If we want to automatically send an email when a new Contact is created, then the Object of the automation should be set to 'Contact' and the trigger to 'On Creation'.
We also, want to make sure that this automation only occurs if the Lead has a 'Work Email' in the contact information and its status is set to 'Lead' which is the field that will let us know that is a new contact that is not yet a customer.
Note: You might need to select different fields according to your own configuration.
For the action, we want to create a new Task with 'Email' as the type. As a description, you can type something like Automated Email for New customer or anything that want really.
Status = Not Done
Source App = Contacts
Source Record = From Triggering Record -> Triggering Record
Due Date = From Triggering Record -> Created
Assign to = From Triggering Record -> Contact Owner
Overdue = No
Now, let's move to the Email portion of the Task.
Template = select one from those available. It is a required field.
Send Automatically = Yes
From = From Triggering Record -> Contact Owner
To = From Triggering Record -> From Triggering Record -> Work Email (or any email field you might want to use)
The Note field is optional.
In the Due Date Options is where we can specify when we want to send the email. Previously we selected the date the contact was created in FreeAgent as the due date, however, it is possible to add a delay for the email to go out automatically in the delay field.
To send it 3 hours after the creation you would do Delay = 3h
Use Working Calendar = Yes
You can learn more about Working Calendar following the tutorial below:
Working Calendar
Once a new contact, with lead status, is created in FreeAgent, the automation will create the 'Send Welcome Email' Task and the email will be sent automatically 3h after the creation of the contact. If you keep the Delay field empty, the email will be sent right after the contact is created.