Automations handle repetitive work — creating records, sending notifications, updating fields — so your team can focus on closing deals. For a gentle introduction, see Introduction to Workflows & Automations.
Before you start: Only admins can create or change automations.
How Many You Get
Plan
Automations
Start
1
Develop
10
Grow
20
Enterprise
100
See the pricing page for current limits.
How an Automation Works
Every automation has three parts:
- Trigger — the "when." Something happens to a record, or a date arrives.
- Conditions — optional filters, so the automation only runs for the records you care about.
- Action — the "do this." What Pipeline CRM does for you.
There are two kinds of trigger:
- Data changed — fires when a record is created, updated, or deleted. Example: create a task whenever a new person is added.
- Time based — fires before, after, or on a system or custom date. Example: update a custom field one day after a deal's Actual Close Date.
Create an Automation
- Click Settings in the lower-left corner.
- Select the Other tab.
- Click Automations.
- Click \+ Add automation.
- Enter an Automation Name.
- Optional: choose an Automation folder and add a Description.
- Under When…, choose Data changed or Time based.
- Set the trigger: pick the record type in the first dropdown and what happens to it in the second.
- Optional: click \+ Add condition under and ALL of these conditions are true (every condition must match) or and ANY of these conditions are true (at least one must match).
- Under …do this:, click \+ Add Action and set up the action. This button turns on once the When… trigger is set.
- Click Activate.
For ready-made recipes you can copy, see Automation Recipes to Copy.
Triggers You Can Use
You can use any system or custom field as a trigger condition, depending on the record type.
Data changed triggers
Record
Fires when
Example conditions
Deal
Created, updated, or deleted
Name, owner, amount, custom fields
People
Created, updated, or deleted
Name, owner, title, custom fields
Company
Created, updated, or deleted
Name, owner, website, custom fields
Customer
A customer is created or updated
—
Export
An export is run
User
Calendar Item
Created, completed, postponed, or deleted
Most system fields
Activity
Created, updated, or deleted
Title, content, created date, user name
Time based triggers
Record
Dates you can trigger on
Company
Created, imported, updated, next entry due, or custom date fields
Deal
Created, imported, updated, expected close, actual close, or first activity date
People
Created, imported, updated, last activity created, or lead conversion date
Calendar Item
Due date, creation date, start time, or end time
Activity
Creation date
Customer
Created or updated date, or custom date fields
Actions You Can Use
- Create a task for the record owner or another user.
- Create a deal to get new leads into your pipeline.
- Send a notification by email to specific users or addresses.
- Apply a to-do template — a set of tasks and events added at once to a person or deal. See Create and Apply To-do Templates.
- Update customer health to track the state of a customer relationship.
- Assign an owner to a company when it's created or updated.
- Update a custom field.
- Move a deal to another pipeline with the Update Deal action — move the deal with all its data, or copy it with or without its activities.
Organize Automations into Folders
Folders keep automations easy to find — for example, one folder for company automations and one for people automations.
- To add, rename, or delete folders: Click Manage Automations Folders.
- To file a new automation: Choose it in the Automation folder field when you create the automation.
- To move an existing automation: Drag it into a folder on the left.
Deleting a folder doesn't delete its automations. They move to the default folder.
FAQs
Can an automation email a person in my account? No. Automations send notifications to your users, not to people records. To email people automatically, use Email Campaigns.
Why can't I use custom fields to trigger calendar item automations? Calendar items don't have custom fields, so there's nothing to trigger on.
Need help? Contact support at customercare@pipelinecrm.com.