Make Workflow Automations editable by anyone with permission

The fact that workflow automations can only be edited by the creator is a problem.

Multiple users manage automations and if an automation needs to be edited, only the creator can edit. What if they are away or no longer with the organization?

Please make it possible for any user with permissions to edit workflow automations.

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  • Bernd Auer www.pd-experts.com
    edited July 2022 #2

    The admins should be able to work on automations even if another user created them. If an employee leaves the company and he created an important automation, I have to rebuild it if I want to change something. Besides that: I have no clue what these automations really do. An angry ex colleague could send emails to his private account like "won deals" from my company. At least, I should be able to duplicate these automations. 

    Please do not hesitate to ask me if you have any questions about it.

  • Marcelo Silva_43
    Marcelo Silva_43 Posts: 275
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    edited December 2022 #3

    Exato, concordo.

    Um log seria muito bom, alem de saber se esta funcionando, dará para saber quais automações são redundantes, quais são pouco usadas

    Agrupar as automações 

    E permitir que o adm gerencie as automações independe de quem as fez.

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Posts: 4,052
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    PRODUCT MANAGER
    edited December 2022 #4

    @Bernd Auer thanks for sharing your suggestion. I've updated your topic to include the topic "feedback & suggestions" this is where these kinda post come best to their right :) 

  • Adina Faiman
    Adina Faiman Posts: 18
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    edited December 2022 #5

    Hi Bernard 👋 In fact engineers can reassign all of the automations and templates to any user.                                                       

  • Bernd Auer www.pd-experts.com
    edited December 2022 #6

    Hi Bernard 👋 In fact engineers can reassign all of the automations and templates to any user.                                                       

    Hi Adina,

    good to know! And good to know that the engineers are aware, that this is an issue. So I hope this feature will be developed soon :-) Thank you for the information!!!

  • Mike van der Valk
    Mike van der Valk Posts: 4,052
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    PRODUCT MANAGER
    edited December 2022 #7

    @Nuno Oliveira just tagging you here to take some notes :) 

  • Nuno Oliveira
    Nuno Oliveira Posts: 91
    10 Comments Second Anniversary 5 Likes Name Dropper
    PRODUCT MANAGER
    edited December 2022 #8

    @Nuno Oliveira just tagging you here to take some notes :) 

    Notes taken!

  • Wes Sudsbury
    Wes Sudsbury Posts: 2
    First Comment
    edited July 2022 #9

    Hello, we have been using pipedrive with a small internal sales team at my company for about a year now.  We've recently added many of our external sales reps to our account.  Most of the external sales team's process/workflow is the same but the triggered tasks are assigned to different people than the internal sales teams tasks.  

    I was hoping to duplicate automation for specific tasks and change whom the triggered activities were assigned to, then have the external sales team turn off the main automation created, then turn on their specific automation.  I don't see where this is possible - they are set up as regular users, not admin users - so they may create automation but it doesn't look like they can see the automation's built buy others in order to turn these on or off.  

    I don't see where I can change this in their visibility settings.  If there is no way to do this, I will have to change all of the automation built and have each user individually set their own automation up manually.  Has anyone else encountered this challenge in their business?  How did you work around it?

  • Inês Batata
    Inês Batata Admin Posts: 2,917
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    COMMUNITY MANAGER
    edited December 2022 #10

    Hi @Wes Sudsbury , thank you for your feedback ad for documenting your use case so clearly!

    Users can duplicate the automations they create, but unfortunately at the moment it's not possible to assign them to other users. 

    Admin users can see and activate/deactivate automations created by others, but can't edit them. Regular users can only see automations they created. Each user can only edit automations created by themselves. 

    So for your use case, I'd recommend one of the following options:

    • Have an Admin create all the necessary automations to assign leads to different users. Make sure that you include the right user as triggerer and/or owner of the task the automation creates. Or;
       
    • Take a screenshot of the general automation you created and send it to the individual users so they can replicate it and only change certain conditions (for example, who the task gets assigned to). Also be mindful of the "Triggered by me only"/"Triggered by any user" option at the left hand corner of the screen.


    I can see how copying an automation and assigning it to another user could be useful, so I've forwarded your suggestion internally for consideration.

    Hope that helps!

     

  • Wes Sudsbury
    Wes Sudsbury Posts: 2
    First Comment
    edited December 2022 #11

    Hi @Wes Sudsbury , thank you for your feedback ad for documenting your use case so clearly!

    Users can duplicate the automations they create, but unfortunately at the moment it's not possible to assign them to other users. 

    Admin users can see and activate/deactivate automations created by others, but can't edit them. Regular users can only see automations they created. Each user can only edit automations created by themselves. 

    So for your use case, I'd recommend one of the following options:

    • Have an Admin create all the necessary automations to assign leads to different users. Make sure that you include the right user as triggerer and/or owner of the task the automation creates. Or;
       
    • Take a screenshot of the general automation you created and send it to the individual users so they can replicate it and only change certain conditions (for example, who the task gets assigned to). Also be mindful of the "Triggered by me only"/"Triggered by any user" option at the left hand corner of the screen.


    I can see how copying an automation and assigning it to another user could be useful, so I've forwarded your suggestion internally for consideration.

    Hope that helps!

     

    Thanks @Inês Batata .  Hmm ok something to think on further.  

    The main problem is where activities get assigned.  EG  Activity 1 is completed, create activity 2 and assign to user x.  User X might be different depending on the deal owner.  Everything else seems to be working fine.  I'll come up with something I'm sure :)

  • Joseph Valenti
    Joseph Valenti Posts: 73
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    edited December 2022 #12

    Hi Wes,

    When next we speak, I can explain that Pipedrive has a philosophy (correct, I think) that dictates that email in particular can be generated only by a person who explicitly intended to send it. This has implications. Among those implications is that an Admin cannot create automations for others that could-possibly result in email. Other implications, and other similar philosophies, result in the framework that @Inês Batata describes.

    I would be happy to replicate the desired automations in your users' accounts for you. Let me know.

    We can also chat about what we've done with Integromat and Zapier to make certain other behaviours possible.

  • Julia Wester_34171
    edited December 2022 #13

    Can you set up that a specific email goes out by the owner of the deal? I think all subscriptions have a limited number of workflow automations you can set up so the inability to do general automations will be limiting.

  • Julia Wester_34171
    edited December 2022 #14

    At minimum, admins should be able to see the details of any automation even if we can't edit them. Is there any update on this request? Is it on the roadmap at all? As a new trial-er where can we go to get that kind of info?

  • Kilian Heide
    Kilian Heide Posts: 20
    10 Comments
    edited July 2022 #15

    Hello there,

    Are there any plans for the future, where the workflow automations can be edited by more than one person?

    I think it is a bit dangerous to only hold the automations by only one user. If the user of an active workflow automation gets ill or worse, leave the company, I'm only able to delete this workflow without even knowing what this workflow used to do.

  • Jared Wiener
    Jared Wiener Posts: 15
    10 Comments
    edited December 2022 #16

    Yes we would love this ability as well! 

  • Fabrizio Nicolosi_33821
    edited December 2022 #17

    My suggest is that every automation are assigned and creating with admin account.

  • Jared Wiener
    Jared Wiener Posts: 15
    10 Comments
    edited December 2022 #18

    My suggest is that every automation are assigned and creating with admin account.

    @Fabrizio Nicolosi are you suggesting that would resolve this problem? Or are you suggesting that as another solution for PD to implement? From what I understand, that is currently not available. 

  • Fabrizio Nicolosi_33821
    edited December 2022 #19

    My suggest is that every automation are assigned and creating with admin account.

    Yes is not available for the moment, but if you create all automation in your account you don't have the risk that someone leave the company with workflow "settings".

    Another thing is that if you haves employe you should have it's login and you can change the workflow.

    In the end when you create a workflow you should always write comment and specific what automation do.

  • Jared Wiener
    Jared Wiener Posts: 15
    10 Comments
    edited December 2022 #20

    My suggest is that every automation are assigned and creating with admin account.

    Sure, thanks. However we have multiple people on our Marketing team responsible for different aspects of the CRM, including automations. What you are suggesting is basically "share your passwords" -- not exactly a secure method for a system to be used by a Manager or Admin. 

  • Kilian Heide
    Kilian Heide Posts: 20
    10 Comments
    edited December 2022 #21

    My suggest is that every automation are assigned and creating with admin account.

    I have to agree with Jared.
    It is no option for us to share the passwords.
    So i need an option from Pipedrive to see the workflows of collegues and in best case to edit them.

  • Fabrizio Nicolosi_33821
    edited December 2022 #22

    Mine are just suggestion to help.

    use the admin account to create automation and stop.

    for the moment no other way

  • Emil Grönvall
    Emil Grönvall Posts: 1
    First Comment
    edited December 2022 #23

    We would also like this feature.

  • Kilian Heide
    Kilian Heide Posts: 20
    10 Comments
    edited December 2022 #24

    At Pipedrive development:  Is there any solution planned for this problem?
    I really require this one.

  • Gaëlle
    Gaëlle Posts: 15
    10 Comments First Anniversary Photogenic
    edited December 2022 #25

    Any news about that? 

    Automation can  be created from the admin account as suggested, but what about automation with e-mail sending action? Our problem is that all our emails are then sent from the admin adress. ... so that's not a solution.

  • Kilian Heide
    Kilian Heide Posts: 20
    10 Comments
    edited December 2022 #26
    Gaëlle said:

    Any news about that? 

    Automation can  be created from the admin account as suggested, but what about automation with e-mail sending action? Our problem is that all our emails are then sent from the admin adress. ... so that's not a solution.

    Unfortunately  Pipedrive seems to has no prblem with this.

    I startet to create my workflow automations with Power Automate from Microsoft.
    There you can share your workflow automations without sharing any passwords. And you can send Mails with Power Automate as well.
    Too bad that Pipedrive won't work on this one.

  • Elizabeth Geli
    Elizabeth Geli Posts: 1
    First Comment
    edited December 2022 #27

    +1 that it would be a HUGE help to share/collaborate on workflows with my colleagues. 

  • Ann Holland
    Ann Holland Posts: 1
    First Comment
    edited December 2022 #28

    +1 totally agree....would also be great to allow more than 10 steps in each workflow automation 

  • Andy Theimer
    Andy Theimer Posts: 10
    First Comment Photogenic
    edited December 2022 #29

    Yes, please add this.  

  • Customer Care_82278
    edited December 2022 #30

    Maybe we should be offered a free Admin account that can send/receive emails and provide generic automations for all staff.  We have the same problem, that marketing and reminder emails are sent from the company, not the staff member, so we are currently having to pay for an extra seat.

  • Paul McClenaghan
    Paul McClenaghan Posts: 16
    10 Comments Second Anniversary Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited December 2022 #31

    Hi all,

    I would like to add another voice to this discussion. In my org I'm the person who was responsible for designing and building the sales pipeline and all the automations etc. And now I'm the sole person who manages those ongoing. There's now a requirement for me to move on to other tasks and pass the responsibility of adjusting/managing, and possibly creating, new automations to someone more junior in the company. And this seems to me like a scenario that would be quite common.

    We have 50+ automations running in my user account and a few in individual accounts where the email signatures were needed. So if I'm to pass on responsibility of managing those 50 what's the best approach? It doesn't seem right that my colleague would have to log in using my details and manage those. When 2fa is switched on it becomes annoying going through security each time!

    We could redo the automations in the colleagues account but that's duplication of work and kind of goes against the whole ethos of using something like PD in the first place!

    I know we can use Zapier as a way of keeping the automations non-pipedrive user specific, and we do that already for tasks that PD can't do, but clearly that's not ideal either.

    So in conclusion I think there's a pretty strong use case for being about to assign the editing and ownership of automations between users and it seems to me that many many users will come up against this issue eventually.

    Could I request a response from someone at Pipedrive as to whether there's some work going on in this direction please?

    Many thanks