Automations

FreeAgent CRM
  • Updated

Automations help you and your organization do more, automatically. You can use them to:

  • Assign Work
  • Do Work Automatically
  • Integrate FreeAgent to other systems or processes.

User Permissions: Only Administrators can create automations. 

In this tutorial we will cover the following topics:

  1. Navigate to Automations
  2. Create a New Automation
  3. Conditions
  4. Actions
  5. Edit Automations
  6. Automation Examples

Navigate to Automations

Open the menu and go to 'Admin Settings' to display the available options, there click the desired App and then click 'Automations'. You can also use the search function to get there faster, just start typing 'Automations'.

Note: If you are now on Hazel, go to Admin Settings > Automations > Automations. 

Create a New Automation

To get started, click the 'Add New Automation' button.

Give your automation a name and select the Object for which you are creating it. In this case, 'Object' means 'App', and you can select between all your existing apps.

Trigger

Now you will specify when this automation should be triggered.  The following table describes each trigger option available in this step.

TRIGGER DESCRIPTION
Before Create Action to be performed before a new record is created. Its best used as a validation step.
Before Create / Update

Combines the 'Before Create' and 'Before Update' triggers into a single one. Recommended when a single automation needs to consider both scenarios.

Under fields, you will need to select one more multiple fields that will be used to trigger the workflow if they are updated and match the conditions (if available). 
Before Update Action to be performed before a record is updated. Its best used as a validation step.
On App Action As soon as you click the App Action Button, the automation will be triggered. 
After Create As soon as you create a new record on the specified App, the automation will occur.
After Create / Update Combines the 'After Create' and 'After Update' triggers into a single one. Recommended when a single automation needs consider both scenarios
After Update When a change in the selected field is detected, the automation will take place.
On Webhook Requires Webhook. The automation will occur as soon as the Webhook gets triggered. 
Schedule Chron Think of this as a recurring event, you will be able to specify how often you want the automation to occur.  This value is based on the Crontab system.  Set this value with your current time zone in mind, not UTC.
Schedule Field A single event is triggered on a specific date, determined by the field selected.

Note: For all triggers that include an 'Update', you will need to select one more multiple fields that will be used to trigger the automation if they are updated and match the conditions (if available). 

To learn more about App Actions, please visit the following tutorial:
App Actions

To see an example of a Schedule Automation, please visit the following tutorial:
Schedule Automations

Conditions

It is also possible to add one or more conditions to the automation. These rules are inclusive, meaning that all the rules you specify need to occur for the automation to be triggered. Just click 'Add Conditions' to create your own set of rules.

The operators will vary according to the type of field selected. Here is the list of those available:

Operator Description Availability (field type)
Is, Is Not

The selected value is included (IS) or excluded (IS NOT) from the filter results.

 
  • Reference
  • Reference Multi-Select
  • Choice List
  • Choice List Multi-Select
  • Stage
  • Number.
<=, >=

Less Than or Equal To; Greater Than or Equal To, will return records that fall above or below the selected value.
  • Number
Between

This will return all the records that fall between a given range of numbers or a range of dates.
  • Currency
  • Percentage
  • Date
  • Number
Period

Returns the records for a specified period, such as Last Week or This Month.
  • Date
  • Date Time
Relative

From X to X days, months, or years.
  • Date
  • Date Time
After / Before

All the records fall before or after the specified date.
  • Date
  • Date Time

Actions

The next section is where you specify the Actions for your automation. This will allow you to define what will happen when the conditions you set up before occur. 

There are two different Action types available. To learn more about them, click on the corresponding tutorial:

Your automation can have either a single action or multiple ones, and they could be a combination of the two types available.

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