Workflows
A workflow is an if-this-then-that rule for your church. When a new member registers, send a welcome WhatsApp message after 1 hour. When a member misses 6 weeks of service, notify the shepherd. When a donation arrives, post in the staff team chat.
GCM ships a visual builder (powered by XYFlow) where you drag triggers and actions, connect them, and turn it on. No code, no scripting.
The mental model
Every workflow has three parts:
- One or more triggers — what fires the workflow. (Usually a single trigger; advanced workflows can junction multiple.)
- A sequence of actions — what happens. Can branch on conditions, wait for delays, loop over a list.
- A status — draft / active / paused.
When the trigger fires, GCM enqueues a run — one execution attempt for one subject (e.g. one specific member). The run walks through the actions in order. The history of runs is in Monitoring runs.
Why visual
Workflows can get complicated quickly. The visual layout makes "what does this thing actually do" obvious at a glance. Pastors and admins who aren't comfortable with code can read and edit them confidently.
The downside is that very-long workflows become an unwieldy node graph. For those we recommend splitting into smaller workflows that hand off via custom events or workflow chains.
What you can trigger on
The full list is in Triggers. The most common:
| Trigger | Use case |
|---|---|
member.created | Welcome message to new sign-ups |
member.birthday | Birthday greeting |
attendance.marked | Thank-you after a service |
giving.recorded | Receipt + appreciation |
member.marked_lost | Re-engagement outreach |
member.recovered | "Welcome back" |
form.submitted | Visitor form follow-up |
schedule | Recurring cron (e.g. weekly digest) |
manual | Run a workflow on demand |
webhook.received | External system triggers |
What you can do
The full list is in Actions. Categories:
- Member actions — find, create, update, mark lost, change membership type.
- Communication — send WhatsApp, SMS, email, in-app notification.
- Flow control — condition, split, wait, loop, branch.
- Data — set variables, math, lookup.
- Integration — call a webhook, create a task.
Permissions
| Action | Admin | Shepherd | Member |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create / edit workflow | yes | no | no |
| View workflow definitions | yes | view-only | no |
| View runs | yes | scoped to unit | no |
| Manually trigger | yes | no | no |
Workflows are admin-only by default — they can touch any member in the org and send to any channel, so we gate them tightly.
Plan availability
Workflows are available on every plan. Some advanced features (multi-trigger junctions, complex conditional branching) work the same regardless of plan, but very-large workflow runs can be throttled on lower tiers to keep the queue healthy.
Next steps
- Visual builder — get oriented with the canvas.
- Triggers — pick what fires the workflow.
- Actions — pick what it does.
- Multi-step & delays — chain steps with timing.
- Newcomer follow-up workflow — end-to-end recipe.