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# Using texting workflows


> This guide covers the day-to-day operations of your active workflow: how leads enter, enrolling leads by hand, seeing exactly what a workflow sent on the lead's page, understanding when and why texts go out (or do not), and a troubleshooting checklist for when something looks wrong.

Still building? Start with Creating texting workflows.

## Active means running, Draft means off

The badge next to the workflow's name is the single source of truth. **Active** workflows enroll leads and send texts; a **Draft** does nothing at all, no matter how finished it looks. If a workflow seems dead, check the badge before anything else.

## How leads enter

An Active workflow enrolls leads automatically whenever its trigger fires: a lead is created, an appointment is booked, a status or field changes, or a lead matches the criteria. Two rules shape what you will see:

* **A lead enters a given workflow once, ever**, unless that workflow's re-entry setting allows repeats.
* **Enrollments are independent.** A lead matching two active workflows is enrolled in both, and each sends on its own schedule. If a lead received two texts close together, that is almost always two workflows overlapping, not a duplicate send.

Triggers watch for events, so a lead created before you activated a lead-created workflow is not picked up. The exception is the matches-criteria trigger, which sweeps your existing lead base once on activation and enrolls every current match.

## Enrolling leads by hand

Workflows with the manual trigger ("When you add leads manually") never enroll anyone on their own. Activate the workflow, then use its **Enroll leads** control to pick the leads yourself. The first message sends as soon as you add a lead, so add leads when you mean it. This is the pattern for one-off campaigns: a monthly touch-base, a re-engagement push, a holiday note.

![](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/6/0/f/c/60fca70d990e540/a024-i01-manual-enroll_7zc5w7.png)

## Watching a workflow work

Open any workflow and scroll to the **Enrollments** panel at the bottom. It lists the leads that have entered, and **Refresh** updates it. Each enrollment ends one of two ways: **completed** (every step sent) or **exited** (it stopped early for a reason: the lead replied, booked, changed status, or opted out).

## Seeing workflow activity on the lead's page

Everything a workflow does to a lead is visible on that lead's detail page in Lineage:

* **Text Messages**: automated texts appear in the conversation thread like any other message, labeled with the name of the workflow that sent them, along with the sending and receiving numbers. You can always tell an automated text from one you typed.
* **Workflows panel**: lists this lead's enrollments, each showing the workflow name, its trigger, whether the workflow is Active, and the enrollment's own state (such as Completed). **Refresh Enrollments** updates the list, **View** opens the workflow, and **Manage Workflows** takes you to the workflows page itself.
* **Notes timeline**: workflow events are logged automatically, marked as Workflow and Automated, including each sent message and the moment the workflow completed for this lead.

If a lead ever calls confused about a text, this page answers "what did we send, when, and from which workflow" in one look.

![](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/6/0/f/c/60fca70d990e540/a024-i02-lead-detail_qup6qk.png)

## Why a lead stopped getting texts

Usually the workflow is working exactly as configured. The **Stop the sequence when** rules end an enrollment when the lead's status changes, the lead replies, or an appointment is booked. Any status change counts, including ones you or your team made mid-sequence; the automation steps aside once real handling begins. Beyond those rules, a lead who texts STOP is suppressed from every automated send you have, immediately and permanently unless they opt back in, with the check happening right before each message goes out. Do-not-contact is enforced the same way, before every single send.

## When texts actually go out

* **Quiet hours run on the lead's clock.** Automated texts send only inside the workflow's window (8 AM to 9 PM in the lead's local time unless changed). A step that comes due overnight waits for the window to reopen; nothing is lost. A lead two timezones behind you gets their morning text later than your clock suggests.
* **Appointment reminders are the exception.** A reminder timed to the appointment ("2 hours before") sends at that moment even outside quiet hours, so it cannot arrive after the appointment it is about. Opt-outs and do-not-contact still apply.
* **Short-notice bookings skip stale reminders.** A "1 day before" reminder has no room to run for an appointment booked two hours out, so it is skipped rather than sent late and wrong.
* **Reminders follow the appointment, not the status.** Changing a lead's status after they book does not cancel their appointment reminders.

## What "sent" means, and why a text might not arrive

**Sent means handed to the carrier network, not delivered to the phone.** After handoff, things outside Lineage can still stop a message:

* **Your number is not registered for business texting.** US carriers require registration (often called 10DLC) for business texting, and texts from unregistered numbers are refused or filtered. This is the most common cause of texts that silently never arrive. If you are unsure of your registration status, reach our team.
* **A carrier filter blocked it.** Carriers screen business texts and can block ones they judge to be spam. When that happens, the message record explains the failure in plain language. Do not immediately resend a blocked message; repeated attempts damage your number's reputation and make filtering worse.
* **The number is a landline or disconnected.** A landline cannot receive a text, and because the failure happens after handoff, the message can still show as sent.

The dependable signal that texting is working is inbound activity. If a workflow shows texts sent and nobody ever replies, treat that as a symptom worth investigating.

## Why a text came from the "wrong" number

If a lead already has a conversation going with one of your numbers, follow-ups continue from that number, overriding the workflow's Send from setting. This is deliberate: to the lead, your number is who you are, and a text from a new number looks like a stranger and splits the thread on their phone. The conversation wins.

## Troubleshooting checklist

Work through these in order; most reports are resolved by the first three.

1. **Is the workflow Active?** A Draft sends nothing. Check the badge, click Activate if needed.
2. **Did the lead enroll?** Check the workflow's Enrollments panel (or the lead's Workflows panel). Not there? The lead must match every trigger condition exactly, must not have already been through the workflow, and must have triggered after activation (except matches-criteria, which sweeps on activation).
3. **Did it exit on purpose?** An exited enrollment means a stop rule fired: reply, booking, or a status change, including status changes your own process made.
4. **Is it quiet hours?** An overnight step is waiting for the window to reopen, on the lead's local clock.
5. **Did the lead opt out?** A STOP reply suppresses every automated send. Check the conversation history.
6. **Marked sent but never arrived?** Registration, carrier filtering, or a landline. See the delivery section above, and check the message record for a stated failure reason.
7. **Wrong sending number?** The existing-conversation rule above.
8. **Texted twice?** Two active workflows both matched. Tighten their trigger conditions, or move leads deliberately with subscribe and unsubscribe steps.

Still stuck? Reach our team with the workflow name and the lead in question: email [support@lineagecrm.com](mailto:support@lineagecrm.com) or click the chat icon in the bottom-right corner of any Lineage page.

## Need help?

* **Knowledge base:** [Browse all help articles](https://help.lineagecrm.com/en/)
* **Email:** [support@lineagecrm.com](mailto:support@lineagecrm.com)
* **Live chat:** Click the chat icon in the bottom-right corner of any Lineage page