Workflow Trigger - Show Current User Instead of "System" in Activity Stream

[pehoma]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently working with ESPOcrm and have been utilizing workflows for various automation tasks. One thing I've noticed is that when a workflow is triggered manually, the activity stream always logs the action under "System" as the initiator.

For better tracking and transparency, I would like to know:

🔹 Is there a way to have the current user (who manually triggers the workflow) appear in the activity stream instead of "System"?

I believe this would be beneficial for audit purposes and make it easier to trace actions back to specific users.

Has anyone come across this issue or found a workaround? Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance! 😊

[yuri]

Hi,

Unfortunately, there's no such an ability.

To be able to trace who initiated a workflow, an Administrator can inspect the Log panel of a particular Workflow record.

[pehoma]

Hi Yuri,

Thank you so much for your quick and helpful response!

I believe it would make a lot of sense to add this functionality for manually triggered workflows, it doesn't seem ideal that "System" is listed as the initiator in the activity stream. It would provide greater transparency and accountability if the actual user who triggered the workflow were displayed.

I’d like to propose this as an improvement. I think it could really help users track actions and responsibilities more effectively.

Thanks again for the info!

Best regards!

[yuri]

I think otherwise. All changes made by workflows should be logged as system for consistency and transparency. It's not a user who modified a record, it's an automation that modified the record. It was made deliberately.

[yuri]

You can create an additional note by a workflow with the 'Created By' set to the current user.

[pehoma]

Thank you for sharing your perspective. I see where you're coming from, but in this case, I respectfully disagree, and my opinion is based on hands-on experience from user practice.

You're absolutely right – when a workflow runs automatically, logging it as "system" ensures consistency and transparency. However, the situation changes significantly for workflows that are manually triggered. These workflows are often designed to automate a series of steps that a user would typically perform individually.

Here's an example to illustrate:
We have a workflow that can be triggered by pressing a button. When activated, it sends an email to the customer, updates the status of the process, sets a follow-up, and assigns a task to another department. If someone in that department later wants to know which colleague initiated the task (to clarify some details, for instance), it’s not possible – the system is listed as the initiator.

I believe it's crucial to log the user who manually triggered the workflow in these cases. This is also standard practice in other CRM systems with similar functionality.

Perhaps the best solution to meet everyone's needs would be to allow an option within the workflow setup – letting users choose whether the action should be logged as "system" or under the initiating user when the trigger is manual.

I appreciate your input and would like to hear your thoughts on this approach!

[yuri]

I believe that it should be consistent, and that having parameters that break the consistency for particular cases is not a right approach. The right approach is to have a separate note message, like "User {name} initiated the workflow action" (or any other custom text).

We do have the log in the Workflows. There's no issue to track down who initiated an action. The only issue is that it's available only for the admin. But it's possible to create arbitrary notes by a workflow itself.