Built-in utilities for your workflows
Most of a workflow's steps talk to your apps. In between, the data often needs work: a date written the way your customer reads it, a total with tax, a supplier's spreadsheet turned into rows, a delivery note for a Northwind Logistics order made as a PDF. Utilities does that work as ordinary steps, in ten tools: Date and time, Text, Math, Crypto, XML, Compression, CSV and spreadsheets, PDF, Image and QR code. They are on every plan, need nothing connected and no code, and every run shows what each step received and returned.
At a glance
| Label | Value |
|---|---|
| Plans | Every plan |
| Connect | No connection needed |
| Starts runs | No trigger — a step inside any workflow |
| Kind | Built in · Utilities |
What a workflow can do with it
Writes a date the way you choose
ISO, 2 October 2026, October 2, 2026, day first, month first, Unix seconds or a pattern of your own, in the workflow's time zone unless you choose another.
Moves a date forward or back
Counts the days, hours or months from one date to another
Moves a date to the start of its day, week, month or year
Puts now on the item, in a time zone
Turns a date written as text into a date later steps can use
Detect reads ISO dates, dates with the month written out and Unix times. A date such as 02/10/2026 could be either way round, so it needs Day first or Month first.
Gives the weekday, month, year, week number or another part
Makes text lower case, upper case, title case or sentence case
Takes the spaces off both ends
Replaces words or a pattern in text
Turns text into a list at a separator
Turns a list into one text
Pulls out the part of text that matches a pattern
Lists every email address, web address or phone number in text
Turns text into lower-case-words-with-dashes, for an address or a file name
Cuts text to a length, at a word, with an ending
Fills text out to a length — 42 to 00042
Keeps the words of an HTML text, a line for each paragraph
Turns HTML into Markdown
Turns Markdown into HTML, for an email or a page
Counts the characters, words or lines in text
Works out a sum with values from earlier steps
Rounds a number to the places you choose
Picks a number between two others
Writes a number with grouping, decimals and a currency symbol
Makes a fingerprint of text — SHA-256 and others
Signs text with a secret, as webhooks are signed
SHA-256, SHA-512 or SHA-1, written as hex or Base64, the way webhooks are signed. The Secret is stored encrypted, never shown again, and left out when the step or workflow is copied, exported or shared as a template.
Turns text into Base64
Turns Base64 back into text
Makes text safe to put in a web address
Turns an encoded web-address part back into text
Makes a random string — a code, a token, a password
Makes a new unique id
Makes a signed JSON Web Token with the claims you give
HS256 with a shared secret, or RS256 with a private key in PEM form. Claims go one per row, and Expires in is in minutes. Check a JWT reads one back: a bad or expired token gives valid false and the reason, rather than failing the step.
Checks a token’s signature and expiry, and reads its claims
Reads XML into fields later steps can use
Writes fields as XML
Puts files from earlier steps into one zip archive
Opens a zip archive into one item per file
Compresses one file with gzip
Opens a .gz file
Turns a CSV, TSV or Excel file into one item per row
A CSV, TSV or XLSX file becomes one item per row, up to 50,000 rows, from the first sheet unless you name another. ODS files are not read: save them as XLSX or CSV first.
Writes all the items to one CSV or Excel file
Every item into one CSV or XLSX file, with the columns you list or every field as it is named.
Reads a JSON file into fields, or a text file into text
Writes fields or text into a file
Reads the text of a PDF, page by page
Joins PDFs into one, in the order given
Cuts a PDF into parts, one item each
Turns HTML with values from earlier steps into a PDF
A4 or Letter, up to 50 pages, with values from earlier steps in the HTML. It runs no script and fetches nothing: an image is a data: address or a file from an earlier step, and styles go in the HTML itself.
Makes an image larger or smaller
PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or BMP, up to 20 MB. With Keep the ratio on, it fits inside the width and height you give and is never stretched.
Cuts out part of an image
Turns an image a quarter, half or three quarters round
Saves an image as PNG, JPEG or WebP
Writes text on an image — a watermark, a caption, a code
Gives an image's width, height, format and size
Makes a QR code for text or a web address
For text or a web address, as a PNG from 100 to 2,000 pixels or as an SVG.
Reads the text of a QR code in an image
Reads the text of a QR code in a photo or picture. An image with no code gives found false, not a failed step.
Questions about Utilities
Do these steps use up runs?
Using them adds no runs: a run is counted per workflow run, however many steps it has. A workflow with two of these steps and one with twenty each use one run.
Is my Crypto secret safe?
The HMAC Secret and the JWT Key are encrypted when you save the step and never shown again. They are never put on the item, in the run's record or within reach of the Code step. Copying the step or the workflow, exporting it or sharing it as a template leaves the secret out, and the copy shows Needs setup until someone types it again.
How large can the files be?
An image step takes an image up to 20 MB. Read a file into items reads up to 50,000 rows, and Make a PDF from HTML writes up to 50 pages. Unzip a file takes up to 1,000 files and 250 MB unpacked. Any file passed from one step to the next can be up to 250 MB.
Do I still need the Code step?
For most of these jobs, no: dates, text, sums, hashes, files and images now have a step of their own, on every plan. The Code step stays for logic none of these covers, and it needs a paid plan.
Is my data sent anywhere else?
No. The utility steps run inside Bizomate, on the item in front of them. Make a PDF from HTML fetches nothing from the web, so a PDF holds only what the step was given.