Automations are the foundation for building efficiencies in your organization. Manual processes such as sending email reminders, notifying internal teams to begin work, moving cards between stages, and others can be automated to increase engagement, time to value, and overall productivity.
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In this article, you will learn:
- What are Automations?
- The 4 main parts of an automation
The following articles will help you understand how Aptly Automations work, how to manage and organize existing Automations, and creative use cases to bring value to your teams.
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What are Automations?
Automation is a powerful feature that can make your work with our software more efficient and save you time. It involves setting up certain tasks or actions to happen automatically, without you having to do them manually. Imagine it as having a digital assistant that performs tasks for you according to predefined rules or triggers. In this article, we will define conditions and actions so that when you read an automation, you can understand what it does.
How to Access Automations
There are 2 ways that you can access Automations:
- On a stage, you can click on the sparkle icon ✨ at the top to view all of the automations for the stage.
- To view all of the automations for the board, you can access them on the left in the Board Settings Menu.
4 Main Parts of an Automation
To understand how an automation works, it's important to see how to set up an automation.
- Trigger
- Condition
- Action
- Timing
1. Trigger
The trigger of an automation is what gets the automation started. Remember the movie, Home Alone, when Kevin set up the traps for the home burglars, Marv and Harry? When Harry opens the door (trigger), it causes the string to pull the flame thrower (action).
An automation works similarly. What will cause the action to occur? There are 5 different triggers.
Trigger | Description |
On Stage Change | When a card moves from one stage to another, an action like adding tasks or sending communication can be completed. Can only be triggered once. |
On Reply | When an email receives a reply once or on every reply, an action can be completed like updating a card or notifying a team member. |
Custom Condition | Depending on the field and criteria that you set, an action can fire when the custom condition is met. You can also select multiple conditions. |
Field Group Completion | When all fields in a field group have completed data, an action will fire. |
Task Completion | When all tasks are completed in a task group, an action will fire. |
2. Conditions
Each trigger requires with a condition. The condition gives Aptly an extra rule to follow to ensure that the trigger meets all requirements before completing an action. It directs Aptly to the exact specifications to ensure precision in executing an action. Each trigger has different conditions to note.
Trigger | Conditions | Conditions Description |
On Stage Change | Card Enters Stage | The stage that will trigger the action when the card enters the chosen stage. Stage change automations will only fire upon entering the stage the first time. |
On Reply | • Stage
• Senders
• If Archived Card Exists | • Choose the stage where the reply will occur in
• You can choose to look for all senders of the reply or only those on the card
• Ignore the archived card or reopen it if a reply is received. |
Custom Condition | Card Field | Any field that exists on a card can be chosen as a custom condition. For example, if a lead gets marked as qualified, then an action will be applied. |
Field Group Completion | Field Group Completed | Choose a field group from the dropdown. When all fields in the group are completed, an action will be taken. |
Task Completion | Task Template | Choose the task template from the dropdown. When all tasks are completed for the task template, a specified action will occur. |
3. Action
The third part of the automation is the action. This is the "what" that will happen when the conditions are met. There are 13 different actions that can be taken.
Multiple actions can also occur based on the same conditions. You can find more details in this article: Multi-action Automations.
Action | Description |
Send Email | Send an email to a specified sender using a communication template. Choose:
• When the email will be sent
• Will you honor business hours?
• Inbox that you want to send the email from
• How many emails that you'll send (multiple/separate or single) to each contact
• Communication Template
• Who is the sender? Use the Inbox name or Specify a User
• Who are you sending the email to?
◦ All Contacts on the Card
◦ The Assignee for the Card
◦ Certain Contact Types - choose all that apply to the email and that are on the card
◦ Contact Field - any contact in a specified field that has been added to the card.
◦ Specific Addresses - manually enter email addresses. Hit enter after each one.
• CC or additional recipients |
Send Text/SMS | Similar parameters for sending an SMS as sending an Email.
• When the text will be sent
• Will you honor business hours?
• Phone line that you want to send the email from
• Communication Template
• Contact Type to send the email to
• Additional recipients |
Create Task | Add tasks to the card when the conditions are met. You can manually add 1 or more tasks or use a task template (recommended for multiple tasks). |
Create Follow-up | This will create a follow-up task on the dashboard for the assignee. It will include the action for the follow-up and set a due date. |
Update Assignee | You can change the assignee of the card. This is helpful when a process is shared in a team. Each team member is responsible for different stages. The automation can reassign the cards based on the selected conditions and criteria. |
Update Due Date | Changes the due date to a later date or updates the date on a specific field. |
Archive Card
Archive Card & Conversations | Typically used when a card enters a closed stage, you can have the card archived immediately or after a certain amount of time. Additionally, you can set the card to update if it's unqualified. This is usually used for lost leads on a lead board.
Choosing Archive Card & Conversations will move the card and any attached conversations to archived. |
Update Specific Fields | Select card fields that should be updated when the automation is triggered. You can choose any card fields that you have on the card. |
Change Stage | The card will move to a different stage when conditions for the trigger are met. |
Update Related Cards Stage | If there are related cards (usually on a linked board), they will be moved to a specified stage in tandem with the cards on the current board. |
Notify via a mention | Set up a notification to all selected users or to a whole team. You can include a message to add details to the notification. It will also be added as a comment with an @mention to the card comments along with a follow-up on the dashboard. |
Create PDF | Generate a PDF using the fields on the card to save to a specified Files field. |
4. Timing
For every automation, you can select the timing for when an automation will fire once it meets the conditions.
Option | Description |
Immediately | Automation will fire as soon as it meets the conditions and is first in the queue. |
Specific Day of the Week | Fires whenever the day of the week is selected and after a certain time of the day. For example, every Monday after 8am. |
Specific Day of the Month | Select the date of the month when you want the automation to fire. For example, on the 1st of every month, send a rent reminder to any leases with a balance. |
Specific Days of the Month | Select a range of dates when you want the automation to fire. For example, from the 1st to the 5th, send a reminder email to any leases who haven’t paid their balance. |
Certain Days of the Week | Select multiple days of the week when you want an automation to fire. For example, create a task every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to check the status of a work order. |
After | Fire an automation after a set number of minutes, hours, days, months. For example, notify the property manager after 5 days if their card remains in one stage. |
Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Does It Take for an Automation to Fire?
On average, it takes about 6-8 minutes for an automation to fire. Automations don't fire immediately to allow a moment to make changes or stop the automation.
When there are many automations and cards for a board, sometimes the time to fire can take longer. Aptly “reads” every single card to see if it meets the trigger and conditions of all automations.