Next, add what the workflow does: Add the steps of a workflow.