Run a workflow and follow it
Start a workflow for a company, watch each step on the run page, and find out why a run waited, failed or stopped.
Screenshots are retaken from IQ Entities on every release. Updated 14 October 2026.
A workflow set to start by hand runs when you say so, for the company you choose. Every run, however it started, has a page of its own that shows each step as it happens: what it did, what it is waiting for, and what went wrong if it failed. Workflows must be switched on for your organisation.
Start a run
Open Workflows and find the workflow under Your workflows. Choose Run on its card.
Answer what the workflow asks. For a workflow about one company, choose the company; every step then runs against it. Choose Start the run.
You can also run a workflow from a company's own page: its overview has a Workflows card listing the workflows you can run by hand, each with Run. Started there, the run is about that company and nobody is asked to choose it.
A requirement can also be set to run one of your workflows from its task, with Run a workflow on the task (see Write your own requirement).
Follow the run
The run page opens as soon as the run starts. It shows what the run is about, the version of the workflow it uses, how it started, and how many steps are complete. Each step lists what it did, with links to the tasks, documents or records it made.
A run that is not working shows one of these:
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Needs approval | A step is waiting for someone to approve it | Approve or Reject on the step (Get approval in a workflow) |
| Waiting for a reply | A Request information step is waiting for the person asked | Read and accept the reply, or ask again (Ask for information in a workflow) |
| Waiting | A Wait step is pausing the run; the page says until when | Nothing: it carries on by itself |
| Failed | A step could not do its job, and the steps after it did not run | Read why, fix the cause, then run it again |
| Cancelled | Someone rejected an approval or chose Cancel | Start a new run if the work is still needed |
To stop a run that is waiting or still running, choose Cancel at the top of the run page.
Find out why a run failed
On the Workflows page, choose the link beside Recent runs that shows all runs. Workflow runs lists every run, with how it started, what it was about, who it acts as, and the problem if it failed. Search by workflow or record, or filter by Status, How it started or Workflow.
Open the run. Workflow failed gives the reason in a sentence and, where there is one, what to do about it; Show details has the full account.
Fix the cause, in the workflow or in the records, and run it again. A failed run is not resumed, and the person who started it is told it failed.
Tips from practice
- Most failures come from a run about the wrong thing: a step that changes a company in a run started for the whole organisation, or a request to the run's person in a run about a company. The reason says which.
- The run keeps the version it started with, so a change to the workflow does not alter a run already under way. See Change or pause a workflow.
- Check the run of a new workflow before relying on it: open each task or document it made from the step that made it.