When setting up workflows with complex filter conditions, it's important to verify that your filters work as intended.
Testing records against workflow filters helps you troubleshoot and visualize whether your customer data meets your workflow conditions. This feature is essential for understanding why certain records are or aren't being actioned by your workflows.
Why Test Your Workflow Filters?
After building a workflow, you might see that 0 records meet the criteria even when you expected certain customers, invoices, or payments to be included.
Testing allows you to:
Identify why specific records don't match your criteria
Find overly restrictive filters that may be excluding important customers
Verify your workflow logic before activating automation
Optimize criteria to focus on the right customer segments
For more information on setting up workflow filters, see Workflow filters.
How to Test Records Against Workflow Filters
Step 1: Review Your Workflow Criteria
1. Navigate to your workflow
2. Review the filter conditions you've configured
3. Note how many records currently meet the criteria (shown in the "View Customers that meet the criteria" button)
Step 2: Test a Specific Record
1. Click "Test Customer Against Filters" (or "Test Invoice/Payment Against Filters" depending on your workflow trigger)
2. Type the name or reference of the record you want to check
3. Select the record from the search results
Step 3: Review the Test Results
The system will show you a detailed breakdown of each filter condition:
Filter – The field being evaluated (e.g., "Customer name", "Payment Method")
Operator – The comparison logic (e.g., "is", "is one of", "isn't one of")
Expected – The value you defined in your workflow filter
Actual – The real value from the selected record
Status – Whether the filter passed (✓ OK) or failed (✗ Excluded)
Understanding Failed Filters
If even one filter fails, the record will not be included in the workflow.
In the example above:
Customer name matches: "Crownville Hotels"
Customer currency matches: "USD"
Payment Method excluded: The customer doesn't have the required payment methods (card, direct_debit, not_available)
This immediately shows why the workflow shows 0 matching customers the Payment Method filter is too restrictive
Best Practices
Test before activating – Always verify your filters with real data before turning on automation
Check both matches and non-matches – Test records you expect to match AND records you expect to exclude
Identify limiting criteria – Look for filters that may be unnecessarily restricting your workflow
Optimize for your goals – Adjust filters to focus on the right customer segments (e.g., high-value customers, specific regions)
Testing makes it significantly easier to create high-quality workflows, knowing that all conditions match your intentions before you begin your collections process.