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Sequence tasks: where they land and how they unblock the next step

Updated 2026-10-08

In two lines: the steps that need a person create the task inside the CRM, not in Management > Tasks: you'll find it in CRM > Activities and in the Tasks and meetings tab of the contact's and the deal's record. Tick it off there and the sequence moves to the next step.

Which steps create a task?

A sequence mixes steps that run on their own (the automatic email, the automatic WhatsApp) with steps that need someone to act. The second kind doesn't send anything: it leaves a task saying what to do, on which contact, and with the text you prepared.

  • Manual email — write and send the email yourself; the task carries the subject you suggested in the step.
  • Phone call — a follow-up call task on that contact.
  • WhatsApp — task — the message goes out from the line the step points at, sent by a person from the CRM.
  • Task — the free-form one: whatever title, description and priority you write in the step.
  • LinkedIn — connect, send a message or view the profile, since LinkedIn is worked by hand.
  • WhatsApp — automatic, only when the send fails and you set If the send fails to Create a task for the owner — also when Meta accepts the message and rejects it afterwards (the task then says the Meta error). Nothing is lost: someone picks it up by hand.
  • The Create a task action, inside an Action step: it creates the task and the sequence carries on without waiting.

Where it shows up and when it's due

The task is born as a CRM activity linked to the person and — when the sequence links deals — to the deal too. That means it appears exactly where the salesperson already works: in CRM > Activities (day, week or Calendar) and in the Tasks and meetings tab of that contact's and that deal's record. There's nothing to look up in another module. To tell it apart at a glance, it carries the Sequence: {name} chip —on the record's timeline, next to the subject in CRM > Activities and in the task's panel—, and clicking it takes you to the sequence. Older tasks, created before the chip existed, just say Sequence.

The task the sequence left shows up on the person's record like any other task, with its owner and due date.

It's due the day the step fires, because that's when the work is due — not days later. So the deal's next action stays honest: an open sequence task counts as pending on that deal, and a deal with one no longer shows up as having nothing scheduled.

If you want a step's task to land later on purpose, give that step a wait: in the time marker above it, When to execute this step → Wait before executing. The task is created when the step fires, so it's due that day. The days you set in Wait, then skip after N days only say when the sequence gives up waiting — they don't move the due date.

Who does the task go to?

With Specific user, you pick the rep from a searchable list: no internal ID needed.

You decide it in the step, in Assign to: Contact/deal owner, Sequence creator or Specific user. With Specific user you pick the rep from a list — under Assigned rep — so you never have to hunt for an internal ID. If whoever you chose can't take it, the CRM goes down this ladder instead of dropping the task:

  • The rep you picked in Specific user, as long as they're still a member of the workspace.
  • Otherwise, the owner of the linked deal.
  • Otherwise, the owner of the person.
  • Otherwise, whoever created the sequence.
If not even the last one resolves to a real person, the enrollment is left on Paused instead of failing —the step didn't run, nobody lost their place— and the bell lets you know. Fix the step's assignee and, once it's saved, the enrollments paused on it carry on by themselves from there; if instead you gave the person an owner, resume the enrollment from the Contacts tab. More in A sequence with a problem: how you find out, what happens to your contacts and how to resume it.

Completing it moves the sequence forward

What happens after the task is created is up to each step, in After creating the task:

  • Advance immediately — the sequence doesn't wait: the next step is scheduled by its own timing and the task stays there as a reminder.
  • Wait for completion — the contact sits on Waiting on task until someone completes it. The moment they do, the sequence carries on.
  • Wait, then skip after N days — the same, with a deadline: if nobody completes it in the days you set, the sequence goes on without it.

You complete the task wherever you found it — in CRM > Activities or on the record — with its checkbox. There's no separate "tell the sequence" step: the same box that closes your task is the one that releases the enrollment.

When the deadline of Wait, then skip after N days runs out, the sequence closes that task as done and moves on. It's deliberate: the step already went by, so leaving it open would only pile up overdue work nobody can act on. Completing it afterwards no longer advances anything.

The same happens if the person leaves the sequence while it's waiting on their task —because the deal was won, lost or archived, or because they replied on WhatsApp, depending on the sequence's Sequence exits—: the task is marked as completed by itself, so you're not left with a to-do for someone who's no longer in the sequence. How those exits work: Automate follow-up: Sequences and booking pages.

Unblocking an enrollment from Contacts

The sequence's Contacts tab shows every enrollment with its state — Pending, Active, Paused, Waiting on task, Completed, Exited, Failed — and the actions menu on each row changes with it:

  • On Failed, Retry puts the enrollment back to Active and it picks up from the same step it broke on — you don't have to enroll the person again and start from zero.
  • On Waiting on task, Exit takes that person out of the sequence for good — useful when the pending task no longer makes sense (they replied on another channel, the deal closed).
  • On Paused, Resume puts the enrollment back to Active, and it carries on from the step where it stopped.
  • Exit is also there on Pending, Active and Paused. The states that are already closed — Completed and Exited — have no actions.
  • When the engine paused several enrollments because of a configuration problem, the Resume N paused button above the table resumes them all at once. When to use it: A sequence with a problem: how you find out, what happens to your contacts and how to resume it.
On an enrollment in Failed status, Retry picks it up from the same step where it broke.
Retry needs the sequence to be turned on: with a paused sequence it warns you and does nothing, so nobody restarts a cadence that was shut off on purpose. Turn the sequence on first, then retry.
Before retrying, check in the Activity tab what broke on that step: the reason is written under each event (for example, the contact no longer exists or the email send failed). Retrying without fixing the cause just fails again.

Next step: so the task also carries the opportunity, turn on Link deals in a sequence (so the automation can move them). And to see how these tasks fit into the day's agenda, go to Manage a deal: history, activities and agenda.

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