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flow8

Getting Started — For Decision Makers

The Adoption Path: 4 Weeks to ROI

You don’t need to automate everything at once. The fastest path to seeing value is to:

  1. Identify your best automation candidate (high volume, high repetition, low complexity).
  2. Set up a trial environment (takes 30 minutes with Docker).
  3. Build your first flow (takes 1–2 days, no coding).
  4. Measure time saved and errors prevented.
  5. Expand to other processes.

Most organizations see measurable ROI—saved time, reduced errors, faster execution—within 4 weeks.

Week 1: Evaluation & Setup

Step 1: Identify Automation Candidates

Look for processes that meet these criteria:

High Volume:

  • Happens more than once a week.
  • More is better (daily, weekly, recurring at scale).

Repetitive:

  • Same steps every time, in the same order.
  • Little variation; rules-based (if/then logic).

Multi-System:

  • Involves 2+ tools or systems.
  • Data needs to flow between them.

Low Complexity (to start):

  • No complex decision-making needed (approval workflows okay, but simple).
  • Data format is straightforward (email, PDF, form, database record).

Scoring Worksheet

Rate each candidate on a scale of 1–5 (5 = best):

ProcessVolumeRepetitionMulti-SystemComplexity ScoreNotes
Email intake → CRM552 (email, CRM)2 (extraction, creation)17/25 — Good candidate
Invoice processing453 (email, QB, storage)3 (OCR, matching, approval)15/25 — Medium candidate
Approval workflow342 (Slack, database)3 (multi-step approval)12/25 — Later candidate

Best candidates score 15+.

Step 2: Run a Proof of Concept (POC)

A POC is a 2–4 week trial where you:

  1. Set up flow8.
  2. Automate your highest-scoring process.
  3. Measure the results.
  4. Decide: full rollout or pivot to another process?

Time investment: ~20 hours from your team (setup, flow building, testing). Cost: Trial/demo license (often free for POC). Expected outcome: Proof that the process automation works and saves time.

Step 3: Request a Demo Environment

Contact the flow8 team to request a trial:

  • Cloud trial: flow8 hosts it. You access via web. Fastest to start.
  • Docker trial: Run locally. Better for security/privacy testing.

Most demos are ready to use within 24 hours.

Week 2: First Flow & Data Connection

Step 4: Connect Your First Integration

flow8’s integrations are pre-built for common tools (Slack, Salesforce, QuickBooks, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.). Connecting one takes 5–10 minutes:

  1. Gather credentials: API key, password, or OAuth approval.
  2. Enter in flow8: Navigate to Integrations, click “Add [Tool],” paste credential.
  3. Test: flow8 verifies the connection.
  4. Done: That tool is now available to all flows.

Example: Connect Slack

  1. Create a Slack app (or use existing one).
  2. Get the API token.
  3. In flow8, Integrations → Slack → paste token.
  4. Slack is now available to flows.

Step 5: Build Your First Flow

The flow8 UI guides you through flow building:

  1. Name the flow: “Email to CRM Intake”
  2. Choose a trigger: “New email arrives in this inbox”
  3. Add flowlets: Drag and connect modules
    • Extract data from email.
    • Create contact in CRM.
    • Send confirmation.
  4. Configure each flowlet: Map fields, set options.
  5. Test: Run the flow with sample data.
  6. Deploy: Activate the flow.

First flow typically takes 2–4 hours, including learning the UI.

Example Flow (Email to CRM Intake):

1. Trigger: New email in intake@company.com
   ↓
2. Extract email data (from, subject, body)
   ↓
3. Create contact in Salesforce (name from email, email from sender)
   ↓
4. Create task in Salesforce (link to contact, description from email body)
   ↓
5. Send Slack notification to sales manager (#new-leads channel)
   ↓
6. Store email attachment in Google Drive (Leads folder)

Result: Every intake email is automatically logged as a lead, assigned a task, and routed to the team. Time saved: 5 minutes per email.

Step 6: Monitor Execution

After deploying, check the Execution Dashboard:

  • Plays (executions): List of all flow runs.
  • Status: Success, failure, or waiting for approval.
  • Duration: How long each step took.
  • Errors: Any issues (if failures occurred).

For your first flow, monitor the first 5–10 executions to ensure they’re working as expected.

Week 3: Measure Results

Measurement Checklist

Identify metrics before deploying so you can track them afterward:

MetricBefore AutomationAfter (Measured)Savings
Time per intake15 min1 min14 min/intake
Intakes per week3030 (but faster)7 hours/week
Manual errors2–3 per week (typos, duplicates)02–3 errors avoided/week
Time to route to team2 hours (email, read, assign)30 sec (automatic)1.9 hours faster
Monthly labor cost$1,200 (15 min × 30 intakes × $35/hr burdened)$40 (monitoring/exceptions)$1,160/month saved

For email intake example above:

  • Annual savings: $1,160/month × 12 = $13,920
  • flow8 cost: ~$2,000/year
  • ROI Year 1: 6.9x

Questions to Ask Your Team

After 2 weeks of automation, survey the team:

  1. Is the automation working? (Yes/No/Mostly)
  2. Are there issues? (If yes, what?)
  3. How much time are you saving per week? (Estimate in hours)
  4. Would you add this flow to other teams/departments? (Yes/No)
  5. What’s the next process you’d automate? (Ranked list)

Answers will inform whether to expand or pivot.

Week 4: Plan for Scale

Decision Point: Expand or Iterate?

Expand: If your first flow is working well, identify 2–3 more processes to automate.

Iterate: If the first flow needs refinement, adjust and re-measure.

Rollout Plan

Phase 1 (Month 1): 1 flow, 1 team, measure results. Phase 2 (Month 2): 2–3 flows, same or adjacent teams, refine processes. Phase 3 (Month 3): Company-wide rollout for proven flows, expand to new areas.

Success Metrics (Company-Wide)

Set OKRs (Objectives & Key Results) for your automation program:

Objective: Reduce manual work across finance and operations. Key Results:

  • Reduce accounts payable processing time by 50% (by automating invoice intake).
  • Free up 2 FTEs worth of time through workflow automation (measure actual hours saved).
  • Achieve 95%+ automation success rate (flows execute without error).
  • Reduce data entry errors by 80% (fewer typos, duplicates, mismatches).

Track these over 3–6 months and adjust priorities based on results.

Evaluation Checklist: Is flow8 Right for Us?

Before committing, review these questions with your team:

Business Fit

  • Do we have processes with high manual repetition?
  • Do we have tools that don’t talk to each other?
  • Do our teams spend 10+ hours/week on copy-paste, data entry, or routine tasks?
  • Could we measure time/cost savings from automation?
  • Do we need to audit and comply with who did what and when?

Technical Readiness

  • Do our main tools (CRM, accounting, email, storage) have APIs or integrations?
  • Do we have IT support to help with setup and credentials?
  • Can we manage simple credential storage (API keys, OAuth tokens)?
  • Do we have a test/sandbox environment to build flows first?

Organizational Readiness

  • Do we have a process owner/champion for this project?
  • Can we allocate 1–2 weeks of that person’s time for setup and flow building?
  • Are our teams open to changing how they work (learning a new tool)?
  • Is automation part of our company’s digital transformation roadmap?

Budget Alignment

  • Can we budget $2K–$5K annually for flow8 license?
  • Can we quantify the cost of manual work we’re trying to eliminate?
  • Does ROI (time saved × hourly cost) justify the investment?

If you answered “yes” to most of these, flow8 is a good fit.

Key Questions for Your IT Team

flow8 requires some IT support. Ask your IT team these questions:

  1. API Keys & Credentials: Can you securely store and rotate API keys for our tools (Salesforce, QB, Slack, etc.)?

    • Answer: flow8 encrypts credentials. We just need to ensure IT can provide them and rotate them as needed.

  2. Deployment: Do we want cloud-hosted or self-hosted?

    • Cloud: Fastest, easiest, data on flow8’s servers.
    • Self-hosted: Full control, data on our infrastructure, requires Docker/Kubernetes expertise.

  3. Data Security: Are there compliance requirements (GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2)?

    • Answer: flow8 supports these. We need to configure retention policies and access controls accordingly.

  4. Integration Support: Which of our tools need to be integrated? (Clio, QuickBooks, Salesforce, etc.)

    • Answer: Most are pre-built. For custom tools, we can use REST API module.

  5. Monitoring & Alerts: Do we want flow8 to alert us when flows fail?

    • Answer: Yes, via Slack, email, or dashboard. Alert rules are configurable.

Getting Help

During Evaluation:

  • Schedule a demo with flow8 sales team.
  • Ask for a trial/POC license (usually free for 2–4 weeks).
  • Attend a webinar or workshop on your use case.

During Implementation:

  • Use flow8 documentation and tutorials.
  • Schedule setup calls with flow8 onboarding team.
  • Ask IT team for help gathering credentials and setting up integrations.

During Operation:

  • flow8 support team (email, chat, phone depending on plan).
  • Community forum for tips and best practices.
  • Quarterly business reviews to discuss new automation opportunities.

Timeline Summary

WeekActivityOutcome
Week 1Identify candidates, request trial, setup environmentTrial environment running
Week 2Connect first integration, build first flow, testFirst flow deployed and working
Week 3Monitor execution, measure results, get team feedbackProof that automation works and saves time
Week 4Plan rollout, set metrics, identify next workflowsBusiness case for broader adoption

By end of Week 4: You have proof of ROI and a rollout plan.

Next Steps

  1. Download the evaluation checklist (linked in docs).
  2. Discuss with your team: Which process would you automate first?
  3. Contact flow8 sales: Request a demo and trial.
  4. Schedule a setup call: With flow8 onboarding team to plan your POC.

Ready to eliminate manual work? Let’s get started.