What is a Trigger?

Definition

A Trigger is the first step in a Flow and defines how the system receives or retrieves incoming files. There are two types of triggers:

Account Level

Types of Triggers

• Pull Action — Simplify actively pulls files from a connection (such as FTP, SFTP, or Azure Storage) based on a configured frequency. You define how often to pull, what document type to process, and which connection to use.
• Receive Action — Simplify passively receives files via webhook. Whenever a change or update occurs on the connection, the connection sends a webhook call to Simplify, which then processes the received files or updates related data such as lookup tables.

Single Branch vs Multiple Branches

A Trigger can route to one or more Action branches depending on how the flow is configured:

Single branch — one Trigger connects to one Action through Built-in Steps:

Flow Configuration — single branch: Trigger → Built-in Steps → Action

Multiple branches — one Trigger connects to multiple Action branches in parallel. Each branch can have its own Conditions to determine which branch executes for a given document:

Flow Configuration — two branches: Trigger splits into two independent Built-in Steps → Action paths

Additional Configuration

A Trigger step can also be configured with:

• Conditions — to control whether the step executes based on document content.
• Partner Assignments — to match specific trading partners to this step.
• Acknowledgment Settings — to define how response documents (such as 997s) are generated and sent.

For step-by-step instructions on adding a Trigger, refer to the Flow documentation.

Related Articles

For more details, refer to the following articles in the Knowledge Center: