Automations

Automations do your routine data work for you. Each one reads like a sentence — WHEN something happens, on WHICH RECORDS, DO these actions — and everything in it is configuration: a duplicate check, a monthly rollup, a “flag members with no payment” sweep are all just automations you assemble in Admin → Automations.

Anatomy of an automation

Create one with + New automation (name + record type), then fill in the three cards of the editor:

WHEN — the trigger

An automation can fire on any combination of:

Record events — a record is created, updated, or a specific field changes.
A workflow transition — when “Approve” fires, for example.
A schedule — run it every night, every hour, at the cadence you choose.
Manually — a Run button, for on-demand maintenance.
A webhook — an external system calls a secret URL to trigger it.

An optional condition filters the triggering record — “only when amount > 100”, built with the standard filter editor.

WHICH RECORDS — the selection

Choose what the actions apply to:

The triggering record — the simple case: the record that just changed.
A filtered query — any set of records of any type, with the full filter editor, joins to related types, and a special “the triggering record” value to correlate (“payments belonging to the person who just changed”).
Groups with a count — group records by one or more fields and keep only groups above a threshold. This is duplicate detection as configuration: group people by email, keep groups with more than one, and act on the duplicates.

DO — the actions

An ordered list of steps, each aimed at the triggering record, each selected record, a joined record, or (for grouped selections) the survivor/duplicates of each group:

Set fields — update values, with merge templates like {{firstName}} from the records involved.
Create a record — or update-if-exists, to maintain derived records.
Create a relationship — link the record to another.
Fire a workflow transition — push records through their lifecycle.
Delete a record — for confirmed clean-ups.
Run an integration job — hand off to the Integration hub.

Every action goes through the normal engine — validation, permissions, history, notifications — so automated changes behave exactly like human ones, and safety limits prevent automations from triggering each other forever.

Run history

The automation’s run log records every execution: when it ran, how many records matched, how many were affected, and any errors — with links to sample affected records so you can inspect exactly what happened. It’s your first stop when tuning a new automation.

Before you activate

Start with the trigger narrow — one event, a tight condition.
Test the selection with a restrictive filter and check the matched count in the run log.
Run it manually a few times and follow the sample links.
Only then widen the filter and enable the schedule.

Automations are powerful precisely because they’re generic — treat a new one like a new colleague and review its first day’s work.