QuickBooks Online

What it's for

Every step in a workflow gets a name — either one you set or a default based on the connector and action (e.g. "Get Order Details", "Send Welcome Email"). It's shown throughout the UI and in your execution history, and it's also the source for the step's Reference — a camelCase identifier auto-generated from the name (e.g. "Get Order Details" → getOrderDetails) — which is what you actually use in {{...}} expressions to read this step's output from later steps. See Step Reference.

Rules

• Must be at least 2 characters, and 50 characters or fewer.
• Must be unique within the workflow — reusing a name that's already taken will be rejected, with a suggested alternative (e.g. "Get Order Details 2").
• Can't be empty.

Tips

• Prefer a descriptive, human-readable name over a generic one — "Get Order Details" is easier to work with later than "HTTP Request 2", especially once a workflow has a dozen steps.
• Renaming a step updates every reference to it elsewhere in the workflow automatically.

Syntax

Any input field can reference earlier data using {{expression}}. The expression is evaluated as JSONata — so simple dot-paths and more advanced queries (filters, functions) both work.

Referencing a step's output

Use the step's Reference — a camelCase identifier auto-generated from its Name (e.g. "Get Order Details" → getOrderDetails), shown read-only wherever the step's fields are configured — followed by the field path. Elsewhere in these docs this general pattern is written as {{<stepReference>.field.path}}:

{{getOrderDetails.response.data.id}}
{{getOrderDetails.response.status}}

The raw display name won't work here even though it's what you see in the UI — {{Get Order Details.response.data.id}} isn't valid, since a bare name containing spaces isn't a single JSONata identifier. Always use the camelCase Reference.

You can also reference steps by position instead of by reference:

{{steps[0].response.data.id}}

Referencing trigger data

{{trigger.headers.authorization}}
{{trigger.body.customerId}}
{{trigger.query.page}}
{{trigger.params.orderId}}
{{trigger.method}}
{{trigger.path}}

Referencing workflow variables

{{variables.myVariable}}

See Variables for the full list of variable types and more examples, including connection-type variables.

Referencing runtime variables

A separate, mutable namespace written by the Variable connector while a run is in progress — not the same as the workflow-level variables above:

{{runtimeVariables.myVariable}}

Notes

• If an expression can't be resolved (a typo in a step name, a field that doesn't exist), it resolves to an empty string rather than failing the workflow — check your execution history if a value comes through blank.
• Object values are automatically JSON-stringified when interpolated into a string field.

Fire-and-forget

When enabled, the workflow doesn't wait for this step to complete before moving to the next one. Use it for steps whose result nothing downstream depends on — logging, analytics, notifications — so they don't add latency to the steps that matter.

Continue on error

When enabled, a failure in this step doesn't stop the workflow — execution continues to the next step. The failure is still recorded in the execution history; this just controls whether it's fatal.

Combine the two for steps that are genuinely optional to the outcome: fire-and-forget so they don't add latency, continue-on-error so a failure in them (e.g. an analytics endpoint being briefly down) doesn't take down an otherwise-successful workflow run.

What it does

When enabled, a step's result is cached for a configurable TTL (time-to-live, in seconds). If the step runs again with the same effective cache key before the TTL expires, the cached result is returned instead of re-running the step.

Configuring it

• Enabled — turn caching on or off for this step.
• TTL — how long (in seconds) a cached result stays valid.
• Cache key template — an expression (supporting the same {{...}} step reference syntax used elsewhere) that determines what counts as "the same call". By default this is based on the step's resolved input; a custom template lets you cache more narrowly or broadly than that.

When to use it

Good candidates are steps that call something slow or rate-limited but return the same answer for the same input within a short window — a lookup against a rarely-changing external system, for example. Skip it for steps whose result must always be fresh (anything involving live inventory, pricing, or payment state).

What it does

When enabled, only one execution of this step (for a given lock key) can run at a time. If a second execution tries to run the same step while a lock is held, it waits until the lock is released or the hold period elapses.

Configuring it

• Enabled — turn locking on or off for this step.
• Lock key — an expression (supporting the same {{...}} step reference syntax used elsewhere) that determines what counts as "the same resource". By default the lock is scoped to the step itself; a custom key lets you lock per-customer, per-order, or any other identifier that needs serialized access.
• Period — how long (in seconds) the lock is held before it's automatically released, in case an execution doesn't complete normally.

When to use it

Use it whenever concurrent executions could race on the same resource — e.g. two workflow runs both trying to update the same order's status at once. A lock key scoped to the order id ensures only one of them proceeds at a time.