Automations
How the Automations screen lists your automated reminders, chasing and charges, and how the engine decides when each one runs.
Open Settings > Automations to set up work that Work Planner does for you on a schedule — reminding customers before a job, messaging them once it is done, sending new invoices, thanking customers when they pay, chasing unpaid invoices and aged debts, notifying a team member when a worksheet lands with them, or collecting a balance through GoCardless. Each automation you build is listed here, and this screen is where you switch them on and off, keep an eye on them, and tidy them up.
What the List Shows
Every automation appears as a row with a few columns that summarise what it does at a glance.
- Name: the label you gave it, such as "7-day job reminder". Click any row to open it for editing.
- Business: the business the automation belongs to. This column only appears when your account has more than one business, and the business cannot be changed after the automation is created.
- Trigger: the event that starts it, such as "Before a job is due" or "When an invoice is unpaid".
- Channel: how the message goes out — Email, SMS, or a combination. Charges have no channel and show a dash.
- Mode: whether it runs on its own (Automatic) or waits for you (Needs approval).
- Status: whether it is currently Active or Paused.
Active and Paused
Each row has a pause or play button. Pausing an automation leaves everything you set up in place but stops it running until you switch it back on. Use this when you want to stop a reminder or chase for a while without rebuilding it.
When you switch a paused automation back on, it starts from that moment. It will not fire for jobs, invoices, or debts that already met its conditions while it was off, so re-enabling something does not trigger a flood of catch-up messages. Chasing unpaid invoices and aged debts is the exception: these look at whatever is still unpaid each time they run, so switching one on can line up a message for every debt that is already old enough. They wait for your approval by default, so you can check the list first.
Automatic and Needs Approval
- Automatic: the moment the trigger matches, the message or charge goes out. Good for friendly, low-risk messages like appointment reminders.
- Needs approval: instead of sending straight away, the automation puts the action in a pending list for you to review first. This is the safer choice for chasing money or taking payment.
When anything is waiting on you, a Pending approvals button appears above the list with a count. It opens the approvals view where you accept or dismiss each one.
Finding an Automation
- Search: type into the search box to filter the list by name.
- Business filter: when you have more than one business selected, the funnel button beside the search slides out the Filters panel, where Business shows automations for specific businesses only. With nothing chosen, you see every business you have selected. The businesses you choose show as a chip beside the search, and its × takes the filter off. Your search and business filter are remembered the next time you come back.
How Automations Actually Run
Work Planner checks your active automations regularly in the background rather than the instant a job or invoice changes, so a message may go out a short while after the event rather than to the exact second. Timing settings such as "days before" or a specific time of day are respected within that regular check.
A brand-new automation only looks forward. When you create one, it will not act on work that already matched in the past — it only picks up jobs, invoices, and debts from the point it was created onward. The same is true each time you re-activate a paused one. The exception is chasing unpaid invoices and aged debts, as above. Those never chase customers who have stopped, such as cancelled customers, or invoices brought in by an import.
Deleting an Automation
The delete button on a row removes the automation for good after a short confirmation. If you only want to stop it temporarily, pause it instead — deleting cannot be undone.
Related articles
- Creating an Automation: the step-by-step for picking a ready-made recipe and filling in the details.
- Advanced Automations and Conditions: build a custom automation from scratch and narrow down exactly when it runs.
- Automation Approvals: review, approve, or dismiss the actions that need your say-so.
- GoCardless Integration Screen: needed before an automation can charge a customer.