Overview
Before you turn on a workflow, you want to know it will reach the right audience, at the right time, and behave the way you expect. The Pre-Activation Checklist reviews your workflow's key configurations — audience, trigger, scheduling, and more — so you can catch potential issues before the workflow goes live.
When should I use the Pre-Activation Checklist?
Use the checklist before activating a workflow when you want to:
- Confirm who can enter the workflow.
- Understand when an entity will enter the workflow.
- Verify that your trigger and audience work together as intended.
- Check whether frequency or scheduling rules could affect workflow execution.
- Review how variables and paths are configured.
- Identify potential configuration issues before the workflow goes live.
Where can I access it?
You can open the Pre-Activation Checklist from two places:
Sense IQ: Available as a recommended option when you're on a workflow page.
During workflow activation: Clicking Activate now prompts you to review and optimize your workflow before activation, with an option to open the checklist.
How it works
The checklist reviews the following configurations. Once you're confident they match your intended business process, you can activate the workflow.
List Summary (your audience)
The List Summary shows the audience associated with your workflow:
- Current list size — the number of entities that currently meet the list criteria.
- List conditions — the rules that determine who is included in the list.
- Trigger relationship — how the list and trigger criteria work together to determine who can enter the workflow.
Being on the list doesn't guarantee an entity enters the workflow. The list determines who is eligible; the trigger determines when an eligible entity can enter. For example, if your list contains candidates who meet a specific status, only those candidates are eligible — but the configured trigger must still occur before any of them enter the workflow.
Best practice: Before activating, confirm that:
- The list contains the audience you expect.
- The list conditions match your intended business rules.
- The current list size is reasonable for the workflow.
- You understand how the trigger will act on members of the list.
Trigger timing
The trigger determines the event or condition that lets an eligible entity enter the workflow. Before activating, make sure you understand what causes the workflow to trigger, when it will and won't occur, and how it interacts with the workflow list.
A workflow may not behave as expected if you consider the trigger and the audience separately. An entity can be part of your list without entering the workflow — it also needs the trigger event or condition to occur.
Best practice: Ask yourself, “If an entity is part of my list, what exactly needs to happen for it to enter this workflow?” If you can't answer clearly, review your trigger and list configuration before activating.
Frequency settings
Frequency settings control how often workflow actions can occur, and can be configured at the workflow level and the node level. Review both to understand the final behavior.
Example: Say you set a workflow-level frequency limit to prevent external recipients from receiving communications too often. A specific node meant for internal recipients can be configured differently, where supported — so internal recipients follow the node-specific behavior while external recipients still follow the workflow-level limit.
Best practice: Don't assume a workflow-level frequency setting applies identically to every node. Review any node-level overrides before activating and confirm they're intentional.
Blackout configurations
Blackout configurations can prevent workflow actions from running during specified periods. Review these when the timing of your workflow actions matters.
Best practice: Before activating, verify that your blackout configuration matches the operational requirements of the workflow.
Field variables
If your workflow uses field variables, review them — especially when messages or actions include dynamic details like candidate or job information.
Example: If an email is supposed to include a candidate's name or job title, verify the corresponding variables will resolve correctly.
Best practice: Review important variables before activating, rather than after the workflow goes live.
Paths
If your workflow uses Paths, review the conditions that determine which Path an entity follows.
Example: If candidates with different statuses should get different follow-up actions, you can use path conditions to route them into the right branch.
Best practice: For each path, ask “Which entities should enter this path, and why?” Confirm the configured conditions produce the audience you intend for each branch.
Static Email Detection
Static Email Detection identifies email nodes where a fixed email address is configured instead of a dynamic field variable.
Example: If recruiting@company.com is entered directly into multiple email nodes, all of them will always send to that address, regardless of which entity moves through the workflow. If the recipient should change based on the entity or context, use a dynamic field variable instead.
Best practice: Use dynamic field variables when the recipient should be determined by workflow context — for example, a recruiter or owner email field instead of one fixed address. This helps you:
- Personalize workflow communications.
- Avoid sending communications to an unintended or outdated recipient.
- Reduce manual configuration when the recipient changes.
- Ensure communications are routed to the appropriate person.
Static email addresses can still be appropriate when a communication is intentionally meant for a fixed recipient or shared mailbox — for example, compliance@company.com. Review any static email addresses the checklist detects and confirm each one is intentionally configured as a fixed recipient.
Note Writeback (NWB)
Note Writeback lets workflow activity get written back to the relevant record, so teams can see a fuller activity history. The checklist may recommend enabling it when doing so would add visibility into workflow activity.
Example: If a workflow sends a candidate a follow-up email, enabling Note Writeback means the activity can be captured as a note on the candidate's record, making it easier for recruiters and operations teams to see what happened.
Best practice: Enable Note Writeback when workflow activity needs to be visible outside the workflow itself, particularly if recruiters or other users regularly review the record.
Path time scope
Path time scope determines the time period considered when evaluating whether an entity meets a path condition. Review it when your path conditions depend on when something happened — such as an email or SMS being sent, an activity occurring, or a previous node action taking place.
Example: If you want to send a follow-up only when a candidate hasn't received an email in the last 7 days, use a defined time period (like “the last 7 days”) so the path evaluates only recent, relevant activity.
Best practice: Use a defined time period whenever your business rule is meant to evaluate time-bound activity — for example, “If the candidate has not been contacted in the last 7 days, send a follow-up.” The path should evaluate activity within that relevant period.
Benefits
The Pre-Activation Checklist helps you:
- Get a single, high-level summary of your workflow configuration.
- Verify important settings before activating the workflow.
- Discover optimization opportunities and best-practice recommendations.
- Navigate directly to relevant settings for faster updates.
- Launch workflows with greater confidence.