The trigger is the change in status for that record that should cause the workflow automation to run. These vary by record type:

Survey

• Survey stage change – when the job moves to the selected stage(s), this automation will run
• Contacted status change – when the job moves to the selected contacted status(us), this automation will run
• Last activity change – when any action is taken, this can trigger an action to run if the conditions selected in the next stage are met

Project

• Project stage change – when the project moves to the selected stage(s) – deal or project stage, this automation will run
• Contacted status change – when the job moves to the selected contacted status(es), this automation will run
• Last activity change – when any action is taken, this can trigger an action to run if the conditions selected in the next stage are met

Referrer

• Referrer status change – when the referrer moves to the selected status(es), this automation will run
• Last activity change – when any action is taken, this can trigger an action to run if the conditions selected in the next stage are met
• New referral received – when a new referral is received from a referral partner
• New job completed – when a job associated with a referral partner is completed

These conditions are important – they determine for which scenarios you want to run your automation. For example, you may want to trigger an email to be sent on a job record but only in certain circumstances. These conditions allow you to narrow down the records included and set up much more tailored automations. The conditions depend on the record type being used but some are common:

Common Conditions:

• Trigger Age:
  • Immediate – the automation will run straight away
  • Delay – choose how long after the workflow is triggered that it should run (e.g. set it to run in 2 hours). The workflow will only run in 2 hours IF the conditions on the record still match the ones set on this workflow and if the trigger type still matches (e.g. if the trigger is a status such as referrer “Active” then the workflow will check the record is still active when it goes to run).
    • Minutes/Hours/Days – set how long after the trigger time that the action should run
    • Date – set a fixed date for this workflow to run (useful for one-off workflows like a newsletter)
    • Day of the month / Day of the week – good for recurring workflows like a monthly newsletter
    • Inspection date / Report due date – set if the action should run X days before the date, on the date or X days after the date (useful for job reminders)

Survey / Project Conditions

• Lead source – the workflow only runs for the selected sources (leave unselected to include all sources)
• Job types – the workflow only runs for the selected job types (Required)
• Job status – the workflow only runs for the selected job stages/statuses (Required) – only available if the trigger step isn’t a change in job status. If using a delay, the workflow will check the status of the job is the same as the trigger status when it runs.
• Only send if job is cancelled – only run the workflow if a job is cancelled (otherwise only includes active records)
• Only send if job is archived with selected reason – set for which archived records, the workflow can still be run (if not selected, runs only for unarchived records)
• Reference – the workflow will run for any jobs that contain the text entered in the reference field (e.g. “ABC” is set, if the reference on a job record is TB-ABC-2025 this would run.

Referrer Conditions

• Referrer Group – includes all groups if no referrers are selected or choose specific referrers the workflow should be run for
• Referrer Level (Referrer Plus) – set which referrer levels the workflow should run for – select all, one, or a combination
• Industry – set if the workflow should only run if certain referrer industries are selected
• Status – select if the referrer must be a certain status for the workflow to continue

Important: Press Save Workflow before moving on to edit your Action. If editing and saving changes to your action before saving your workflow settings, the workflow settings will not be saved and will need to be re-entered

When you have selected to run an automation on a delay, instead of immediately, you can set if the workflow should run on a restricted time or at any time.

A “Restrict sending hours” section will appear.

Unticked – the workflow till run 24/7 and process at the relevant time.

Ticked – you can set between which times and on which days of the week that your workflow should run (e.g. only send an email between 08:00 – 20:00, Monday to Friday).

How it works:

If you set the workflow to run 08:00 – 20:00, Monday to Friday and your record meets the Conditions at 22:45 on Thursday, the Workflow will hold and run at 08:00 on Friday. Records will still run but be held until your set hours allow.

Important: Press Save Workflow before moving on to edit your Action. If editing and saving changes to your action before saving your workflow settings, the workflow settings will not be saved and will need to be re-entered

Set your “From email”

• Account email – the central account email connected in your settings
• Assigned user email – the assigned user’s connected email (uses the account email if not set)
• SendGrid – recommended route when you are sending emails in bulk due to rate limiting rules

Note: due to rate-limiting rules, use SendGrid if you expect more than 30 emails to be sent on a workflow (and generally via other means) within 1 minute. SendGrid can handle much higher volumes and can be connected in the Integration settings.

Send to email: choose from:

• Customer – this will send the email to the customer listed on the job (Survey or Project only)
• Access – this will send the email to the access contact listed on the record (if one has been set, Survey or Project only)
• Referrer – this will send the email to the referrer listed on the job (Survey, Project and Referrer)
• Assigned user – this will send the email to the user assigned to the job (Survey or Project only)
• Account manager – this will send to the account manager assigned to a referrer (Referrer only)
• Other – this allows you to set a fixed email address to send the email to (Survey, Project and Referrer)

Include users with a marketing preference of no

This setting is important for GDPR reasons. If the email is transactional, you can send emails to a customer or referrer regardless of their marketing preference. However, if it is a marketing email, you’ll need to ensure you only send emails to users who haven’t opted out of marketing.

• If the email should only send to customers opted in to marketing – leave the box unticked
• If the email can send to any user regardless of marketing preference – tick the box

Setting up your email template is the same as editing your regular email templates. You can add standard documents, use shortcodes to personalise the content and use HTML code to style your emails. Note – only one cc and one bcc address can be added.

Once edited, press “Save”

Then press “Save Action”

Message text – enter the text that you want to include in the SMS. You can include shortcodes that are relevant to the workflow (e.g. customer name shortcodes on a survey workflow. However, a customer name or job type shortcode won’t work in an SMS for a referrer record as there are no job details to look up.

Save in Message System – this will save the message sent in the message system to be viewed. Note: this shouldn’t be set if you don’t want the customer to be able to view it.

Send to:

• Customer – this will send the SMS to the customer listed on the job (Survey or Project only)
• Access – this will send the SMS to the access contact listed on the record (if one has been set, Survey or Project only)
• Referrer – this will send the SMS to the referrer listed on the job (Survey, Project and Referrer)
• Assigned user – this will send the SMS to the user assigned to the job (Survey or Project only)
• Account manager – this will send to the account manager assigned to a referrer (Referrer only)
• Other – this allows you to set a fixed number to send the SMS to – enter as 447123123123 (Survey, Project and Referrer)

Include users with an SMS preference of no – shows for customers or referrers only. See “Send email” section above for details on what this controls. 

Task Title: Set the title of the task so users know what you want them to do for this task

Task Description: This can provide further details about the task requirements

Status: Choose the standard status (usually set as “New” ahead of the user starting it)

Assigned to:

• Choose a fixed user
• Choose Assigned user to set the task for the assigned user on a survey/project
• Choose Account manager to set the task for a referral partner account manager

Timeline:

• Set the number of days from the task creation time that the date should be set
• Set the task length
• Set a number of days after the task start date the reminder should be
  • Set no value for no reminder
  • Set “0” for the reminder to be the task date
  • Set “1”, “2”, etc for the number of days after the task date to have a reminder

Remind at: the same settings as above

Write the note that you want to add to a record. You can format the note as you would normally on a record.

Tagging users:

After typing in the @ symbol, you can:

• Tag a fixed user each time
• Tag the ‘Assigned user’
• Tag the ‘Account manager’

Billing – how am I charged?

Each plan has a free allowance of automations you can run. Each time a workflow runs and sends an email or SMS or creates a task or note, this adds to your automation usage. E.g. I have two workflows that run 10 times each – this would be 20 automations.

How do I manage automated deletion or records/data? 

Please see our other guide on Workflows – Data management!

My workflow didn’t run

Please check that your record meets all your conditions and the trigger value. For example, if you set your workflow on a Delay, when the delay time is met, the workflow will only run if the trigger is still in the same status. For example, you set an email to send after a 2-hour delay, on a “Quote” trigger. If the job has moved to another status when the delay time is met as is no longer at your selected trigger stage of “Quote”, the workflow will not run. If it is still at “Quote” stage, the workflow will run.

After activating a workflow, which records will be included?

After activating a workflow, the workflow will only run for records where the trigger was met after the workflow was activated. E.g. if you have a record that met the trigger value before the workflow was turned on, it will not be included, even if it meets the conditions for a “Delay” workflow later on. The record must hit the trigger after a workflow is turned on.

If you make a workflow Inactive and then Active again, any historic records that met the trigger before being turned off will not be included. The workflow will reset and only include records that meet the trigger value since it was made active again.