👤 For all users
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🎯 For those who already operate a pipe with more than one person on the team
A process with more than one person involved has a recurring problem: everyone knows the work exists, but no one is sure who should act now. This is not a lack of commitment. It is a lack of a clear responsibility structure.
In Pipefy, assigning an assignee per card is the mechanism that solves this. When each card has a clear owner in each phase, the team stops asking "who handles this?" and starts asking "has this been completed?".
By the end of this article, you will know how to structure responsibilities in the pipe so the team operates with autonomy and without ambiguity about who should act at each step.
📖 What you will learn here:
What changes when a card has an assignee
A card without an assignee is an invisible card to the team. It exists in the pipe, but no one feels the need to act on it. The natural tendency is for these cards to sit idle until someone notices the pile-up.
When an assignee is assigned, three things happen at the same time: the person receives a notification that the card is under their responsibility, the card appears filtered for them in the assignee views, and the team has a clear point of contact for that demand.
The practical rule is simple: every card in progress should have an assignee. If a card has no owner, it is at risk of sitting idle without anyone noticing.
Assignment by phase: the logic that organizes teamwork
Pipefy lets you configure a default assignee per phase. This means that when a card enters a specific phase, the system can automatically assign the correct assignee for that step, without anyone needing to do it manually for each case.
Think of a purchase approval process with three phases: Financial Analysis, Manager Approval and Order Issuance. Each phase has a different assignee. Without assignment by phase, someone needs to remember to change the card's assignee every time it advances. With assignment by phase configured, this happens automatically.
Why this matters for traceability: when the assignment follows the phase, the card history records exactly who was responsible for each step of the process. This is especially useful in audits, SLA reviews and bottleneck analysis.
Assignment by phase is a process design decision, not a daily operation one. Define who is responsible for each step when you configure the pipe, and the team operates without needing to think about it.
Automate assignments: eliminate the repetitive decisions
Manual assignment works well in small teams with low volume. When the number of cards grows, the decision of "who does this card go to" starts consuming time and creating inconsistencies.
Assignment automations solve this. You define a rule and Pipefy runs it: when a card enters phase X, it automatically assigns it to user Y. Or when a specific field is filled with a certain value, the card goes to the corresponding assignee.
Examples of assignment automations that make a difference in practice:
- IT support process: cards that arrive with high priority are automatically assigned to the team lead.
- Purchase process: cards that enter the financial approval phase are assigned to the financial analyst responsible for the cost center informed in the form.
- Employee onboarding: when the card advances to the access configuration phase, the assignee automatically changes from HR to IT.
Comments on the card: the history the process needs
Assignment defines who acts. Comments record what was done, decided or communicated over the course of the process. Together, they form the complete history of a card.
Comments are useful in three specific situations:
- Recording decisions: when an approval has a specific condition or an exception was authorized, the comment documents the context that does not fit in a form field.
- Communication between phases: the assignee of the previous phase leaves a comment explaining what was done and what needs attention in the next step.
- Requesting additional information: when the card needs data that was not in the start form, the assignee records the request and what was answered.
Process tip: use comments for what has no field. If a piece of information appears frequently in the comments, consider creating a specific field for it in the corresponding phase. Recurring comments with the same type of data are a sign that the form needs to evolve.
Best practices for teams that operate as a group
Define responsibility before the card advances
Moving a card to the next phase should always include assigning the person responsible for the new step. If the phase does not have automatic assignment configured, the current assignee should assign it manually before moving the card. This prevents the card from entering a phase without an owner.
Use the assignee view to track the team's load
Pipefy lets you filter a pipe's cards by assignee. This gives immediate visibility into the distribution of work: who has many cards in progress, who is free to absorb more demand and where the capacity bottlenecks are.
Keep one assignee per card, even in collaborative processes
In processes that involve several people in the same phase, the temptation is not to formally assign anyone because "everyone is involved". In practice, this means no one feels responsible for ensuring the card advances.
The card's assignee does not need to do all the work of the phase. They need to ensure the phase's work is completed and that the card advances when it is ready. The responsibility is coordination, not necessarily execution.
Warning sign: if the pipe has cards idle for more than two process cycles with no movement and no assignee, the problem is not capacity. It is the assignment structure. Review whether assignment by phase is configured and whether the assignment automations are active.
How it works in practice: a contract approval process
A legal team manages contracts with suppliers in a pipe with four phases: Initial Analysis, Legal Review, Board Approval and Signature.
Here is how the responsibility structure works:
- Initial Analysis: automatic assignment to the contracts analyst when the card is created. They review the form data and record a comment with the initial opinion before moving to the next phase.
- Legal Review: on entering the phase, the card is automatically assigned to the lawyer responsible for the type of contract informed in the form. The assignment varies according to the "contract category" field.
- Board Approval: the assignee changes to the director of the requesting area. The automation uses the "requesting area" field to determine which director receives the card.
- Signature: the card returns to the contracts analyst, who coordinates the signature process and archives the card after completion.
Result: in no phase does the card sit without an owner. The comment history records each decision. The legal team can answer in seconds who is handling which contract and at what step.
Before moving on, confirm that you know how to:
- Assign an assignee to a card and understand what that triggers
- Configure the default assignment by phase in the pipe
- Identify when an assignment automation makes sense
- Use comments to record decisions without replacing the form fields
