> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.tiny.plus/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.tiny.plus/guides/reports/automated-actions.md). # Automated Actions Set fields, add people, post, create tasks and send emails on their own, when a record is created or updated, a button on it is pressed, or a set time has passed. {% hint style="success" %} This is a Pro plan feature {% endhint %} An automated action watches one type of record, such as projects, companies or contacts. When a record of that type is created or updated, a button on it is pressed, or a set time has passed, it checks its conditions. If they all hold, it runs its actions: it sets fields, adds people, posts, creates tasks and projects, and sends emails. {% hint style="info" %} You must be an Account Admin to set up automated actions. {% endhint %} Navigate to [Account Settings -> Automated Actions](https://crm.tiny.plus/account/triggers). Each automated action is a row under its record type, saying when it runs and how many times it has. Click a row to open it. You can rename it, change its conditions and actions, and switch it on or off. Changes are saved as you go. ## Adding one Under the list, choose the record type and when it should run, give it a name, and click **Add**. It starts switched off, so you can finish it before it runs. When it's ready, switch it on with the switch on its row. With an AI licence you can describe it in your own words instead. See [Describing one with AI](#describing-one-with-ai). ## When it runs | When | It runs | | ------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **One is updated** | every time a record of that type is saved, and when one is created | | **One is created** | when a new record of that type is saved | | **A button on one is pressed** | when someone presses the button you choose. Add a button field under [Account Settings -> Fields](https://crm.tiny.plus/account/fields) first | | **Time has passed** | each morning, on the records that have reached the time you set. See [After time has passed](#after-time-has-passed) | The changes an automated action makes never set off other automated actions. ## After time has passed An automated action can wait for time to pass. Choose **time has passed** when you add it, then say how long, and what to count from: * *3 months after it entered its current status or phase*, with a condition that its status is *Proposal*, moves projects that have sat in Proposal for three months. * *12 months after it was last updated* finds companies nobody has touched for a year. A post on a record, or an email logged to it, counts as an update. * *30 days before its Conclusion Date* counts back from a date still to come. Any date field on the record can be used, including your own. It checks at 7am each morning, on your account's clock. Once you switch it on, its first check can take a few minutes. Its conditions are about what the record is that morning, so it waits for a record that doesn't meet them yet, and acts on it once it does. It acts on each record once for each date. A company emailed about after 12 months isn't emailed again the next morning. If someone updates it, the count starts again, and it can be emailed 12 months later. When you switch one on, records that are already past the time are left alone, and only those that reach it from then on are acted on. The row shows how many are already past. To act on those too, tick **When it is switched on, include … that are already past this** before you switch it on. To keep things quick for everyone, an account can have 10 of these switched on, and each acts on up to 200 records a morning. Any more wait for the next morning. ## Conditions All of the conditions must hold, or nothing happens. With no conditions, it runs every time. When a record is updated, a condition is about what has just changed: * **changes**: the field changed. * **changes to**: the field has just changed to that value, as in *Project Status changes to Won*. * **From**: what the field was before the change, as in *Project Status changes from Proposal to Won*. You can give a From for a status, a team member, a tag or a text field. A record that has just been created has no before, so a condition with a From never holds on a new record. Tick **Check this every time** to test a field on every save, whether or not it changed. *Confidential is ticked* then holds for every save of a confidential project, not only the one that ticked it. A status with phases can be tested as a whole. Choose *Lost (any phase)* to catch every lost project, whatever the reason, or choose one phase. A number is tested against a range, as in *Project Fee changes to between 100,000 and 1,000,000*. A yes/no field is ticked or not ticked. ## Actions The actions run in the order they are listed. | Action | What it does | | ---------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Set a field | Sets a field, or clears it. Type `#now#` for the day it runs, or `%field_name` to copy another field. Tick *Only if the field is empty* to keep a value that is already there. | | Add someone to the team | Adds a team member to the record's team, with a relationship type if you choose one. | | Subscribe someone to the news feed | They get the record's news feed posts as if they were on its team. | | Post on the news feed | Posts on the record's news feed as the team member you choose, and also on the main News Feed or in a channel if you like. | | Post an alert on the news feed | Posts an alert on the record's news feed. | | Create a task | Creates a task on the record, due so many days after it runs, for the record's assigned team member or someone you choose. | | Create a project | Creates a project with the status and tags you choose, for the same client as the record. | | Start a relationship plan | For companies, on the Pro plan. Starts a [relationship plan](/guides/everyday/relationship-plans.md) from one of your firm's templates, for the company's assigned team member or someone you choose. A company already on a plan from that template is left as it is. | | Send an email | Emails the record's assigned team member, whoever created or changed it, a team member you choose, or addresses you type, with the record's details if you like. | | Open a web page | For a button only: sends the person who pressed it to a web address. | Posts, tasks, emails and a new project can quote the record. Choose *Insert a value from the record…* to add a value such as `%name%`, and tiny+ fills it in when the action runs. A webhook, which sends the record to another system when the action runs, is set up by tiny+ support. [Get in touch](https://crm.tiny.plus/help) if you need one. ## Describing one with AI With an AI licence, an Account Admin can describe an automated action instead of building it. At the top of [Automated Actions](https://crm.tiny.plus/account/triggers), say when it should run and what it should do: *"When a project moves from Proposal to Won, create a kickoff task for whoever it's assigned to, due in a week, and subscribe Maya to it"* Choose the record type under **For**, if tiny+ hasn't already picked it from your words, and click **Design it**. You see the automated action before anything is made: when it runs, its conditions and its actions, written just as they will appear in the list. Anything the AI assumed is listed underneath, and anything it couldn't include is marked with the reason. Change the name if you like, and click **Create it, switched off**. It opens in the list, where you can change anything before you turn it on. "Me" means you: *"when one of my projects is lost, email me"* emails you about the projects assigned to you, and the card says so by name before anything is made. The AI only ever uses the fields, statuses, tags and team members your account has. An email goes only to whoever the record is assigned to, or was created or changed by, to someone on your team, or to an address you typed in your description. It never makes up an address. See [Ask & AI Assistants](/guides/everyday/ask-and-ai-assistants.md) for AI licences and what is shared with Anthropic.