Apply it to records you already have
Backfill is manual, and deliberately so. Switching on a workflow that flags problems should not suddenly flag four years of invoices unless you asked for it.
- A walkthrough video, then the eleven steps of the wizard
- Which records, and which record states, to choose
- Why a Draft workflow fails everything and still says COMPLETED
- Why approval steps are always skipped
01 · Video
Feature walkthrough
02 · Why
Why is it manual?
The product says it plainly, and it is the sentence to remember:
Backfill is manual. Workflows never auto-run on existing records. Backfill only happens when you explicitly start it.
That is a deliberate safety choice. Switching on a workflow that flags problems should not suddenly flag four years of invoices unless you asked for it.
03 · Use cases
And want it applied to the invoices already sitting there.
And want records re-checked under the new logic.
Over records you closed months ago.
04 · How
Run a backfill
- Make sure the workflow is Active. See the warning below, and Turn a workflow on.
- Open the workflow and click the
Backfilltab. - Press
Apply to existing records. - Step 1 — choose scope. The module is filled in from your trigger.
- Choose which records: Records matching trigger conditions is the recommended one.
- Choose which states: Open records only is the safe default.
- Read the pre-flight estimate — how many records and roughly how long.
- Press
Continue. - Step 2 — review. Leave
Suppress notificationson. TurnDry runon for a first pass. - Press
Start now. - Step 3 shows it running, with counts for succeeded, failed and skipped.
Which records?
| Option | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Records matching trigger conditions | Only records that would have fired this workflow. Recommended |
| Recently updated | Records changed in the last N days |
| All records in module | Every active record. Careful on big modules |
| Custom filter | Records matching clauses you build |
| Specific record IDs | Up to 1,000 IDs you paste in |
Which record states?
| Option | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Open records only | Every open record. Closed and archived are skipped. The safe default |
| Closed & archived records only | Records you already marked done |
| All records (open + done) | Everything, whatever its state |
05 · Expected result
The counters finish with Succeeded matching the number of records processed, and the job appears in RECENT BACKFILL JOBS with its scope, count, duration and who started it.
Each record that ran also shows up in the workflow's logs.
06 · Troubleshooting and notes
Do a dry run first
Dry run makes no changes and lets you see the shape of what would happen. It is off by default.
Leave Suppress notifications on
Unless you want everyone notified about a few hundred old records at once.
Match-status workflows do not fire on backfilled records
If your trigger is On Match Status Changed, backfilling will not set it off — the product deliberately ignores status changes that come from a backfill.
Concurrency and batch size
Default to 5 and 50. Leave them alone unless someone tells you otherwise.
07 · FAQ
Common questions
Yes, there is a Cancel button, and Run in background if you would rather close the drawer.
If your steps have Only run once per record set, no. Otherwise yes.
Plain steps like flags and notifications, no. AI steps do consume AI usage, so check before backfilling one over thousands of records.
The RECENT BACKFILL JOBS table under the button.