How do workflows, letters, and reports work together?

Three features in GovPilot are responsible for most of the automated emails, printed documents, and data outputs you use every day: workflows, mail merge letters, and reports. They are separate tools, but they overlap in ways that can be confusing. This article explains what each one does, how they connect, and where to look when something did not happen the way you expected. Any GovPilot user can view these areas. Changes to workflows and reports are made by our team.

Workflows are the engine

A workflow watches for a trigger on a record, such as a field changing to a specific value or a date condition being met, and then runs automatically. You experience workflows as things that simply happen: an email goes out, a status updates, a reference number is assigned.

You do not set up or edit workflows yourself. Our team configures them for you. To see which workflows exist for a module:

Go to Account Settings.
Click Module Configuration and select the module.
Click the Workflows tab.

This view is read-only. Click a workflow name to see what triggers it and what it does.

[Screenshot needed: Workflows tab in Module Configuration with a workflow selected and its description panel showing]

Mail merge letters are the templates

A mail merge is a pre-built document or email template that pulls live data from a record: the applicant's name, address, permit number, fee amount, expiration date, and so on. Mail merges are what make automated emails contain the right details for each record.

When a workflow sends an email, it fills in a mail merge template and sends it. You never see that step. You can also generate a mail merge yourself:

For one record, open the record and click Print Menu in the bottom toolbar.
For many records at once, select them in the Data Viewer and use the print option in the toolbar.

A mail merge always produces the same layout. It cannot change its structure based on the values in a record.

The Correspondence log shows what was sent

Every email a workflow sends is recorded in the Correspondence log, along with who received it and whether it was delivered. Each entry has a Resend button.

For one record: open the record, click Log in the bottom toolbar, then click the Correspondence tab.
For your whole account: click Log in the left navigation, then click the Correspondence tab.

Emails you send manually with the Email button on a record are not recorded here.

Reports are separate

Reports are structured outputs such as a quarterly state report or an inspections-by-inspector summary. You find them under Reports in the left navigation or in the dropdown inside a module. You can run them and adjust settings such as the date range or department. New reports and changes to existing ones are built by our team, so reach out to our support team if you need one. Reports are not triggered by workflows and are not mail merges.

Reports can also be added to a record's Print Menu alongside mail merge letters. When set up that way, you open the record, click Print Menu, and pick the report from the list, just as you would a letter.

Which one do I actually need?

A filtered list of records you can export to Excel: build a view in the Data Viewer. You can do this yourself.
A letter, notice, or email that fills in details from a record: that is a mail merge letter.
A formatted summary or state-required output: that is a report.
Something that should happen automatically when a record changes: that is a workflow.

An automated email did not arrive

Check the Correspondence log for the record first. If the email is listed, the workflow ran. Check the delivery status and use Resend if needed.
If the email is not listed, the workflow either did not trigger or does not exist yet. Open the Workflows tab for the module and check the trigger condition against what changed on the record.
If the workflow needs to be adjusted or created, reach out to our support team with the module, the record number, what happened, and what you expected to happen.

✅ Pro Tip: If you need a new letter, report, or automated email, include an example of the output you want and the exact trigger when you reach out to our support team. It shortens the back and forth considerably.

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