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:
Navigate to Automations
Go to Settings > Advanced > Automations.
Create a New Automation
To get started, click the 'Add Automation' button.
Let's go through all of the fields in the Automation creation panel.
1. Name
Give your automation a name.
2. App
Choose the application you'd like to apply the automation to.
3. Trigger
Now you will specify when this automation should be triggered. The following table describes each trigger option available in this step.
| TRIGGER | DESCRIPTION |
| 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 to 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 Field | It is used for scheduling periodic automation runs based on system fields with date and time stamps. Fields like "Created", "Updated", or "Due Date" |
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
4. Fields
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). The fields available will be from the application you chose earlier.
5. Conditions
There are a few different types of conditions that can be added depending on the Trigger you've chosen.
Automatically Stop When
Set conditions that will stop the automation when they are met.
Automatically Launch When
Set conditions that will start the Automation when they are met.
| Trigger | Available Conditions |
| On App Action |
|
| After Create |
|
| After Create/Update |
|
| After Update |
|
| On Webhook |
|
| Schedule Field |
|
These rules are inclusive, meaning that all the rules you specify need to occur for the automation to be triggered or ended. 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, Exists, Does not Exist |
The selected value is included (IS) or excluded (IS NOT) from the filter results. The value (Exists) or (Does not Exist).
|
|
| <=, >= |
Less Than or Equal To; Greater Than or Equal To, will return records that fall above or below the selected value. |
|
| Between |
This will return all the records that fall between a given range of numbers or a range of dates. |
|
| Period |
Returns the records for a specified period, such as Last Week or This Month. |
|
| Relative |
From X to X days, months, or years. |
|
| After / Before |
All the records fall before or after the specified date. |
|
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 numerous different Action types available.
Your automation can have either a single action or multiple ones like in the screenshot above.
Action Types
Here are the types of actions you can choose from:
Email Task
creates a task to send an email.
Phone Task
creates a task to make a phone call.
Text Task
creates a task to send a text message.
Todo
create a record on a to-do list.
Wait
If you're using multiple actions you can use this to wait for a specified amount of time before the next action is performed.
Create Record
create a record in an application of your choosing.
Update Record
updates a record in an application of your choosing.
Custom Code
add custom code to create more complex actions within your automation.
Send Email
send an email automatically by choosing from an existing email template.
Send Text
similar to sending an email. Simply select an existing SMS template as well as which agent the text will be from and the recipient's phone number.
Assign Record
You can quickly assign Leads, Contacts, Accounts, Deals, Tickets, and more using the "Assign Record" automation.
First, select "Assign Record" as your action and then click on the gear icon to create your assignments and conditions.
You can create multiple conditions and assignments. in the example below we have different opportunity record assignments based on the sales stage the record is in.
Email WebForm
You can email any saved webforms you've created in FreeAgent. To learn more about webforms see the following article.
First, select "Email Webform" as your action and then click on the gear icon to create your assignments and conditions.
You can then select the webform you would like to send as well as who it's from, the recipient, the subject, and any message you would like to include.
Action Settings
After you choose an action you'll notice a gear icon next to it. Clicking on it will allow you to edit some options. The fields will change slightly depending on the action you've chosen.
Here are the options for the email action.
You can choose the email template you'd like to use, and who the email is assigned to when it's due, and you can also add a description.
Each action will have its own options to configure to ensure your automation actions contain the right information and are going to the right people.
