Automations

An automation is a sentence you write once: when something happens to a deal, a wedding or a contact, do these things in this order. When a proposal is accepted, send the contract. When the contract is signed, apply the task list and invite the couple. Forty-five days before the ceremony, send the final-details form and wait for it. It runs by itself, and every run is kept so you can read it step by step.

This is different from the task workflows, which lay out a list of tasks on one wedding when you ask. An automation can apply one of those as a step.

Automations are part of the planner desk. Open Automations from the desk menu. Couples, vendors and teammates without the desk never see them.

Starting one#

Start from a template gives you a working setup on day one. Applying a template copies it into a workflow of your own, switched off. A starter that arrived switched on would send a couple their contract the moment you applied it, so nothing runs until you press Turn on. You can also begin from an empty workflow.

The trigger#

The trigger is the When line. It is either an event:

• a deal is created, changes stage, is lost, or is booked
• a proposal is sent, first opened, accepted or declined
• an agreement is sent, first opened or signed
• an invoice is issued, first opened, paid or overdue
• a form is sent or completed
• someone books or cancels a consultation
• a contact is added or changes

or a date: N days before, on or after the ceremony (or a deal's event date), at an hour you choose.

A deal that moves stage and comes back fires again each time it moves, because each move is a fact about a moment. A date trigger fires once for the date it is counting to. If you move the ceremony, it arms again for the new date, and moving it back to a date it already fired for does not send twice.

A date workflow looks ahead of nothing and behind by two days. Turning it on does not fire it for weddings already past the moment. A wedding whose ceremony has just entered the window, or entered it in the last two days, gets its run. The two days are there so that a late check or a busy hour does not lose one.

The steps#

A workflow is an ordered list. Each step is one of:

A step that cannot do its job says so and stops. A missing template, a contact with no address or a text to someone who has not agreed is a step marked as blocked, with the reason, and the rest of the run stops there rather than carrying on without it.

If…#

A condition asks about the record (a deal's stage, whether a contact agreed to marketing email, a payment's status) and sends the run down then or else. The list of questions is fixed, so a workflow copied from a colleague cannot read anything you did not choose. If the record has no value for the field you asked about, the step fails and names the field. It does not quietly answer no.

Wait#

A wait moves the clock for everything after it. The steps after a wait are scheduled from when the wait ends, not from when the run began.

Approve before send#

Any email, text or document step can be set to Ask me first. When the run reaches it, the message is written and held, and you are asked. The message you read is the exact message that will go, not a description of it.

Open Approvals from the top of Automations. Each held message shows who it is for and what it says. You have three choices:

• Send sends it as shown.
• Edit then send lets you change the subject and the words. Saving keeps it in the queue; nothing goes out until you press Send. The phone's approvals screen has the same three buttons.
• Discard drops it and cancels the rest of that run.

A message nobody answers for seven days expires and the run is closed. If a teammate answers first, you are told someone already did.

On the phone the same queue is under Workflow approvals in the checklist menu on a wedding. Phone approvals are Send or Discard; editing is on the web.

Test on…#

Before turning a workflow on, press Test on… in the builder and pick a real deal, wedding or contact. Every step is shown as it would read for that record, with the time each would happen. Nothing is sent and nothing is written. A condition shows both of its paths and follows neither, because a preview cannot know which would fire.

Reading a run#

Runs lists every run, newest first, for every workflow. Open one to see its steps: what was done, when, and what went wrong if it did. For a message it shows what was rendered. For a condition it shows which path it took and the answer to each check, so you can see why a run went the way it did. A run executes the version of the workflow that existed when it started. Editing a workflow never changes a run already under way.

On the phone, the same step-by-step read opens from See the run on a held message.

You can cancel a run that is waiting or has not finished.

Two access rules#

• Only a planner with the desk can write automations. A traveler is refused.
• If a planner's access lapses, their workflows stop at the next step with a clear reason rather than carrying on sending in their name.

Zapier and the mailing list#

Two doors connect a workflow outside the app. Both live in Settings.

API keys#

Settings → API keys creates a key for Zapier. The key is shown once. Copy it then; we keep only a fingerprint and cannot show it again. Give it a name, so you can tell one Zap from another, and revoke it the moment you no longer want it. You can hold ten live keys.

With a key, a Zap can:

• Trigger on a new deal, a deal changing stage, an accepted proposal, a signed agreement, a paid invoice, a completed form, a booked consultation or a new contact. A Zap receives the event within about two minutes.
• Act by creating a deal that appears on your board, creating a contact, creating a task or moving a deal's stage. These happen as you, with your access and no more.

A Zap that stops answering, or unsubscribes, is switched off after repeated failures.

Mailchimp and Flodesk#

Settings → Mailing list connects a Mailchimp or Flodesk account with its API key. Pick the list, and contacts who agreed to marketing email are sent to it.

• Only contacts who agreed. This is a third permission, separate from texting. "You can text me about this wedding" and "you can add me to the newsletter" are different answers. Open a contact in the little black book and tick Agreed to marketing email when they have told you so. Clearing the tick withdraws them at the next sync. The same tick is on a contact's page on the phone.
• An unsubscribe stays an unsubscribe. A person who unsubscribes in Mailchimp stays unsubscribed, even after Send everyone again. We never send a status for someone already on your list.
• Connecting a different list starts that list from scratch. Disconnect forgets the key.
• The sync runs on its own about every ten minutes. If it fails, the card says so and keeps trying once the key works again.