Business process automation software earns its keep on the exceptions, not on the happy path. Any product can send three emails to a contact who behaves as expected. The real test is what happens when the contact replies after the first email, when a field the next step needs is blank, or when the same person fills in your form twice. This article judges the levelpartner.ai platform by those three cases and shows how its workflow builder handles each: If/Else branches with a fallback path, Stop on Response, and the re-entry rule in workflow settings.
Three exceptions every automated process meets
When you trial process automation software, write down the exceptions before you look at the builder. Most client-facing processes in a company of 20 to 200 people meet the same three.
- The contact answers before the sequence expects it. Without a rule, they keep receiving messages written for someone who has not replied.
- The data is incomplete. A mobile number is missing, a stage is wrong, a service type was never selected, and the next step cannot run as designed.
- The contact enters again. They submit a second enquiry, book a second appointment or are added by import, and the process either runs twice or not at all.
A product that handles these three cleanly can run a process your clients see. One that only shows you a tidy canvas is a design tool.
Before you start
- One process you already run by hand, written as a line per step from trigger to finish.
- The fields that process depends on, checked in Contacts so you know how often each is blank.
- A decision on whether a contact should ever go through this process twice.
- The person who picks up a contact when the automation cannot continue on its own.
How the builder handles a missing value: If/Else
Every workflow starts with a trigger and a run of actions. In the builder you click Add New Trigger, choose the event, optionally add trigger filters, then click Add Action for each step. The exception handling sits in two places on top of that: the If/Else action inside the workflow and the Settings tab above it.
The If/Else action splits contacts into paths by condition. Its key property for exceptions is the None branch, which catches every contact that matches no condition you defined. You cannot delete it, so no contact falls out of the workflow silently.
- Open the workflow, click the + icon and pick If / Else from the list of actions.
- Choose Build My Own to set the logic yourself, or start from a prebuilt recipe.
- For the first branch, select the field to evaluate, choose an operator and set the comparison value.
- Click Add Segment to add more conditions, and use AND / OR to control how they group.
- Click Add Branch if you need another separate path.
- Rename the None branch and add the fallback actions for contacts who match no condition.
Use the None branch for the incomplete record. If the branch you care about is "mobile number is not empty, send SMS", the None branch should create a task for the owner to find the number. If you want the condition checked later rather than immediately, put a Wait action before the If/Else step.
How it handles a reply and a second entry: workflow settings
The other two exceptions are solved once per workflow, in its settings, rather than step by step.
- Go to the Automation section of your dashboard.
- Open an existing workflow or create a new one.
- In the workflow builder, click the Settings tab at the top of the page.
- Under Allow Re-entry, decide whether a contact can enter this workflow more than once.
- Tick Stop on Response if a reply to any message from this workflow should end it for that contact.
- Set the Time Window if messages should only go out within working hours.
Stop on Response applies across all the channels the workflow sends on, so a reply by text ends an email sequence too. Voicemail detection is on by default, which stops a voicemail being counted as a reply. Allow Re-entry, when enabled, lets a contact go through again after finishing or being removed, but never while they are still active in it. Workflows triggered by an appointment or an invoice always allow re-entry for each new appointment or invoice.
Suppose the consultancy sends five follow-up emails to each enquiry, and a review of 200 recent enquiries turns up three groups. Say 31 people replied and still got later emails, 18 had no mobile number so the text step failed unnoticed, and 9 submitted the form twice and got two sets of messages. Each group maps to one fix: Stop on Response for the first, an If/Else with a task on the None branch for the second, and Allow Re-entry off for the third. None of these counts come from a real account.
Process automation software: what to compare
Feature lists rank products by how many triggers and actions they have. A better trial gives each product the same process with the same three exceptions and counts how many steps it takes to handle them. On the platform it is one tick for replies, one setting for re-entry and one fallback branch per decision.
The other comparison is where the records live. If the automation sits in one tool and the contacts in another, every exception needs a sync to resolve. When both share a database, a reply in Conversations is visible to the workflow at once. For a walk through the four building blocks of a workflow, see how workflow process automation fits together. For finished processes built this way, see workflow automation examples.
What it replaces and the weekly time
It replaces the inbox someone checks twice a day to see who has answered, the spreadsheet of records to fix and the habit of asking in the Monday meeting who has already been chased. Allow about twenty minutes a week: review tasks raised from None branches, read replies that stopped a sequence, and fix the fields that keep sending contacts to the fallback.
Building the happy path first and the exceptions later. Every message you add to the main path also adds one more message to the people who replied. Tick Stop on Response and decide on re-entry before the first action goes in.
When not to automate yet
If you cannot list the exceptions, the process is not understood well enough. Run it by hand for a few weeks and note every time it goes off course. A process that changes every month is also a weak candidate; optimise the process first and automate once it settles. If the question is who in your company should be building these, read choosing a workflow creator.
Troubleshooting
Contacts still get messages after replying
Stop on Response is unticked, or the reply came in through a route the workflow did not send on, such as a call to the office. Tick the setting and add a manual removal step for the team when someone replies by phone.
Contacts disappear from a branch
There is no action on the None branch. Add a task or an internal notification so a person sees every contact that matched nothing.
A contact went through twice
Allow Re-entry is on and the contact finished the first run before re-entering. Switch it off for processes that should only happen once, and remember appointment and invoice triggers re-enter regardless.
The condition checks too early
The If/Else runs the moment the contact reaches it. Add a Wait before it so the field has time to fill.
Frequently asked questions
What does business process automation software do?
It starts a set of steps when an event happens, such as a form submission or a stage change, and runs them without anyone pressing a button. Good software also decides what happens when a step cannot run as planned.
Can the None branch be removed?
No. It is created with every If/Else action and catches contacts who match none of your conditions. You can rename it and give it its own actions.
Does Stop on Response cover every channel?
It ends the workflow when the contact replies to a message the workflow sent, on any channel the workflow manages. Replies that arrive another way, such as a walk-in, need a person to remove the contact.
Do we need technical staff to run it?
No. You need someone who knows the process, can list its exceptions and will test each one with a sample contact before switching the workflow on.