Business Rule

Last Updated: July 28, 2026

The Business Rule step is a Workflow step in Vasion Automate that outputs a value based on a set of rules that you define. Each rule has one or more conditions and an output value, and the step outputs the value from the first rule that matches.

You can use the step for any decision that produces a value. For example, a rule can output text, a number, a yes or no value, or an assignee that a later step then acts on.

A potential use case for a Business Rule step is to replace the separate Conditional Branch and Approval steps that approval routing otherwise requires. For example, an invoice approval that can route to any of 10 approvers requires 10 Conditional Branch steps and 10 Approval steps, which makes the canvas cluttered and hard to scale. The Business Rule step consolidates that logic into a single step. It outputs the approver for each case, so a single Approval step can use that output regardless of the number of approvers.

Key Points

Review the following key points:

  • Build rules from data provided by earlier steps in the workflow.
  • Combine more than one field condition in a single rule, and require either all conditions or any condition to be met.
  • Set the output value for each rule, choose the output type, and set a fallback value for when no rule matches.

How the Business Rule Step Works

When a workflow reaches a Business Rule step, the step evaluates each rule in the order it appears in the list. The step outputs the value from the first rule whose conditions are met, and it does not evaluate the remaining rules. If no rule matches, the step outputs the fallback value that you define.

You configure the step with an output type that sets the kind of value the step returns. Later steps in the workflow can use the output value.

You define each rule by selecting the following:

  • Source: The type of data the rule evaluates, such as a form, document metadata, or an Intelligent Document Processing step.
  • Field: The specific field from that source.
  • Condition: The comparison to apply to the field.
  • Value: The value to compare the field against.
  • Output: The value the step returns when the rule's conditions are met. The value uses the output type configured for the step.

A single rule can evaluate more than one field. Use All conditions to require every condition in the rule to be met, or use Any condition to require any one condition to be met. For example, a rule can output a finance approver when the department is equal to "Finance" and the cost is equal to 1000.

Requirements

Review these Requirements before you start.

In addition to the general requirements, a Business Rule step requires the following:

  • The workflow must include at least one previous step that provides the data that the rule evaluates, such as a form, a document event trigger, or an Intelligent Document Processing step.

Next Steps

Refer to the following: