Create a custom workflow

Create one

1. Open the Queue workflow section (Settings → Queue workflow on the classic menus; Set up → Services & stages on the Queue screen) and find Build your own below the list of flows.

2. Give it a Name, choose which flow to Start from (you get an editable copy), and press Create & edit.

3. In the editor, stages run in order, top to bottom — staff move a ticket forward to the next stage or back to the previous one. Reorder stages with ↑↓, use + Add stage, or Remove one. For each stage set its Label, Color and Stage type — exactly one Start (where check-ins begin), one Done (the finish), everything in between a Step. You can also tick Email the customer when they reach this stage and fill in a Customer message title and Customer message body that customers see while in it. Each Step also answers What's happening at this step?:

   • Still waiting in line — they count as waiting (location page, "people ahead", wait estimates).
   • It's their turn (we call them / it's ready) — their page shows It's your turn full-screen (with a sound if they tapped Alert me); their measured wait ends here.
   • Being served — Reports measure service time from here.
   • Finished, not yet closed — done, but still on the board until closed.
   • Something else (not counted in waits) — for steps like "Away".

   The answers are pre-filled for you (a copied flow keeps its own; otherwise steps before the emailing step are waiting, the emailing step is their turn, and later steps are being served). If no step is "their turn" or "being served", the editor warns that Reports can't measure waits — you can still save. Cancel, No-show and Reopen are added automatically.

4. Press Save workflow. Your new flow appears in the Queue workflow list marked (custom) — select it and press Save workflow there to make it the location's active one.

Changes to a workflow apply to new check-ins; existing tickets keep their history. To edit a custom flow later, use its Edit stages → link; the editor also has Delete this workflow (any location using it falls back to the general flow).

If self-service moves are available on your account, each stage also has can move forward / can move back boxes that decide which moves customers may make themselves.

Business-shared workflows

A Business Admin can create workflows at the business level (Business settings → Business custom workflows in your business console — they show up in every location's workflow list) and set a Default workflow for new locations under Business workflow, so every branch runs the same stages. Deleting a workflow that locations use safely reverts them to the general flow.

Tips

• Custom workflows are a straight line of stages; if you need branching (like the repair preset's optional estimate step), use that preset as-is instead.
• Fewer stages beat more stages — each column is something staff must actively move tickets through.
• Write customer messages in your own voice; they show on the live status page at each stage.
• Take-a-number locations run on the take-a-number stages — see Choose your queue workflow.