Advanced stages
Beyond the everyday stage types in Stages, a flow can use several more specialised types, and stages can be chained into branches.
The other stage types
- Credit invoice — produces a credit for an invoice.
- Verify invoice — runs a verification step (moving the invoice through the verification stage of its life cycle).
- Follow up invoice — handles follow-up actions on an invoice (such as reminders).
- Generate content / Invoice layout — build the document and apply its layout.
- Enrich source data — adds extra data to the source records before they're invoiced.
- Extract execution data — pulls data out of the run for use elsewhere.
- Addition data processing — processes additional data, identified by a mapping key.
Not every type has its own settings; some simply perform their step when the flow reaches them.
Chaining and branching stages
The Previous stage field links a stage to the one before it. By giving several stages the same previous stage you create branches, and the flow indents stages on the card to show this structure.
- All previous must succeed — when a stage has predecessors, tick this so it only runs if every preceding stage succeeded. Leave it off to run as long as the linked previous stage completed.
This lets you build flows like "calculate → (generate and verify) → finalize → distribute", where finalize only proceeds when both the generate and verify branches succeeded.
Invoice rule application
A stage can carry an invoice rule application: a list of rules (by number) to apply at that stage, with a blocks manual approval option that can hold the flow for approval when those rules apply. Use it to enforce checks at a specific point in the flow.
The exact set of stage types available depends on your installation and what the flow needs. If a type you expect isn't listed, check with your administrator.