Automations
Building automations from templates or from scratch, what starts them, and what they can do.
By PrimemgrUpdated How we research and check this
Settings → Automation is where you set up rules that do routine work: a nudge to follow up when a quote goes unanswered, a reminder to the customer when an invoice goes overdue, a thank-you when a job is finished. Templates that start from something the app does not record yet, such as a failed card payment, are listed as coming later.
A switched-on automation starts within a minute of what it listens for: a quote sent, viewed, accepted or expired, an invoice issued or past its due date, a payment received, a job or booking created, moved or finished, a form submitted, a unit coming due for service, or a customer writing to you from their portal. It can email the customer, leave a message in their customer portal, send an issued invoice, tell someone here, add a note or a task to a job, move a job to another status, raise a job from an accepted quote, draft an invoice from a job or quote, and call a webhook of yours. Actions the app cannot carry out yet are listed in the builder as coming later rather than offered. Text and WhatsApp messages are not offered. Booking confirmations and appointment reminders are separate from automations and always go out.
Building one
Start from a template, or choose Build your own workflow: what starts it, when it applies, then its steps in order. Every automation is saved turned off, so building one never messages a customer by itself. Editing one makes a new version; anything already running finishes on the version it started with.
See what it would have done
Under each workflow, What it would have done puts the last 30 days of your real activity through it by the same rules it runs on, and shows each run: the messages with their details filled in, and any detail that would have been left blank. Nothing is sent or changed, so it is the safe way to check a workflow before you turn it on.
Safety
Messages wait out your quiet hours in each customer’s own time zone, stop at a daily limit per customer, and never go by a channel the customer has refused. One switch at the top of the page pauses every automation at once.