Automations

An automation is a workflow that runs by itself when something happens in your account. You pick a trigger, optionally narrow it with conditions, and choose the steps that run — the automation then handles every matching contact or record without any manual work.

A few examples of what automations can do:

• Tag every donor whose gift crosses a threshold
• Add new contacts to a welcome audience and send them an email series
• Send first-time donors down one path and returning donors down another
• Notify your staff the moment a major gift arrives
• Move donors onto a kanban board for personal follow-up

Understanding automations

An automation has three building blocks:

• Trigger — the event that starts it: a donation is submitted, a contact is created, a contact enters a segment, a schedule fires, and more.
• Conditions — optional filters that decide which triggering records qualify (for example, only donations of $500 or more).
• Steps — what happens next. Steps can run one after another, or split into paths: a Branch sends people different ways depending on the record, the contact, or an earlier step's result; a Random split divides people by percentage; Wait until holds people until something happens or a time limit passes.

An automation can also have an exit goal — an event that takes a person out early, such as making a donation.

Every time the trigger fires, the automation records one entry: who or what entered, which path they took, and what every step did. Entries are on the automation's Enrollments tab and, across all automations, on Automations → Activity.

The automations list

The list at Automations has two tabs:

• User created — automations you built. These are fully editable.
• System — automations the platform manages for you, created by form settings such as a donation form's subscribe checkbox or a custom form's audience attachment. Each row shows the form that owns it. System automations are edited through that form's settings, not through the automations editor.

Drafts, publishing, and On

Editing an automation never changes what runs until you publish:

• Save draft keeps your changes without affecting anyone. The page shows Unpublished changes (or Not published yet for an automation that has never been published).
• Publish changes makes the draft the version that runs — for new entries, and for people already in the automation from their next step. Discard changes throws the draft away and goes back to the published version.
• The On switch decides whether the trigger is live. Turning it off stops new entries; people already in it are held at their step and continue from there when you turn it back on.

See Building an Automation for details.

Deleting an automation

An automation can only be deleted while it has no entries. Once anyone has entered it, deleting it would take that history with it, so it is kept instead. Turn it off with the On switch: the trigger stops firing immediately and everything it has already done stays on the Enrollments tab.

Contacts who have opted out

Email and SMS steps never send to a contact who has unsubscribed, been suppressed, or is marked deceased — the same rule broadcasts follow. The step is recorded as skipped, with the reason, in the entry's steps, so a contact can move through the rest of the workflow without receiving that message. Staff notification steps are not affected: they go to fixed addresses you set, not to the contact.

Test fire

The Test fire button on an automation's page checks whether a real record would enter the automation and shows the path it would take. You choose the published version or your draft, a record type, and the record's ID. It is read-only — no steps run and no one enters.

Where to go next

If you want to...	Go to
Build or edit an automation	Building an Automation
See what each step type does	Automation Steps
See who entered, which path they took, and what failed	Enrollments & Activity