Help center      Common Questions  
What is the Difference Between Workflows and Workflow Runs?

What is the Difference Between Workflows and Workflow Runs?

Updated March 7, 2024

Workflows and Workflow Runs are the building blocks of everything you do in Process Street. In simple terms, a workflow is the master version of your process and a workflow run is a single instance of that same process, in which you implement the work.

For each process in your business, you build a workflow first, then you run the workflow each time you need to work through that process. While each process will have just one workflow, the number of runs you create from it can be limitless.

For example, if you have a workflow for your client onboarding process, you will run a workflow for each individual client. This way, even if you are onboarding 20 new clients at the same time, you know exactly what progress has been made for each client and what needs to be done.

You can check the progress of workflow runs at any time and, once you’ve assigned your teammates to tasks within them, you can keep an eye on who is accountable for certain parts of your process too.

Workflow Runs are dynamic, whilst the Workflows you create them from are static.

With features like Conditional Logic, Stop Tasks, Approvals, Role Assignments, Task Permissions, or Dynamic Due Dates built into your workflows, you’ll be able to create some incredibly dynamic runs from them.

Assigning tasks to users or groups in your workflows also creates natural accountability within your team. Each one is responsible for the tasks assigned to them, allowing you to collaborate with ease.

Workflow Runs also act as a track record of exactly who did what and when, since all of your data is captured within them. You can export information from them any time or simply refer back to them as needed.

There are many ways that you can run workflows, which can help you save time and really streamline your business.

Learn more about how to build out your workflows with extra features, forms and content by using The 5 Stages of Process Building.

What if you need documents for reference only?

Some businesses only want to document their processes for reference, which you can do with Pages.

Better yet, Pages can be shared with your whole team and linked to and from your workflows.

Discover Process Street

Use Process Street to make your team processes fun, fast and faultless. We'll help you transform your team's static checklists into powerful interactive workflows!

Learn more about Process Street

YouTube videos
Deep dive into Process Street with our YouTube video series.
Join a webinar
Effectively record, replicate, and replace your workflow!
See latest releases
Catch up on the latest releases and enhancements.
Join the community
Share with others about how you are using the app day to day.

Take control of your workflows today.