Occasionally an action in a flow will fail and show a red error message. This guide walks through the most common flow errors, what causes each one, and how to get your flow back on track.

When an action encounters a problem, a red error banner with a warning icon appears directly on that action in the flow's visual builder. The banner displays the error message text so you can see exactly what went wrong without leaving the flow.

To find flows that need attention, use the Errored filter in the Flows navigation. It surfaces every flow where at least one action has failed and requires your attention. The neighboring Paused filter shows flows that have been paused — important because a flow automatically pauses when one of its actions errors, so you'll often need to check both.

The sections below are organized by theme. Each one shows the exact message you'll see, explains what triggered it, and walks through the fix.

These errors all relate to sending email from an action. They typically mean something changed with the contact's address, your connected email account, or the volume of outgoing mail.

Error message: "The client's email address is invalid. Please edit their email address and resolve."

The contact's email address is malformed or missing. Go to the contact's record and correct the email address, then come back to the flow and click Retry on the failed action.

Error message: "Something went wrong. Please reconnect your email address and resolve."

Your connected sending email account lost authorization with Dubsado. Reconnect it at Messages ➔ Settings ➔ Emails or Settings ➔ Emails, then click Retry on the failed action.

Error message: "No email connected. Please connect an email in your settings to continue sending emails."

No sending email address is connected to your workspace. Connect one at Messages ➔ Settings ➔ Emails or Settings ➔ Emails, then click Retry on the failed action.

Error message: "Too many emails sent at once. Please edit the condition to send later or force now."

When too many email actions are scheduled to fire simultaneously, your email host may throttle them. To resolve this, stagger the timing of the affected actions so they don't all send at once. You can then click Retry on any action that errored, or click Force now to send a pending action immediately.

Error message: "It looks like this email has an invalid smart field. Please edit the email."

A smart field in the email template is broken. This usually happens when a smart field is typed or pasted manually instead of being inserted from the smart field menu. Open the email, remove the broken field, and re-insert it from the smart field menu. Once you've fixed the smart field, click Retry on the failed action.

These errors mean an action references something that has been removed or is no longer available. The fix is always the same: edit the action to point to a valid item, then click Retry.

Error message: "No form was selected for this trigger. Please edit to select a form, then resolve."

The action is set to send a form, but no form has been chosen. Edit the action, select a form, and click Retry.

Error message: "This action references a deleted form. Please edit to re-select the form, then resolve."

The form this action was pointing to has been deleted. Edit the action and select an existing form, then click Retry.

Error message: "This action references a deleted scheduler. You can edit this action or add a new 'Send scheduler' action, then resolve."

The scheduler this action referenced no longer exists. Edit the action to point to an active scheduler, or add a new Send scheduler action to replace it, then click Retry.

Error message: "The trigger for this action references an installment that no longer exists. Please select a new installment to watch, then retry the action."

This action watches a specific payment plan installment, but that installment has been removed. Edit the action to watch a current installment, then click Retry.

These errors appear when the timing of an action no longer lines up with the project's timeline.

Error message: "The trigger for this action has expired. Please select a new trigger or force now."

The trigger time for this action has already passed. For example, if an action is set to send two weeks before the project date but the project date is only three days out, the trigger window has closed.

To fix it, edit the action's trigger to a time that is still in the future. If you want to run the action right away rather than wait, click Force now on the action.

Error message: "Action failed - retry needed"

This is a catch-all message for errors that don't match a more specific category. Click Retry on the action to try again. If the error persists, contact Dubsado support so the team can investigate.

Once you've addressed the cause of an error, use the controls on the action itself to get it running. The controls available depend on whether the action has already failed or is still pending.

The controls are icon buttons that appear on the action node in the flow builder. Hover over any button to see its tooltip label.

Retry (circular-arrow icon) — Appears on a failed action. After correcting the underlying cause, click Retry to re-run the action.

Force now (lightning icon) — Appears on a pending action that hasn't failed yet. Click Force now to run the action immediately, overriding any scheduled delay.

Skip and mark complete (skip-forward icon) — Marks the action complete without running it. Use this for actions you no longer need. Available on any action that hasn't already been completed or skipped.

Approve — Appears on actions that require manual approval before they run. Click Approve to let the action proceed.

When an action errors, the flow automatically pauses so no further actions run until you address the problem. After fixing the error and retrying the action, check whether the flow is still showing as paused. If it is, click Resume on the flow to start it running again.

You can find all paused flows using the Paused filter in the Flows navigation. For more on managing flow state, see managing your flows.

The action's scheduled trigger time passed before the flow reached it. Edit the action's trigger to a point in the future, or click Force now to send it immediately without rescheduling.

If the action already failed, click Retry (the circular-arrow icon) on that action. If the action is still pending and hasn't failed yet, click Force now (the lightning icon) instead. Both are icon buttons on the action in the flow builder.

The field was most likely typed or pasted rather than inserted from the smart field menu. Re-open the email, remove the broken field, and re-insert it using the menu. Also check whether the field is a Payment Plan date smart field — those are not supported in flow emails and will always cause this error. Use invoice smart fields instead.

Yes. Edit that specific action and re-select an existing form or scheduler, then click Retry. If there isn't an existing form or scheduler to re-select, you can add a new flow action that sends a form or a scheduler before the errored action, or, you can update the errored flow action's trigger to a different trigger.

Check whether the flow is paused by looking at the Paused filter in the Flows navigation. A flow automatically pauses when one of its actions errors, which stops all remaining actions from running. Fix the errored action, retry it, and then click Resume on the flow if it is still showing as paused.