An automation is a rule that does one thing when something happens: a task or a job reaches a status, or a date comes around.

The review task is finished, so the partner should know. Every task on the job is done, so the job should be marked complete. The due date is three days away, so whoever is on the work should hear about it. None of these are hard. All of them get forgotten.

Where to find them

• On a job — open the job; Automations is a tab beside Work, Files and Notes.
• On a task — open the task; Automations is in the panel.
• On a job template — its Automations section holds the job's rules. Each task's own rules are listed under the task, and its ⚡ button adds one.
• In Create job — the same two, filled in by the template you pick, or by you.

Every job made from a template starts with a copy of its rules — from Create job, a proposal, a service, a repeat, or a then create a job rule. Create job shows them before the job exists, so you can change or remove them first. Editing the template later does not change jobs already made.

A rule copied onto a job acts in the name of whoever made the job. On a job nobody made by hand — a client accepting a proposal, a repeat — it keeps the name of whoever added it to the template.

One sentence, two picks

1. Add automation. A window opens.
2. Under Select condition, pick what to watch. It starts on the thing you are on — When this job becomes or When this task becomes — so the simple rule is two picks. Open the list for the wider questions below.
3. Pick the status, from your firm's own statuses with their colours — or, for a date, how many days and which date.
4. Under Select action, pick what happens — it opens once the condition is complete — then choose who (or write the message, or pick the date or status), and Add automation.

Before you add it, the window shows the rule as it will read. Each rule then sits in its own card in plain English, with the names and statuses in bold, so a rule you wrote in March still makes sense in September.

What a rule can watch

• When this job becomes / When this task becomes — the thing the rule is on.
• When this job becomes on a task — the job the task belongs to.
• When a specific task is — one named task on the same job.
• When the task above it becomes — on a task: the one just above it in the list.
• When all tasks are, When all client requests are, When every task and request is — the whole job's list. On a task, When everything above it is asks only about what sits above it.
• When the job is created — once, the moment the job is made: by Create job, by a client accepting a proposal, by a repeat, by a copy, or by a rule that creates a job. Offered in a job template and in Create job only — on a job that already exists, it has already happened. It can do anything but set the job's status.
• A date — When a date is coming up, When a date arrives or When a date has passed, for one of your firm's dates and a number of days, on the job (or, on a task, on the task itself).

A cancelled task and a step inside a task never count towards "all". A job with no tasks at all is never "all done" — a rule that completes the job will not fire on work that was never set up.

The six things it can do

• then put someone on it — adds a person or a team. Added, not swapped: whoever is already on it stays. Not offered when the work it would put someone on is itself finished — this task, or the whole job. "When the task above is Done, put Marc on this one" is exactly what it is for.
• then notify someone — tells a person, a team, everyone on this work or everyone on this client, without making it their job. The groups are worked out when the rule fires, so they follow whoever is on it that day.
• then record a date — stamps today, in your firm's own time zone, onto one of your dates. Recording the due date changes the real due date.
• then message the client — posts your words into the client's message thread, and they get the usual "you have a new message" email. Not a Vylan-worded notice: the message is yours.
• then create a job — makes a new job for the same client from one of your job templates: "when the bookkeeping is done, start the year-end". On a job's rules only. It is made once, however many times the job is finished, and in the name of whoever added the rule — so it works when somebody who cannot create jobs finishes the work. Only people who can create jobs can add one.
• then set the job's status — always the job, even from a rule on a task. "When every task is done, set the job to Complete" is the one most firms want.

Want two things to happen? Add two rules

One automation does one thing. If finishing a task should both notify the partner and message the client, that is two automations sitting one under the other — not one rule with a list inside it.

That is deliberate. A rule that can hold three actions needs a paragraph to describe itself, and a paragraph is not something you can read at a glance six months later.

When they fire

A status rule runs when the thing it watches moves — the task it is on, the task it names, the task above it, a task in its "all", or the job — and only then. A rule that stays true does not fire again because something else moved afterwards: "when Review is Done, message the client" sends one message, not one per later click.

When a person moves the work — ticking a checkbox, or picking a status by name — the rule runs as that person. A rule written against the plain moment ("when it's completed") catches both; one pointed at a named status fires only for exactly that one. Moving ten tasks at once fires a job's rule once, not ten times.

Vylan moves some tasks itself: a document request, signatures or questionnaire task once the client has done their part, and a document request once your firm approves its last document. The rules watching those tasks run then too — see tasks, statuses and due dates. Nobody clicked, so each rule acts in the name of the person who added it, as a date rule does.

A rule written about a date is true because a day passed rather than because anyone clicked. Those are checked every hour, and each one fires once for each date it is about, however many times the check runs.

Nobody clicked anything, so a date rule acts in the name of the person who added it: the message to the client is from them, and anyone it puts on the work was put on by them. If that person leaves your firm, their date rules stop acting. The one thing a date rule cannot do is then set the job's status — that completes the job, which needs somebody signed in.

A copied job, and a task with no job

Copying a job copies its rules and its tasks' rules, and so does a repeat: the next job in the series starts with the same rules. A rule about a specific task is pointed at the new job's own task.

A task that belongs to a client and no job can only watch itself — there is no job, and no other tasks, to ask about.

What they deliberately cannot do

An automation cannot move an engagement to another workflow stage, and it cannot set a task's status — only the job's. It acts on the work, its people, a date, a notification or the client message the rule names.

Changing or removing one

Every rule has a ⋮ menu on its right. Edit opens the same window with the rule filled in; change what you need and Save changes. The rule keeps its place in the list. Remove deletes it.

A rule you change acts in your name from then on — a date rule's message comes from you, and anyone it puts on the work was put on by you. A rule you leave alone keeps the name it had.

If your role could not have added a rule — one that puts a team on the work, or creates a job — you can remove it but not change it.