Choose a trigger, connect sample inputs, validate them, and prepare a draft. Make the review decision explicit before adding an external action.
In this guide
Prepare your own workspace and test inputs
Choose a hosted account or a self-hosted workspace you maintain. Verify connector availability, permissions, and execution charges for that setup. Prepare sample data and the result you expect before connecting live records.
Build the first flow one stage at a time
- In the flow builder, choose a trigger appropriate to the routine, such as a schedule or an event from a connected service.
- Add the input-reading action supported by your selected connection. Test the sample and inspect the returned fields.
- Check required headers, complete dates, and blank values before any drafting stage.
- Prepare a draft result and inspect it manually. Connect an approved sharing step only when you have established how the review works in your account.
What is the first flow allowed to do?
Choose connector names supported in your own workspace and version. This is a specification to build and inspect, not an exported, tested Activepieces flow. Configure transaction approval separately before adding any external send action.
| Stage | Practice behavior | Failure route |
|---|---|---|
| Manual test trigger | Read weekly-business-sample.csv | No source: missing-input record |
| Read and validate | Require 14 practice dates; retain ad-spend blanks | Wrong fields or dates: input review |
| Prepare draft | Use reconciled report totals | Changed total: calculation review |
| Save for a person | Store draft; no send action connected | Failed save: retry only the save after checking destination |
Write down the field mapping
INPUT: [Source and example record] TRIGGER: [When the routine starts] REQUIRED FIELDS: [Names and expected types] CHECKS: [Dates, totals, duplicates, missing values] DRAFT OUTPUT: [What a person will review] FAILURE ROUTE: [Where incomplete/failed work is recorded] REVIEW DECISION: [Who approves and where] EXTERNAL ACTION: [Only after the chosen review is complete]
Check failures and repeated runs
If an action returns no useful sample, check its connection, permissions, field mapping, and test record. Automation does not resolve a missing source or an unclear reporting definition.
- A failed read or missing export produces a visible failure record, not an empty successful report.
- A repeat run does not send the same message twice.
- Connected services receive only the fields needed for the task.
- Review or approval features are checked against the actual selected plan.
References
Use it in a task
AI Weekly Reports for Small Business Owners: Check, Explain, Review
Continue the task
Choose a bounded step and make failure, approval, and repeat execution observable before expanding a flow.