Workflow States
A state corresponds to a stage or status of a record within a specific business process. A workflow can contain as many states as determined by the business process. Every NetSuite workflow must contain at least one state.
Each state can contain actions and links to other states through transitions. When a record enters a state in a workflow, the actions execute according to the action triggers and conditions, and in the order they appear in the state. Then, any transitions to the next state in the workflow execute. Actions and transitions can also contain conditions that determine when or how they execute.
The first state in a workflow is the entry state, or when the record enters the workflow. The entry state in a workflow is indicated with a Start icon in the diagrammer and the Start State property enabled for the state. A workflow can consist of only a single state, called a single state workflow.
The last state in a workflow is the end state, indicated by the End icon in the diagrammer. The diagrammer indicates states with no outgoing transitions as end states. A workflow can have multiple end states. In addition, an end state can be set to not exit the workflow, called a non-exiting state.
The following example shows a sample two state workflow for an Opportunity record, where the workflow does not exit after it enters the second state:
You can create all of the states in your workflow at one time. You may find it easier to create all workflow states during the initial layout phase and then go back and edit states to add transitions and actions.
State Properties
You set properties for a state in the Workflow State window. You can open this window from the Edit icon in the context panel.
You also use the Workflow State window to create and edit the following workflow elements:
-
Actions. See Workflow Actions.
-
Transitions. See Workflow Transitions.
-
State fields. See Workflow Custom Fields.
The following screenshot shows the Workflow State window:
More Information about States
Use the following table to get more information about working with states in a workflow:
|
Task |
For more information |
|---|---|
|
State properties and adding a state to a workflow |
|
|
Editing a state |
|
|
Deleting a state |
|
|
Creating a state field |
|
|
Working with exit states |
|
|
Creating a non-exiting state |
|
|
View state reference information |