📄️ Overview
Essential actions are the building blocks you reach for in almost every flow. They are deliberately generic, so you can use them across a wide range of scenarios — from quick integrations to complex, multi-step automations.
📄️ HTTP Request
Use the HTTP Request step whenever your flow needs to call an external API, webhook, or web service. It’s the go-to action for integrations: fetch data from a partner system, push updates to a third-party app, or trigger downstream automation outside Business Central.
📄️ Create Collection
Use the Create Collection step to initialise a named collection that subsequent steps can populate. On its own, the step produces an empty collection — combine it with one or more Add to Collection steps to build up the collection during execution.
📄️ Parser
Use the Parser step to extract values from text-based data — typically the JSON or XML response of an upstream HTTP Request, but also CSV-like text, log lines, or any payload you'd otherwise need to read by hand. The step pulls one or more named values out of the input and exposes them as outputs that subsequent steps can reference like any other SmartField.
📄️ Add to Collection
Use the Add to Collection step to append an item to a collection that was created by a Create Collection step earlier in the flow. Each execution of Add to Collection adds exactly one entry; place the step inside a loop or add several instances to build up the collection incrementally.
📄️ Error
Use the Error step to stop a flow intentionally and record the reason. It raises a runtime error with the message you configure; the flow ends, and the message is written to the execution log.
📄️ Create PDF Document
Use the Create PDF Document step to generate a PDF from a Business Central report and store it as a document in the AutoFlow document library. The step produces a reference to the created document, so any subsequent step can access it directly.
📄️ Sleep
Use the Sleep step to pause a flow for a configured amount of time before the next step runs. It is the right tool whenever a downstream system needs time to react, or when you want to throttle outbound calls.
📄️ Find Records
Use the Find Records step when your flow needs to read one or more records from a Business Central table. It lets you query any table, narrow results with field filters and a smart filter, and pass the matching records to later steps — for example to loop through them, check conditions, or print documents.
📄️ Insert Record
Use the Insert Record step to create a new record in any BC table from inside a flow. You point the step at a target table, list the field values you want to set, and the step writes the record and exposes it as an output for the rest of the flow.
📄️ Modify Record
Use the Modify Record step to update fields on an existing record. The step takes a reference to the record (typically the rec output of an upstream Find Records or Insert Record step), applies the field values you list, and saves the record.
📄️ Delete Record
Use the Delete Record step to remove a record. The step takes a reference to the record (typically the rec output of an upstream Find Records or Insert Record step) and deletes it.
📄️ Rename Record
Use the Rename Record step to change the primary-key fields of an existing record. This is a separate step from Modify because BC handles renames differently — it relocates the record and updates references in other tables along the way.
📄️ Decision
Use the Decision step to branch a flow into two paths based on a condition. When the step runs, AutoFlow evaluates the condition and continues along the Yes edge or the No edge. It is the right tool whenever a downstream step should only run for some inputs.
📄️ For Each Loop
Use the For Each Loop step to repeat a sequence of actions once per item in a collection. Point the step at a SmartField that resolves to either an array or a record reference set, and AutoFlow runs the connected steps once per element, exposing the current item to those steps.
📄️ Case
Use the Case step to branch a flow into one of several paths based on a value. When the step runs, AutoFlow evaluates the configured expression and continues along the branch whose label matches the result. It is the right tool whenever a downstream step should only run for a specific discrete value — such as a channel type, a status code, or a document category.
📄️ Run SubFlow
The Run SubFlow step calls another flow (a SubFlow) inline. Use it to compose flows out of reusable building blocks — write the logic once, call it from anywhere.
📄️ Send Email
Use the Send Email step to send an email from a flow. The step uses Business Central's standard email module – the same one that powers the Email Accounts page and the document email actions – so configured accounts, scenarios, and outbox handling are all reused. No own SMTP stack is introduced.
📄️ Run Codeunit / Report
Use this step to invoke any AL codeunit or processing-only report from inside a flow — your existing posting wrapper, a partner-app entry point, a batch-processing report, anything modelled as an AL object that you don't want to reimplement as a dedicated AutoFlow step.
📄️ Create Element
Use the Create Element step to initialise a named single-slot element — a holder for exactly one value or record reference. It is the single-value counterpart to a collection: where a collection holds many items, an element holds one. Update the element later with one or more Set Element steps.
📄️ Set Element
Use the Set Element step to write a value or record reference into an element that was created by a Create Element step earlier in the flow. Because an element is a single slot, Set Element overwrites it — the latest value wins. Run the step as often as you need to keep the element up to date.
📄️ Return PDF
Available from the first paid AutoFlow plan onward.