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All About Workflow Triggers: A Master Help Guide

Understand what workflow triggers are available, the difference between them, and how to use them.

Grace from Ivorey™ avatar
Written by Grace from Ivorey™
Updated over a week ago

What Is A Workflow Trigger?

A trigger is the starting point of a workflow - meaning it tells the system when to start running the automation. Whether you're sending emails, tagging leads, assigning tasks, or managing access, this guide helps you choose the right trigger for the job.

Each section is short, practical, and written to help you understand what the trigger does, when to use it, and any filters or notes to be aware of. Use this as your go-to reference when building or updating workflows inside Ivorey.


List Of Workflow Triggers

👩 Click here for a list of Contact triggers

  • Contact Tag: Runs when a specific tag is added or removed from a contact. Useful for triggering actions like sending emails, assigning tasks, or moving someone in your pipeline. You choose whether the workflow reacts to a tag being added, removed, or both. It won’t trigger for tags already on the contact, only when the tag is newly added or removed.

  • Contact Changed: Fires whenever specific contact details are updated, such as tags being added or removed, custom fields being changed, or a new user being assigned. You can choose exactly which type of change to watch for. It does not detect what the old value was, only that a change happened.

  • Contact Created: Fires when a brand new contact is added to your CRM manually, via form, API, or integration. Useful for sending welcome emails, assigning leads, or kicking off onboarding. It does not trigger for contacts added through bulk imports. Filters can be used to limit when the workflow runs, such as by tag, custom field, or source.

  • Birthday Reminder: Fires at 8 AM (in your account timezone) when a contact’s birthday matches the current date. Great for sending birthday emails, discount offers, or reminders. Only works if the contact has a valid birthdate stored.

  • Contact DND: Triggers when a Do Not Disturb gets enabled or disabled for a contact. Useful for automatically tagging contacts, pausing workflows, or adjusting communication based on their preferences. You can filter to run only when DND is turned on or off, and even narrow it down by specific channels like SMS, email, or calls

  • Custom Date Reminder: Triggers based on a specific date stored in a contact’s custom field, such as a contract renewal, policy purchase, or appointment. It runs daily and can be configured to trigger before, after, or exactly on the date. Use filters to narrow it to specific contact tags, months, or days. This is ideal for sending reminders, renewals, or follow-ups tied to important dates.

  • Note Changed: Trigger runs anytime a contact's note is edited. Use it to automate actions like assigning tasks to another team member for review or tagging contacts when updates are made to their record. Filters like “Has Tag” or “Doesn’t Have Tag” can be applied to narrow down which contacts activate the workflow. It does not trigger on note deletions.

  • Task Added: Runs when a new task is created on a contact’s record. Useful for sending notifications, updating task fields, or triggering follow-up actions. You can filter by assigned user to target specific tasks. It only fires when the task is newly added, not when tasks are edited or completed.

  • Task Reminder: Runs based on a task's due date and can trigger actions before or after the due date using filters. Useful for sending reminders, updating statuses, or prompting follow-up. You can choose to trigger a set number of days before or after the task is due.

  • Trigger Link Clicked: Starts a workflow when a contact clicks a specific trigger link (setup under Marketing > Trigger Links). These links can be used in emails, SMS, or other messages. You must select the exact link that should trigger the workflow. A simple use case is tagging a contact or sending your sales team a notification if a specific link is clicked.

  • Contact Engagement Score: Starts a workflow when a contact meets specific engagement score criteria. You can filter based on score (e.g. greater than 195) and optional fields like business niche. Useful for segmenting active contacts, triggering follow-ups, or adjusting marketing based on how engaged someone is.

🔍 Click here for a list of Event triggers

  • Email Events: Starts a workflow when a contact opens an email, clicks a link, unsubscribes, bounces, or marks it as spam. You can filter by event type and optionally restrict it to a specific workflow. This is useful for triggering follow-ups, tagging contacts, removing disengaged users, or logging engagement data based on real-time email interactions.

  • Call Status: Starts a workflow when a call ends with a specific status like busy, voicemail, completed, canceled, or not answered. You can filter by call direction (incoming or outgoing) and by the exact call outcome. Common uses include sending follow-ups for missed calls, logging call results, assigning tasks, or scheduling callbacks automatically.

  • Customer Replied: Starts a workflow when a contact replies to an email, SMS, or other message. You can filter by specific words or phrases in the reply, the reply channel (like email or WhatsApp), intent type (e.g. positive or complaint), tags the contact has or doesn’t have, and whether they replied to a different workflow. This allows for highly targeted automations like follow-ups, assigning tasks, or segmenting contacts based on their responses.

  • Funnel/Website Page View: This trigger fires when a contact visits a specific page on your funnel or website. You can use it to track key pages like checkouts or thank-you pages, and trigger follow-ups based on that behavior. Filters let you target by page, UTM parameters, or path. Great for abandoned cart sequences, content engagement tracking, and retargeting workflows.

🗓️ Click here for a list of Appointment triggers

  • Appointment Status: Starts a workflow when an appointment is scheduled or its status changes (new, confirmed, canceled, no-show, showed, invalid). You can refine this trigger using filters like appointment type (normal or recurring), calendar, calendar group, contact tag, or who modified the status (user, customer, API, or another workflow). This trigger is useful for sending reminders, logging attendance, or automating follow-ups and rebooking sequences.

  • Customer Booked Appointment: This trigger fires when a contact books an appointment on their own using a scheduling link (not when a team member books it for them). It's useful for automating confirmation emails, pre-appointment instructions, or internal notifications. You can narrow this trigger by calendar, calendar group, or contact tag. It works only for regular (non-recurring) appointments.

🛒 Click here for a list of Order triggers

  • Order Form Submitted: Triggers when someone submits an order form, even if no payment is made, for example completed step 1 of a 2-step order form and then abandoned cart. You can filter by funnel, page, product, and submission type (Opt-in (for abandon carts), Sale, Bump, Upsell) to automate specific workflows based on what was submitted.

  • Order Submitted: Triggers when an order is submitted and payment is successfully completed. Use this to send confirmation emails, update CRM records, trigger shipping or fulfillment processes, or notify your team of a completed sale. It runs only when a financial transaction has taken place.

  • Order Fulfilled: Triggers when an order status is marked as fulfilled (via Online Stores). Use it to send thank-you emails, request feedback, update CRM tags, or trigger VIP workflows. You can filter by cart value or other criteria to run specific actions based on the type or size of the order. This helps create a more tailored post-purchase experience.

💳 Click here for a list of Payment triggers

  • Invoice: This trigger fires when the status of an invoice changes. You can choose from statuses like Sent, Paid, Partially Paid, Viewed, or Voided. UYou can also filter by tags or custom fields to create specific workflows based on invoice type, amount etc.

  • Payment Received: This trigger fires when a payment is made successfully - whether it's a one-time purchase, subscription charge, invoice payment, or manual entry. You can filter by source (e.g. funnel, form, invoice, website), transaction type (first or recurring), and payment status (success or failure). Use this when you want to trigger based off every single payment (e.g. even if its part of a payment plan, where as "Order Submitted" trigger would only trigger on the first time the order is made).

  • Refund: This trigger runs when a refund is issued inside HighLevel (not through Stripe or another provider directly). You can filter it by refund status (successful or failed), amount, type (full or partial), or source (e.g. funnel, manual, invoice). It’s useful for sending refund confirmation emails, alerting your team, or assigning internal tasks—so you can handle refunds cleanly, consistently, and without manual steps.

🤝 Click here for a list of Opportunity triggers

  • Stale Opportunities: Triggers when an opportunity stays in the same pipeline stage without updates for a set number of days. This trigger repeats every time that duration passes without activity. Use it to re-engage leads, send reminders, or move stalled deals forward. You can filter by duration, pipeline, and stage to target specific scenarios.

  • Pipeline Stage Changed: Triggers when an opportunity moves from one stage to another in a pipeline. This is useful for sending follow-ups, notifying team members, or progressing the deal with automation. You can filter by pipeline, stage, lead value, assigned user, and more to create precise workflows that match your sales process. This trigger will fire again each time the opportunity changes stages, including when it moves backward.

  • Opportunity Status Changed: Triggers whenever an opportunity’s status changes, such as from Open to Won, Lost, or Abandoned. This is ideal for automating follow-ups, sending internal notifications, or updating CRM fields. You can filter by previous status, new status, pipeline, lead value, tags, or assigned user to run targeted workflows. This trigger will fire each time the status changes, even if it changes more than once.

  • Opportunity Created: Triggers when a new opportunity is added to your pipeline. Use this to send internal notifications, assign tasks, or tag leads based on deal size, pipeline, or user assignment. You can filter by pipeline, lead value, assigned user, status, and more to automate follow-up for new leads as they enter your system.

  • Opportunity Changed: Triggers when any field in an opportunity is updated, including changes to pipeline, stage, lead value, assigned user, tags, status, or custom fields. Use this when you want workflows to run based on any update to an opportunity, not just status changes. You can apply filters like pipeline, tag, lead value, status, or even whether the assigned user has changed.

🤳 Click here for a list of Social Media triggers

  • Facebook Lead Form Submitted: This trigger fires when a lead submits a native Facebook lead form (also called an instant form) via a connected Facebook ad. It lets you immediately automate actions like assigning leads, tagging contacts, sending emails, or moving them into a pipeline - without needing a landing page. You can filter by Facebook Page and specific form to ensure the right workflows run for each campaign. Ensure you have the Facebook form setup under Integrations > Facebook lead form mapping first.

  • Facebook Comment(s) On A Post: This trigger fires when someone comments on a specific Facebook post, based on the filters you set. You can filter by Facebook Page, post type (published or custom), and target a specific post. You can also choose to match exact phrases or partial phrases in the comment. Use this to automatically reply, send a DM, tag contacts, or start a follow-up workflow when someone engages with your posts. You can also choose to track only top-level comments or include all nested replies. Must be a Facebook business page.

  • Instagram Comment(s) On A Post: This trigger runs when someone comments on one of your Instagram posts and the comment matches specific filters. You can filter by Instagram Page, post type (published or custom), and the specific post. Then choose whether the comment must contain a phrase or match it exactly. You can also toggle whether it should fire only on top-level comments or include replies. Use this trigger to automate replies, DMs, tagging, or follow-up actions based on what people comment. Instagram account must be connected to Facebook business page.

🎓 Click here for a list of Course triggers

  • New Signup: This trigger activates a workflow when someone signs up for a membership offer - no matter whether its free or paid. Ideal if selling via Courses > Offers > Offer Checkout. You can filter by a specific offer to tailor the workflow to certain signups only.

  • Offer Access Granted: This trigger runs when a contact is granted access to a specific offer (e.g. by purchasing a product that was connected to a membership offer via its settings). Use it to automate welcome emails, send internal notifications, update CRM records, or start onboarding workflows. You can filter by offer name to ensure the right actions fire only when access is given to a particular offer. Ideal for memberships, courses, discounts, or upsells.

  • Offer Access Removed: This trigger fires when a contact’s access to a specific offer is revoked. Use it to send an email letting them know their access has ended, update their CRM record, notify your team, or trigger follow-up actions like renewal reminders or downgrade flows.

  • Category Completed: This trigger fires when a contact completes a specific product or course category. Use it to automatically send a congratulatory email, issue a certificate, recommend next steps, or notify your team. You can set filters to make it fire only for certain categories, helping you track progress and follow up at the right time.

  • Product Completed: This trigger fires when a contact completes all lessons within a specific course. Use it to send a congratulatory email, gather feedback, issue certificates, offer an upsell, or update CRM records. You can filter by product name to run specific follow-ups for different products, helping you automate the post-completion experience.

🌐 Click here for a list of Community triggers

  • Group Access Granted: This trigger fires when a contact is given access to a specific community group. You can filter by group to automate different actions depending on which community the user joins.

  • Group Access Revoked: This trigger fires when a contact loses access to a specific community. Use it to send a goodbye or explanation message, update tags or CRM records, or trigger other actions based on the revocation.

  • Private Channel Access Granted: This trigger fires when a contact is granted access to a specific private channel inside a community group. Use this to send a notification, tag the contact, or kick off onboarding specific to the channel. You can choose which channel the trigger applies to so actions are tailored.

  • Private Channel Access Revoked: This trigger fires when a contact loses access to a private channel within a group. Use it to send a message explaining the change, remove tags, or update CRM data.

  • User Group Gamification Level Changed: This trigger fires when a user’s leaderboard level changes inside a specific community group. Use it to send a congratulatory email, assign rewards, or notify your team. Filters let you specify which group or level changes should activate the workflow so you’re only triggering relevant actions.

  • Grant Community Group Leaderboard Points: This action gives leaderboard points to users inside a specific group when a workflow is triggered. You can set the number of points and the target group. If the user isn’t part of the group, the workflow will fail - so make sure group membership is confirmed first. Use it to reward engagement and gamify participation.

📝 Click here for a list of Form/Survey triggers

  • Form Submitted: Starts a workflow when a specific form is submitted inside the CRM. You can choose which form triggers the workflow (for example, “Newsletter Signup Form”) and then automate tasks like tagging the contact, sending emails, updating records, or assigning tasks.

  • Survey Submitted: This trigger fires when a contact submits a specific survey. You can use it to send a thank-you email, tag the contact, qualify or disqualify leads, or update CRM fields. Filters let you choose which surveys activate the workflow and whether to include or exclude disqualified responses. Perfect for automating follow-up and segmenting contacts based on feedback.


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