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Automation & Workflow Guide

Updated

Insightly’s three automation approaches, and how to build workflow processes that trigger actions when conditions are met.

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Automation options

Three ways to automate in Insightly, including automatic task and event creation, pipelines, and activity sets, alongside workflow automation itself.

Workflow automation

Workflow processes are if/then instructions: when conditions are met, actions fire. Administrators map repeatable processes into them.

Insightly Workflow Automation Structure Diagram — The image shows a nested diagram explaining the four components of an Insightly workflow: Process, Criteria, Triggers, and Actions, using a concrete example where a new London-based contact automatically generates a task and sends an email. This visual helps users understand how to build their own automated workflows by breaking down each required layer of configuration.

Insightly Workflow Automation Structure Diagram

⚠️ Plan workflows carefully. The live guidance warns that workflows can get complex enough to produce a cascade of triggers and actions, so understanding how they interact matters before building.

CRM Process Criteria and Trigger Structure Diagram — The diagram illustrates how a Process in Insightly CRM is organized into Criteria groups (Criteria 1 and Criteria 2), each containing Triggers and Actions that define when and how automation occurs. Criteria 1 shows both an immediate Trigger and a Time Trigger set for 3 days, highlighting how multiple trigger types can be combined within a single criteria group to control automation timing.

CRM Process Criteria and Trigger Structure Diagram

Managing existing workflows

A few things worth knowing: you can create up to 50 workflows per object type, and each workflow keeps a log of its last 100 runs (successful entries retained for 90 days), reviewable per workflow.

Existing workflows can be cloned rather than rebuilt from scratch. Useful when a new process needs the same criteria as one you already have. Cloning duplicates the whole process, criteria, and actions; the copy saves as inactive by default and can be edited independently.

  1. Go to System Settings > Workflow Automation, select a process, and click its three-dot menu, which offers Edit Workflow Process, Show Workflow Log, Clone Workflow, and Delete.
Workflow Actions Dropdown Menu Options — A context menu is displayed in Insightly CRM showing four workflow management options: Edit Workflow Process, Show Workflow Log, Clone Workflow, and Delete. This menu appears when a user clicks the three-dot actions icon next to a workflow, allowing them to manage or troubleshoot existing workflows.

Workflow Actions Dropdown Menu Options

  1. The cloned workflow opens pre-filled with the original’s name, criteria, and actions (record type can’t be changed). Edit the process name, description, and other details via the edit icon, then enable the Active checkbox and save.
Edit Workflow Process Details Form — The image shows the Edit Workflow Process form in Insightly CRM, where a user is configuring a process named “Customer Care Workflow Test” with the Record Type set to Organization and the Active checkbox enabled. This form is where users define and manage workflow automation settings for specific record types.

Edit Workflow Process Details Form

Individual criteria (not just whole processes) can also be edited, deleted, or cloned independently via their own three-dot menu. Cloning criteria alone doesn’t carry over its actions, only the filters and filter logic.

Criteria and Actions Management Menu Options — The image shows a list of automation criteria in Insightly CRM with a right-click context menu open, displaying options to Edit, Delete, or Clone a criteria rule. This would help users understand how to manage existing workflow criteria, including modifying or duplicating rules that trigger automated actions.

Criteria and Actions Management Menu Options

Personalizing workflow emails

When a workflow action sends an email, merge fields can be used in the subject line as well as the body, so the subject can pull in details like the recipient's name or the record it relates to, not just static text.

Webhooks

Webhooks send information from Insightly to an external application, and can be triggered from workflow automation.

Adding a Webhook to a Time Trigger — The screenshot shows the Actions dropdown menu open on a workflow time trigger set for 4 days after the trigger date, with “Add New Webhook” highlighted and indicated by a red arrow. This would matter to readers learning how to attach a webhook action to a scheduled workflow trigger in Insightly CRM.

Adding a Webhook to a Time Trigger

Saving a Webhook Action in Insightly — This dialog box shows the Webhook Action configuration form with a webhook named “Zapier: New Lead to Twilio SMS” and a RequestBin endpoint URL entered. The user is clicking “Save Webhook” to finalize the connection, which is a key step in setting up automated SMS notifications for new leads.

Saving a Webhook Action in Insightly

Webhooks are for users comfortable with custom coding; you’ll need technical staff or a developer if you don’t have programming knowledge. A webhook sends notifications using HTTP POST callbacks to a URL you specify, containing a collection of the record’s Field IDs paired with their values. Insightly’s webhooks use Basic authentication, so you can pass base64-encoded usernames and passwords. To preview what a webhook event looks like before going live, create a test URL with Request Bin and enter it into the URI field.

You can set up a callback URL in your own application to accept the POST and process the data, or use a service like Zapier. If there is no positive acknowledgement when Insightly sends the webhook, it tries two more times and then stops.

Lambda functions

A Lambda function is code your developer writes and uploads into Insightly, used to check, monitor, and update Insightly and other systems. Two trigger types exist: timed triggers that run on a schedule, and event-based triggers.

Lambda Integration Between Insightly and External Systems — A diagram showing how AWS Lambda acts as a middleware connector between Insightly CRM and external business systems like ERP, HR, and Finance, with bidirectional data flow. Lambda can be triggered either by Insightly’s Workflow Automation or on an hourly/daily schedule, making it useful for automating data synchronization across platforms.

Lambda Integration Between Insightly and External Systems

Navigating to Lambda Functions in System Settings — The screenshot shows the Insightly CRM System Settings panel with the left-side navigation menu visible, highlighting the “Lambda Functions” option under the Automation section. This helps users locate where to access Lambda Functions for setting up custom automation within their Insightly account.

Navigating to Lambda Functions in System Settings

Up to 50 functions are allowed per account, written in JavaScript, C#, Java, or Python. A few things to keep in mind: handler names must be prefixed with “index.” to reference the generated document correctly; console.log() output isn’t visible anywhere; and despite the Node.js 18.x label, the fetch API isn’t available. Use the https module instead.

Creating a function

  1. Prepare your code, either for inline entry or as a deployment package.
  2. Go to System Settings > Lambda Functions, click New Function, and enter a name and description.
  3. Choose the Runtime matching your code’s language.
Add Lambda Function Configuration Form — This screenshot shows the form used to create a new Lambda Function in Insightly, with fields for Function Name, Description, Runtime (highlighted, set to .NET Core 2.1), Invocation Payload, Handler Name, Function Package upload, and Environment Variables. The Runtime field is outlined in red, likely drawing attention to the runtime selection as an important step in the setup process.

Add Lambda Function Configuration Form

  1. Select the Invocation Payload: this controls what data gets sent to the function when it’s triggered (for example, “New Field Values Only”).
  2. Enter the Handler Name.
  3. For Node.js or Python, choose Edit Code Inline or Upload a.ZIP file; Java and C# only support upload.
  4. If entering code inline, write or paste it in the field further down the page.
  5. If uploading instead, the package is capped at 50MB.
Add Lambda Function Configuration Form — This screenshot shows the form used to create a new Lambda Function in Insightly CRM, including fields for function name, runtime, handler, and a file upload option limited to 50MB. It also displays an Environment Variables section where users can define name-value pairs before saving the function.

Add Lambda Function Configuration Form

  1. Optionally define Environment Variables: named values (like database connection strings) that the function can reference, so configuration can change without editing the function itself.
Environment Variables Configuration Panel in Insightly — The image shows a settings panel where two environment variables have been defined: “Database” with value “Test_DB” and “DB_Connection” with value “Prod_DB.” This feature allows users to store and manage named values that can be referenced across automations or integrations, making it easier to switch configurations without editing each workflow individually.

Environment Variables Configuration Panel in Insightly

ℹ️ If the function is triggered by a workflow, its input is a JSON object containing the triggering record’s new values (and, if “New and Old Field Value” is selected as the Invocation Payload, the record’s prior values too). The exact schema is object-specific. Reference Insightly’s API documentation for the full field list when building against it.

Using a Lambda function

Insightly Actions Menu With Lambda Function Option — The screenshot shows an expanded “Actions” dropdown menu in Insightly CRM, with the “Run Lambda Function” option highlighted by a red box. This callout helps readers identify exactly where to find the Lambda Function trigger within the workflow actions menu.

1 Insightly Actions Menu With Lambda Function Option

 Lambda Function Scheduled Trigger Setup Link — This shows the Lambda Function Details panel in Insightly CRM, featuring a clickable link labeled “Add Scheduled Trigger for Function” under the Lambda Function Triggers section. This link allows users to configure a time-based trigger that will automatically run a Lambda function on a set schedule.

2 Lambda Function Scheduled Trigger Setup Link
Lambda Function Trigger Schedule Dropdown Options — A dropdown menu for setting a Lambda Function Trigger schedule shows three options: “Every Hour,” “Once Daily,” and a default placeholder. This setting controls how frequently an automated Lambda function runs, which is important for users configuring automation timing in Insightly CRM.

3 Lambda Function Trigger Schedule Dropdown Options

 Lambda Function Details Panel in Insightly — This screenshot shows the configuration screen for a Lambda function called “Add lead to Marketo,” which has two triggers—a workflow trigger and an hourly schedule—and runs on Node.js 6.10. This would help users understand how to set up automated functions that sync converted lead data, such as name and email, to a Marketo campaign.

4 Lambda Function Details Panel in Insightly

Functions run with a 30 second timeout. If a function fails to run three consecutive times, it is automatically disabled. Environment variables have their own constraints: the total size of the variable set cannot exceed 4 KB, each name must start with a letter [a-zA-Z], and fields can only contain alphanumeric characters and underscores.

Things to keep in mind

Workflow processes can get complex, so plan carefully and learn how they work before building, to avoid a cascade of triggers and actions that make more changes than intended.

Emails sent through workflows count toward your daily email sending limit, and because a copy is saved to the Emails tab, they count toward your record limit as well.

Except for leads, all new records created through workflows are linked to the record that triggers them. Leads don’t support linking the way other records do, so they’ll only be linked to their emails and tasks.

Actions taken by one workflow cannot trigger the criteria of another workflow. If one workflow creates a task and another is set to send an email when a task is created, the task from the first won’t trigger the second.

When a workflow action changes a Pipeline stage, it won’t trigger an activity set related to the new stage; re-create those tasks and events in the workflow’s actions instead. When a workflow action updates a field, it overwrites the current value.

The user who triggers a workflow action becomes the creator and owner of any new records that action creates.

All scheduled action times are triggered based on UTC/GMT (Greenwich/London time). Project milestones are not available in workflows.

If a workflow has been triggered and schedules an action for a future date, that action won’t be rescheduled if the workflow is triggered again. Once scheduled, it’s treated as a pending action and Insightly won’t replace it.

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