In this article, you'll learn how to use the Automation Center to send texts and emails on their own when something happens to a job, an invoice or an estimate. You can remind customers before a visit, chase an unpaid invoice or ask for a review without doing it by hand every time.
To open the Automation Center:
- In the menu, click Automations.
- Pick a tab at the top. Discover has the ready-made rules, and My Automations has the ones on your account.
On the phone app, tap the bolt at the top of the Home screen, just right of the Refresh button.
What you can automate
Every rule reads as one sentence: when something happens, send someone a message at a set time. A few things you can set up:
- Text a customer before a job, so they know you're coming.
- Email a customer a few days after an estimate goes out.
- Text and email a customer after an invoice's due date, but only while there's still money owed.
- Ask for a review once a job is done.
- Email a customer months after a job to bring them back.
- Email your team as soon as a job reaches a certain status.
Rules every account starts with
On a new account, My Automations already has a few rules:
- Review request on job Done is on. It asks the customer for a review when a job is marked Done, unless the job is tagged DND, NR or SR.
- On My Way text (job set to OMW) is on. It texts the customer when a job is moved to the OMW status. You change its wording under Settings > Templates, in the On my way row.
- Invoice reminder | 1 day, Invoice reminder | 3 days and Invoice reminder | 5 days stay off until you turn them on. Each one texts and emails the customer that many days after the invoice's due date, and only if there's still an amount due. They're set to send between 9:00 am and 7:00 pm.
- Invoice reminder | 6 days — tell the office is off too. It emails your team instead of the customer, so you know three reminders went unanswered.
Starting from a ready-made rule
- Click the Discover tab.
- Find a rule under Reminders, Marketing, Follow-ups or Actions, or type in the Search the template box.
- Hover over the card and click Use. On the app, Use is a button right on the card.
- The rule opens in the editor with everything filled in. Click any underlined word to change it.
- Click Preview/edit message to see and edit what gets sent, then click Save and close.
- Click Add automation.
Building your own rule
- On either tab, click Add automation.
- Click the name box at the top and type what you want to call the rule.
- Click this happens and pick the trigger. For a job, that's when it's created, scheduled, done or has a status you choose. For an invoice, it's when it's created, sent or due. For an estimate, it's when it's created, sent or approved.
- Click do this and pick what gets sent and to whom. You can send a text, an email or both to the client, or a text or an email to your team. For a client, you can also pick a review request.
- Click within a defined time to set the timing. Choose immediately, or a number of minutes, hours or days ahead of or after. Then click the date it counts from: a job's schedule date or end date, an invoice's date of sending or due date, or an estimate's date of sending.
- If the message goes to your team, click the names after to: to choose who gets it. If you don't pick anyone, it goes to the account owner.
- Click Add condition to narrow it down. Pick job type, job source, job tag, job status or amount due, then an operator such as is or is not, then a value, and click Apply. Click the and between two conditions to switch it to or.
- Under Automation will be sent, set the earliest and latest time of day it can go out. A new rule starts at 9:00 am to 9:00 pm.
- Click Preview/edit message and write the message. Click the short code buttons under the box to drop in details like the customer's first name. Click Save and close.
- Click Add automation.
The review request rule
The Review request on job Done rule has to be on for review requests to go out after a job is done. If you turn it off, no requests are sent.
The Enable review follow-ups switch in your Review Monster dashboard, under Reviews > Review Templates, controls this rule too. Turn that switch off and the rule turns off with it, and turning it back on turns the rule back on.
A job tag condition on this rule stops tagged jobs from getting a request. The Review when Done column under Settings > Job types also has a say. A job type with it switched off never asks for a review, whatever the rule says.
Managing your rules
On My Automations, each rule is a card. It shows the rule's sentence, an on/off toggle, how many times it's been triggered and how many conditions it has.
- Flip the toggle to turn a rule on or off. A rule that's off sends nothing.
- Click Activity to see what the rule did each time it ran. Each run is marked Sent, Scheduled, Skipped or Failed.
- Click the three dots for Edit, Duplicate, Rename or Delete. After editing, click Update automation to save. A duplicate starts off.
- On the web, drag the handle at the left edge of a card to reorder your rules. On the app, use Move up and Move down in the three-dot menu.
- The left side filters by All, Active and Inactive, and shows the total Automations triggered.
