Tracking skipped steps with a dashboard item
A skipped step is a deliberate decision that a piece of work was not needed. One is fine. A pattern of them is information about your process, and a dashboard widget is how you see the pattern rather than the individual cases.
Build the widget
- Open the dashboard customization page and add a widget.
- Set its type to Run steps.
- Set the status filter to Skipped.
- Narrow it if you want, by department, workflow, tag or person.
- Save.
The widget then lists skipped steps as they happen. See Customizing your dashboard.
What to do with what you see
Read the list for repetition rather than volume. The same step skipped across many runs almost always means one of three things:
- The step does not apply as often as the workflow assumes. Put it behind a conditional rule so it only appears when it is relevant, and the skipping stops. See Conditional Logic in Workflows.
- The step is genuinely unnecessary. Remove it. Every run is paying attention to something nobody does.
- The step is being skipped to get past a blockage, which is the one worth investigating, because the work is not happening and the record says it was deliberate.
Skipping is recorded separately from completing precisely so this distinction survives. See Can I skip a step, but still complete the run?.
Share it with the team
If you want a whole department watching the same thing, share the widget rather than asking everyone to build it. See Sharing a Dashboard Widget.
Video walkthrough
This video walks through tracking skipped steps with a dashboard item.