Workflows are Cadence Calendar's built-in automation feature for sending reminders and follow-up communications without requiring manual outreach. A workflow is a reusable rule that tells the system when to send a message, who should receive it, and what the message should say. Once a workflow is set up, Cadence Calendar handles the timing and delivery automatically.
This guide explains what workflows are, how they behave, and how to think about the settings you will see when creating one.
Workflows are designed to help you reduce missed lessons, improve communication, and save time. In practice, they are most useful for:
A workflow does not replace your judgment or your personal style. Instead, it gives you a reliable system for sending the right message at the right time.
A workflow has three main parts:
A trigger and timing model
A message type
A delivery target
When you create a workflow, you are really defining a communication rule that the product will later execute automatically.
Cadence Calendar currently supports four core workflow types:
Use this when you want to remind a family about an upcoming lesson by email.
Typical use cases include:
This workflow type is best for situations where you want a polished, written message that can include detailed context.
Use this when you want to send a short reminder by text message.
Typical use cases include:
Text reminders are best when the message should be concise and immediate.
Use this when you want to notify a family that an invoice is approaching its due date.
Typical use cases include:
This workflow is tied to the invoice lifecycle rather than a lesson calendar event.
Use this when you want to follow up after an invoice has become overdue.
Typical use cases include:
This workflow type is more assertive than a due-soon reminder and is intended for later-stage billing communication.
Timing is one of the most important parts of a workflow. Timing tells Cadence Calendar when to send the message relative to the event the workflow is based on.
The system uses two main timing concepts:
The timing direction determines whether the workflow is scheduled before or after the anchor event.
In practice:
The duration type determines the unit of time used for the delay.
Cadence Calendar supports:
This means you can build a workflow that sends a reminder 30 minutes before a lesson, 6 hours before a lesson, or 2 days before a lesson.
The duration value is the number attached to the duration type. For example:
The duration is the actual waiting period the system uses when deciding when to send the message.
Here are a few examples of how the timing model works in real life:
The exact timing is not arbitrary. The workflow settings determine the message schedule, and the system evaluates those settings automatically.
A workflow can target one or more people attached to the relevant account.
The supported recipient types are:
In the product, these recipient values are selected as part of the workflow step configuration. The result is that the same workflow can be used to message the right person for each account, depending on how you configure it.
Invoice-related workflows are typically directed to the primary contact for the relevant account. This means that billing reminders are generally meant to reach the person responsible for the account's payment communication.
A workflow is not just about message content. It also needs to know which accounts it should apply to.
When you create a workflow step, you select one or more accounts. That tells Cadence Calendar which student accounts the workflow should evaluate and where the message should be sent.
This is important because it prevents the workflow from sending messages to the wrong people or from applying to every account in your system automatically.
Each workflow step includes the specific settings for that message.
You can configure:
This gives you full control over the content and the audience for each reminder.
You can configure:
Text messages are usually shorter and more direct than email messages, which makes them well suited for quick reminders.
You can configure:
This workflow type is centered on billing communication and is generally used for payment reminders.
You can configure:
Because this is a follow-up notice, the content is usually simpler and more direct than a due-soon reminder.
Cadence Calendar validates workflows before they are saved. This helps avoid configuration mistakes and keeps the automation system predictable.
Some of the rules include:
There are also workflow-specific constraints. For example, invoice overdue workflows have special timing requirements and must use hours for their timing unit. That ensures the reminder stays within the supported window for this workflow type.
Workflows are organized around a common purpose. In the product, lesson reminders and invoice-related automations are treated as different communication groups.
This matters because the system expects workflow steps to be consistent with the type of communication being automated. In other words, the workflow builder is designed to keep your reminder logic coherent rather than allowing arbitrary combinations that would be confusing or invalid.
Once a workflow is created, the system begins evaluating it automatically. This means:
This is what makes workflows valuable: they turn repetitive communication tasks into a reliable background process.
Workflows are especially helpful in these situations:
To get the most value from workflows, keep these practices in mind:
Workflows in Cadence Calendar are automated communication rules that let you send reminders and billing notices at the right time with minimal manual work. They are built around four main workflow types, a timing model based on duration and direction, and a delivery model based on recipients and target accounts.
In short, a workflow is a practical way to make your communication process more consistent, more timely, and less manual.
