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Automation

Lead automation that shows its work

The part of the day you should not be doing: confirmation mail on arrival, three follow-ups when nobody picks up, hand-over when the record is ready. You build it once in a flow you can read, and afterwards you only look when something got stuck.

  • Twenty-one triggers, twenty-two steps, branches and waits
  • A later step reads what an earlier one got back from your API
  • A step without an implementation cannot be selected
  • Every run keeps its frozen input and its raw output
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The tools were never the problem

The automation you needed sat one price tier above the one you were paying for. So the record went out to a middleware tool, did one thing there, and came back. Two handovers, a second subscription and a mapping to keep in step, for one email that should have gone out on its own.

We ran a lead generation business on six of them. This is the part that cost us the most and showed up on no invoice.

You pay per seam
Every tool in the chain has its own subscription, and the one feature you actually needed is usually one price tier up.
A field is not one change
Add it in one place and it has to be added in the others. Miss one and nothing fails loudly: it fails the next time somebody filters on it.
Someone else's release is your outage
An API changes, a mapping stops matching, a webhook starts returning something new. You hear about it from the person who was waiting.
What it does

A record arrives raw. Days later it is worth handing over.

An automation hangs on the state it acts on and runs per record. What happens in the days between is the work somebody is doing by hand today, or has moved into a second tool: chase the document that is missing, calculate once the answers are in, fetch a person when a person is needed, get it signed, hand it on. All of it runs inside the account the record already lives in. No hop out to a middleware tool, no automation tier to unlock, and no second copy to keep in step.

  • It is missing a document. Mail today, SMS in two days, and the run stops the moment it arrives.
  • The answers add up to a quote. Calculate, write the fields, generate the document, send it to be signed.
  • Somebody has to step in. A task with a due date, assigned in turn, and the note that prepares the call.
  • An outside system knows more. The webhook runs inside the flow, and the next step reads what came back.
History
one record, six days
10 entries
  1. Mon09:02Record createdfrom your form
  2. 09:04Email sentone document is missing
  3. Wed09:04Waited two daysstill missing
  4. 09:04SMS sentsame ask, other inbox
  5. 14:31Document uploadedby the customer
  6. 14:32Calculatedquantity times your rate
  7. 14:32Fields updatedthe quote
  8. 14:33Document generatedready to send
  9. Thu08:15Signature requestedlink sent to the contact
  10. Fri16:40Signedstage becomes handover ready
Choose a trigger
what starts the run
Triggers
Record createdA new record has arrived.
Field changedA particular field has taken a new value.
Stage enteredCRMA record has moved into this stage.
Idle in stageCRMDaily check: sitting longer than allowed.
SignedSignatureThe recipient has signed.
No recipient foundDistributionNobody matched the rules.

Eight more, each arriving with the module it belongs to.

Triggers

Twenty-one ways a flow starts

An automation hangs on the stage it acts on and is opened from that stage, not in a separate area where you would have to remember what it belongs to. Five of the twenty-one triggers come with Automation itself; the other sixteen arrive with the module they belong to, and disappear again with it.

  • Record created, field changed. The two that cover most of what people build first.
  • Stage entered, stage left, idle too long. The hand-over, the walk-back, and the one nobody builds by hand.
  • Date reached, by hand, reply received. A deadline, a person deciding it is time, or an answer landing in the inbox.
  • Six more from Distribution and Signatures. No buyer, delivery returned, distribution completed; signed, declined, deadline passed.
Steps

Twenty-two steps, and none of them pretend

Mail, SMS, webhook, document, branch, wait, assignment, a change of stage, a calculation, straight into distribution. Sixteen belong to Automation itself; generating a document comes from the core, and changing a stage, requesting a signature and distributing to partners arrive with their modules. A step without an implementation cannot be picked in the builder at all, so nothing reports a success it did not have.

  • Branches. First match or every match, with an else that is a real path.
  • Waits. A delay, or a wait for an event that may never come.
  • Step output chaining. A later step reads what an earlier one got back from your API.
  • Only once per record. “the deadline has passed” is just as true tomorrow.
Add a step
grouped the way the product groups them
Flow
FilterContinue only if the conditions hold.
BranchSplit the flow into named branches.
WaitLet time pass, or wait for something to happen.
Change stageCRMMove the record to another stage.
Out of the house
Send emailMessage to the contact, with variables.
Send SMSText to the number on the record.
Request signatureSignatureBuild documents and have them signed.

Three more groups below: the record itself, people, and outside systems.

Runs
One line each time this automation fired
Run 8843today, 11:06 · finished4 steps
Run 8842today, 10:28 · finished4 steps
Run 8841today, 09:14 · stuck at step 3 of 4
Filterhas_email4 ms
Distribute to partnershandover840 ms
Call external systemenrichretry 2 of 3

504 from https://api.example.com/score. Retrying in 15 minutes.

Input
{
  "postcode": "53111",
  "quantity": 128
}
Output
—
Send emailconfirmationqueued
Run 8840today, 09:02 · 0.9 s · all steps done
Runs

What actually happened, step by step

Every time the trigger fires, one record goes through the steps once, and that is a run. Weeks later somebody asks what happened to one particular record, and this is the list that answers it: one line per run, opened up to show each step with the exact input it was handed and the raw answer it got back. One switch narrows the list to the runs that got stuck, because that is the one you actually open.

  • Status and duration per step. Including the ones that are still waiting.
  • Frozen input, raw output. Not a summary of what the system thinks happened.
  • Retries you can see. Attempt two of three, and when the third is due.
  • Only stuck. One switch, because that is the list you actually open.

21 triggers, 22 steps, and what each one does

16 of the steps belong to Automation itself. The rest arrive with the module they belong to and disappear again with it, which is why a flow can never run a step you have not booked. The colours and the order are the ones you will see in the step picker.

How a flow starts

21 triggers

A trigger is not an action but its occasion, which is why they all carry the same mark, here and in the product.

Record createdStarts as soon as a new record of this type appears: through the form, the API or by hand. The trigger for everything that comes first: greet, assign, move into the opening stage.Field changedStarts when a particular field takes a new value. The trigger for everything that depends on a detail arriving later: a document handed in, a date entered, a status set.Started by handDoes not start on its own but on a click at the record. Meant for anything somebody should decide: a reminder, a handover, a document that must not be produced for every case.Date reachedChecks once a day which records have passed the set threshold on a date field: optionally with an offset before or after. A deadline is thereby nothing more than a date in a field.Stage enteredCRMStarts as soon as a record arrives in a given stage: dragged, through an automation or through the API. The most used trigger: the state on the board is the natural place for something to happen.Stage leftCRMStarts as soon as a record leaves a given stage: regardless of where it goes. The trigger for everything that should be tidied up on the way out.Sitting too long in stageCRMChecks once a day which records have been sitting in a stage longer than allowed. The trigger against quietly going nowhere: it works exactly where nobody does anything and so no event occurs.No buyer foundDistributionStarts when a distribution found no matching partner. The way to still make something of an unsold record instead of letting it sit.Delivery returnedDistributionStarts when a partner returns a delivery: through the portal, the link in the delivery email or the API. The trigger for anything beyond taking it back.Distribution completedDistributionStarts when a distribution has finished and the delivery status is settled. The trigger for anything that needs the final state: a confirmation to the customer, a note, a stage change.Form submittedStarts as soon as someone submits a form and a record comes out of it. It fires in addition to “Record created” and answers a different question: which form the enquiry came from.Reply receivedFires when an incoming email could be matched to a record. Mail is fetched every 15 minutes during the day and hourly at night from the configured mailbox: the account's, your own, or both.SignedSignaturesFires once every document of a request is signed and the finished PDFs sit in their fields. There is no partial completion: whoever signs, signs all of them.Signature declinedSignaturesFires when the recipient explicitly declines on the signing page, with whatever reason they gave. Without this route the process waits fourteen days on someone who said no long ago.Signature deadline passedSignaturesFires when an open request's deadline passes without a signature. Checked every 15 minutes during the day and hourly at night: an expiry happens because nobody acts, so somebody has to notice.Appointment bookedStarts as soon as an appointment is added to a record. A typical follow-up is a stage change, for instance to "Appointment set".Appointment movedStarts when an appointment gets a new time. The old one stays on the record as "Moved", and the new one points to it.Appointment cancelledStarts when an appointment is cancelled, by the guest or by you. Who cancelled is recorded on the appointment.Appointment took placeStarts when an appointment's outcome is set to "Took place". It never happens on its own; a person sets it.No-showStarts when an appointment is marked "Guest did not show" or "Host did not show". One trigger covers both.Appointment outcome missingStarts the day after an appointment when nobody has entered how it went. At the same time the host gets a task "Set outcome".

Flow

6 steps

Where the run goes next, and whether it goes on at all.

FilterLets the run continue only when a condition holds, and ends it otherwise. This narrows an automation down to the cases it was meant for, without building a second trigger for them.WaitPauses the run and continues later. Two settings, freely combined: how long, a fixed duration, a date from the record, or no limit, and what for, a condition on the record. That is how follow-ups, reminders and deadlines are built without a second trigger.EndEnds the run here and records why. It matters most inside branches: a path that stops without a note looks like one where somebody forgot the last step.BranchSplits the flow into named paths, each with its own condition and its own steps. This lets one automation answer several cases instead of one: documents present or missing, budget approved or not.Change stageCRMMoves the record along the pipeline: by the same route as dragging a card by hand. A case then moves on by itself once it is settled that it belongs further along.Distribute to partnersDistributionHands the record to distribution: rules decide which partner gets it, and delivery then proceeds on its own. The step has no configuration: which distribution applies follows from the record type.

People

5 steps

Who gets told, who gets it on their list.

Add noteLeaves an entry on the record, visible in the history and recognisable as written by the automation. The usual way to record what happened automatically.NotifyPoints somebody on the team at something without giving them a task. A notification is read and thereby done: it suits hints, not work that has to be ticked off.Create taskPuts something on somebody's list for good, with a due date. Unlike a notification a task stays open until somebody ticks it off: the way for anything that actually has to be done.Set assigneeDecides who looks after the record. Two independent settings: which pool the person comes from, and how the choice is made among several: so work can be handed out in turn, by load, or fixed.Assign to hostMakes the person who runs an appointment the assignee of the record. Meant for invitations to several people: there, the time the guest picks decides who gets the appointment, and the record should sit with the same person.

Out of the house

4 steps

What leaves the system and reaches someone.

Send emailSends a message to the contact, to the team or to both. To, cc and bcc are text fields with variables: so the same mail can go to the address on the record and in blind copy to your own inbox.Send SMSSends a text message to the record’s phone number. This is the step for the point where email stops working: someone who ignored three emails will ignore the fourth: a text lands in a different inbox and is almost always read.Request signatureSignaturesBuilds the documents from your templates, sends the recipient a link, and files the signed PDFs into the fields you name. One signing session, any number of documents: whoever signs, signs all of them.Invite to bookSends the contact an email with a link to pick an appointment themselves. It offers the free times of the hosts you select.

The record itself

6 steps

What changes on the record while the run passes through.

Set fieldsWrites one or more values into fields of the record: in one step, not three. This records what the automation decided: a marker, a calculated date, a status.CalculateWorks with numbers or with dates and writes the result into a field. The second case is the more common one: delivery date plus fourteen days gives the deadline that governs everything after it.Reformat textReshapes a value before it is used further: strip spaces, fix capitalisation, reduce a number to digits, turn a date into the spelling that belongs in a letter.ArchiveTakes the record out of the board and the list without deleting it. The typical last step of an automation: case closed, view tidied. The same step also brings a record back.DeleteMoves the record to the bin and ends the run. The one action that running again cannot heal: which is why it only takes effect once it has been confirmed explicitly.Generate documentCoreFills a document template with the values of the record and files the finished PDF in a file field. Letters, contracts and quotes come into being without handwork: and sit where the next step finds them.

Your own systems

1 step

The step that leaves the building and comes back with an answer.

Call external systemCalls an external address and makes the response available to the following steps. The way to hand a record to another piece of software: and to use its answer.
Pricing

What Automation costs

Automation and the CRM are bought together, for one price: the flows work on your records, and the CRM is where those records live. Every trigger and every step is in all three tiers. What changes between them is how many people use it and how many records you keep, never what a flow is allowed to do.

CRM & Automation, 1 user
$57.50/mo
billed yearly · $69.00/mo billed monthly
Save 17% vs monthly
Create your account
  • 1 user
  • 2,000 records
  • Board, list, pipelines, idle time
  • Every trigger and step, no add-on
Above that: $0.02 a record
Most popular
CRM & Automation, 3 users
$82.50/mo
billed yearly · $99.00/mo billed monthly
Save 17% vs monthly
Create your account
  • 3 users
  • 5,000 records
  • Board, list, pipelines, idle time
  • Every trigger and step, no add-on
Above that: $0.02 a record
CRM & Automation, unlimited
$99.92/mo
billed yearly · $149.00/mo billed monthly
Save 33% vs monthly
Create your account
  • Unlimited users
  • 10,000 records
  • Board, list, pipelines, idle time
  • Every trigger and step, no add-on
Above that: $0.01 a record
Packages, everything else you can buy, and what is in every planPrices in USD, excluding VAT. Reverse charge applies inside the EU.

Questions people ask

If the answer you need is not here, the help center has the long version.

Open the help center
Do I need the CRM module to use automation?
No. Automation acts on records, and records belong to the core. What the CRM adds is the stage, so triggers like “stage entered” need it, while “record created”, “field changed”, “date reached” and “idle” do not. What you have not booked does not appear in the step picker at all, so a flow cannot quietly come to depend on it.
Can an automation call my own system?
Yes, with the webhook step. It runs inside the flow rather than beside it, so the next step can read the answer with a reference to the earlier step's output.
What happens when a step fails?
It is retried on a fixed schedule and then stops, and the run shows the attempt count and the raw error. A stopped run stays in the list under “only stuck” until someone deals with it. It does not disappear.
Can it send an SMS, or only email?
Both. The SMS step takes the number from whichever of your fields carries that role, counts the segments so a long text does not quietly become three, and does not send at night: outside the window you set it puts itself back in the queue rather than waking somebody at three in the morning. You bring your own account with a provider and settle up there.

Bring the month you would rather not talk about

Set up your own entity, your own fields and one routing rule, and see what it does with a record you put through it.

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