Automations

When to use this

Use an automation to keep the next step with a client in view. It can send a saved email, send a form (with Forms on, any form, inside a saved email if you like), create a task, move a card, or issue an invoice for a payment milestone.

Automations are in early access. We switch them on studio by studio. If Automations is not under Business, contact us to ask for them. Your own automations need Studio. On Core you get the three built-in automations. See “Built-in automations on Core” below. An admin or owner manages automations and approves waiting steps. Staff can open an automation and read it, but they cannot change it. They see each step as text.

Your automations

Open Business → Automations. Two small labels under Automations say how many automations are on and whether steps wait for you. For example: “2 of 3 are on” and “Nothing waits for you”. When steps wait for you, the second label turns amber, for example “2 steps wait for you”.

An automation is the list of steps you edit. A running automation is that list working on one event. More than one automation can run on an event.

Yours shows a card for each of your automations that has steps. Wedding, Corporate and Sympathy are starters. They are off until you switch them on. Each card shows:

the name
what starts it, such as “Starts when a Wedding enquiry arrives”
its description, when it has one, in two lines at most
an On or Off switch
small icons for the steps, in the order the steps happen
how many steps it has and how many wait for you, such as “12 steps · 9 wait for your OK”
where it runs. “Running on 1 event” counts the events where the automation still has steps to do, or a step that waits for something to happen, such as the client replying. When no event has steps left, the card says where it ran, such as “Ran on 3 events”. “Not running yet” shows only before the automation starts on any event. When steps wait for you, it also shows a count, such as “2 wait for you”.

Select a card to open the automation. The switch saves at once.

An automation with no steps shows as a small dashed card with “No steps yet”. Select Add steps to open it.

Built in shows Payment reminders, Proposal reminders and Brief nudges as the same cards. BloomBoard sends these for you. You can change them or switch them off.

Built-in automations on Core

On Core, Business → Automations shows the three built-in automations under Built in: Payment reminders, Proposal reminders and Brief nudges. A label under Automations says how many are on, for example “3 of 3 are on”.

Use the On or Off switch on a card to start or stop that automation. It saves at once.
Select a card to open it. A note at the top says that on Core you can switch the automation on or off and change when each step goes.
Select a step to change when it goes: the number of days, the send time, the allowed hours and the days it may go. See “When it runs” below. The rest of the step shows as text. Select Save to keep your changes.
Your own automations shows what Studio adds. Select Explore Studio to see it.

On Core you cannot add, remove or delete steps, or change a step’s email, task, filters or reasons to skip. To add your own steps and emails to the built-in automations, or to make your own automations, you need Studio. See “Built-in reminders” below for when each one goes.

Make a new automation

Select New automation.
Type a Name.
In Occasion, choose Any occasion or one occasion.
Select Create automation. The editor opens.

A new automation starts when you start it on an event. To change what starts it, use the start card in the editor.

The editor

The top of the editor shows:

Automations, which takes you back to the list.
The name. Select the name or the pencil to rename the automation.
The description, or Add a description when there is none. See “Describe an automation” below.
A line such as “For Wedding enquiries · 12 steps · Running on 1 event · Nothing waits for you”. Like the card, it says “Ran on 3 events” when no event has steps left, and “Not running yet” before the automation starts on any event.
The On or Off switch. It saves at once.
The ⋯ menu, with Delete automation. You cannot delete a built-in, so a built-in does not have this menu.
Save, which saves your changes to the name, the description, the start and the steps.

Describe an automation

A description says in a sentence or two what the automation is for. It shows under the name in the editor and on the automation’s card. The built-ins come with a description from BloomBoard. You can change or clear it.

Select Add a description under the name. If there is a description, select it.
Type up to 300 characters. Press Enter to keep it, or press Esc to put back what was there.
Select Save.

To have Smart write one for you, select Suggest one from the steps. Smart reads the steps on the screen, saved or not, and writes one or two sentences. Read it, change it if you like, then select Save. Nothing is kept until you save.

When a description is open for editing, Suggest again writes a new one in the box. Press Esc to put back the old one.

While a step is unfinished, the link says “Finish the steps to get a suggestion”. An automation with no steps has no link.
If a suggestion does not come, you see “Could not write one this time. Try again, or write your own.”
Staff see the description but cannot change it.

What starts it

The start card shows STARTS WHEN and one sentence. Select an underlined word to change it. An automation can start when:

a new enquiry arrives
the booking is confirmed
the card moves to a stage. Then choose the stage.
you start it on an event. You start it with Start an automation in the event’s Client lens.

After for, choose the occasion: any occasion or one occasion. The occasion does not show for you start it on an event, because it does not limit a start by hand.

An automation that starts on an enquiry starts for every new enquiry of its occasion while it is on. The Occasions card on Business → Enquiry form shows the result under Automation, but does not choose it: each occasion names its automation, marks one that is switched off with (off), or offers Add one. A new enquiry is:

a lead you add with New lead
an enquiry that comes in through your enquiry link
a lead you add with New event, when you finish its setup. Select Open proposal workspace on the Review step (Open workspace on a phone). Finish later and Save & exit start nothing. The automations start when you finish setup later, for the occasion the event has at that time.

Enquiry automations start only once on each event. A copy of an event starts nothing. Leads you import, and leads that a connected assistant adds, start nothing.

A built-in has a fixed start: “an invoice is issued”, “a proposal is sent” or “you ask for a brief”. The start card marks it fixed for built-ins.

The timeline

Under the start card, each step sits under the moment it waits for. The moments show in the order things happen:

Right away: when the automation starts.
After it starts: a number of days after the start.
A moment when something happens, such as When the enquiry arrives, When the Wedding brief comes back, When the booking is confirmed or When a payment arrives.
A stage moment, such as When the card moves to Consultation.
Before the event. These steps move with the event date.
On the event day.
After the event.

Built-ins use their own moments: Counting from the due date, Counting to the expiry date and After you ask for the brief.

A label beside a step gives its timing, such as “12 weeks before”, “1 day after” or “3 days later”. A long wait also shows months, for example “335 days after” with “about 11 months”.

Each step is a card. The card says what the step does in one sentence, for example:

Send “Thank you for your enquiry”
Create the task “Book the call”
Move the card to Consultation
Issue the balance invoice
Mark the enquiry lost: “No reply”

A second line shows anything set on the step, such as “if the client has not replied”, “Skipped once the balance invoice exists”, “Only for events that match 2 checks”, “At 10:00” or “Allowed on the event day”. A pill shows Automatic or Waits for your OK.

Most steps have their own timing. They do not wait for each other. A step timed After another step shows below the step it waits for. Its label names that step, for example: 3 days after “Book the call” · if the client has not replied. The next steps in that chain say “14 days after that” or “Straight after that”.

A card can show a warning:

“This step waits for the step above it, but there is none, so it never runs.”
“This moment never happens, so this step never runs.”
“Goes the day after: automatic steps wait on the event day”

An unfinished step says what is missing, for example “Choose the email”. Save stays off until every step is finished.

Change a step

Select a step to open it in a panel on the right. The timeline stays in view. Press Esc or select × to close the panel. Your changes stay in the draft until you select Save.

Anything you cannot change shows as text. Staff see the whole step as text. On Core, only the timing under WHEN of a built-in step can change.

When it runs

Under WHEN, choose one:

When the automation starts. You can also wait a number of days.
When something happens. Choose what the step waits for, such as the enquiry arrives, the brief comes back, a payment arrives, the booking is confirmed or the client replies. For a brief, choose which brief. For a payment, choose any payment or one milestone. You can also wait a number of days.
Before or after the event. Choose a number of days or weeks, then before or after.
After another step. Choose a number of days and the step it waits for. If the step right above creates a task, set counting from when to that step runs or its task is ticked. With its task is ticked, the days count from the tick, and until then the task cannot be deleted.
When the card moves to a stage. Choose the stage. You can also wait a number of days.

When something happens and After another step also have only if the client has not replied. When you tick it, the step does not run after the client replies.

When you choose the step to wait for, your step moves below it in the timeline. Any steps that wait for your step move with it. On events that are already running, a step that already has a date keeps it.

Under the choices:

At sets the send time. It shows only for steps timed before or after the event, and for invoice due dates.
Allowed between sets the hours when the step can go.
The day buttons M T W T F S S set the days when the step can go. One day must stay on.

You cannot save a send time outside the allowed hours. Times are in your studio’s timezone.

A built-in step keeps its kind of timing. You can change only the number of days: before or after the due date, before the proposal expires, or after you ask for the brief. A proposal reminder goes at least 1 day before the proposal expires.

What it does

Under DO, choose what the step does. Then choose its item:

A saved email. Read the email opens it. When the step sends the starter welcome email and your studio has the client hub, a note under it says “Add your client hub link to this welcome.” Use the welcome with the hub link changes the step to Welcome, with your client hub link. Save the automation to keep the change.
A form, for a Send a form step. Choose it under Which form. Until you choose one, the panel title reads “Send a form” and the step card says “Choose the form”.
A stage. Week-of is not in the list: the board moves cards into Week-of by date.
A tag. If your studio has no tags yet, the step says “You have no tags yet.” Select Add tags in Lead sources. The Tags card in Business → Lead sources opens in a new tab. Add a tag there, then go back to the editor tab. The new tag is in the list.
An invoice: the deposit or the balance.
A lost reason, when the step marks the enquiry lost.
A task. Type its name. In For, choose Nobody yet, Whoever approves the step or a team member. Next to Due, set a number of days after the step runs, or before or after the event date. The task shows on the event’s Tasks, under From automations.
A wait. Choose the number of days. A 0-day wait timed on something happening, a stage or the event date shows as “Hold the next steps until then”.
For Start another automation, choose it in Which automation. It starts on the same event unless it already runs there. One that is off starts paused and runs when you turn it on.

A built-in email step shows fixed text, such as “BloomBoard’s payment reminder”. BloomBoard writes this email with the amounts and links it needs.

Waits for your OK or automatic

Under BEFORE IT GOES OUT, choose one:

Waits for your OK: It shows on Today. You send it.
Automatic: It goes at its time without you.

New steps that send an email or a form, issue an invoice or mark the enquiry lost wait for your OK. New tasks, card moves, tags and waits are automatic. Check this on every new step.

With Automatic on an email, form or invoice step, you can tick Allow on the event day. If you do not tick it, a step that falls on the event day goes the day after.

When you approve a step five times without a change, the panel says so. For example: “You approved this 5 times without a change.” Select Make it automatic to change the step. Then select Save. The offer does not change anything by itself.

Built-in steps stay automatic.

Only for some events

ONLY FOR SOME EVENTS is optional. Select + Add a filter to add a check. All the checks in one dashed box must be true. Select + and to add a check to the box. Select + or to add another box. The step runs when any box is true. Select × to remove a check.

If the filter is false, BloomBoard skips only this step. The other steps carry on.

Reasons to skip

SKIP IT IF is optional. It shows the rule in words, such as “Skipped once the balance invoice exists”. Select + Add a reason to skip to add a rule. Select Remove to clear it.

A step that sends a form, issues an invoice, moves the card or marks the enquiry lost always keeps its rule. The panel says “This rule always comes with this kind of step.”

A rule looks back to when the automation started, not only to when the step above it ran. For example, “Skipped once the brief is back” skips the step even if the brief came back before the step above it went out.

Delete a step

The bottom of the panel shows how many times the step went out, such as “Sent 14 times”. Delete step removes the step from your draft.

If another step waited for the deleted step, a message says what that step waits for now. For example: “Shall I close your file?” now waits for “Book the call”.

Add steps

+ Add a step adds a step at the end. The new step is timed Right away. The panel opens so you can fill it in.

In the panel of a new step, you can also select Describe this step in your own words above WHEN. Type what the step should do, for example “send the balance invoice 4 weeks before”, and select Fill it in. The Smart helper fills in the step’s fields for you to check. If your words describe more than one step, the others go straight after it. Select Use the fields instead to close it. The link shows only on steps you have not saved yet.

Describe steps in your own words is a Smart feature. It writes steps from your description.

Select Describe steps in your own words.
Describe what should happen, or select an example.
Select Write the steps.
Read the proposed steps. Select × to remove a step you do not want.
If there is a question, type your answer. Then select Continue.
Select Add to followed by your automation’s name. The steps go at the end.

The box also says which saved emails, stages or other items it matched. If a match is wrong, change the step after you add it. Change something… lets you start again.

Nothing is saved until you select Save. Nothing goes to a client without your OK. An automation with no steps opens with this box.

Try it on an event

Owners and admins can check the steps against a real event. You cannot do this on a built-in.

Select Try it on an event.
Choose an upcoming event.

Each step then shows its date for that event. A step without a fixed date shows “When it happens”, or its place after another step, such as “3 days after the step above”. If a step would be skipped, its date is struck through and the reason shows. The line beside the event says “Real dates for this event. Nothing is sent.”

The dates follow your edits. While a step is unfinished, the dates stay as they were. The line then says “Finish the steps to update the dates.” Select × to clear the event.

Save your changes

When you changed only the name or the description, Save keeps it at once. The schedule stays as it is, so there is nothing to check.

When you changed the start, the occasion or a step:

Select Save. BloomBoard first checks the schedule.
Read the dialog. It says how many running events the change affects, for example “Saving will change 3 running events.” When no event runs the automation, it asks “Save your changes?” It also lists the steps due before tomorrow, for example “2 steps are due before tomorrow:”.
Select Save to apply the change. Select Cancel to keep editing.

Past sent and skipped steps stay in history. If you try to leave with unsaved changes, by a link or through the assistant, BloomBoard asks “Leave without saving?” first.

When the automation changes in another place

The assistant or another tab can change the automation while you have it open. With no unsaved changes, the editor shows the new version by itself. With unsaved changes, your edits stay and a notice reads “This automation changed in another place.” Select Reload to see the change; your unsaved edits go. Save saves nothing until you reload, so it never undoes the other change.

Waiting steps and Today

Today is its own page in the left rail. The app opens on Today when something waits for your decision, and on the Events board otherwise. Today appears when automations, task lists or saved cards are on for your studio. While something waits, the board keeps one line at the top with the same count and an Open Today link.

The badge on Today counts the Smart steps, unanswered enquiries, client replies, timing checks and payment schedule reviews that wait for you. An enquiry and its Smart reply count as one. Invoices to issue, payments and tasks show on Today, but they do not add to the badge.

The top line shows the date and how many rows are late. Under it, four figures sum up the day: Clients and Tasks (how many, and how many are late), Money (the total, split into to invoice, to collect and to review) and Done for you (steps your automations did on their own in the last 7 days). Select a figure to go to its group.

Today puts your work in three groups. Empty groups do not show.

Clients: Smart emails, forms and other Smart steps that wait for you, unanswered enquiries, timing checks and client replies.
Money: invoices to issue, payments to chase, bank transfers clients reported, payment reminders, invoice steps and payment schedule reviews. It shows one total for each currency.
Tasks: your tasks and unassigned tasks that are due today or late, including tasks from task lists. A task for a former or no-login member counts as unassigned. The money review of a canceled, Lost or archived event stays.

A brief or form your client sent back leaves Today once you open it and nothing in it waits for you. A change request leaves when you send the revision.

Rows run oldest first. A row shows an icon for its kind, the event name or task, the job, a time tag, such as 7 days late or Ready since 09:00, and one main button. The ⋯ menu holds the other actions. A warning, such as “Missing: Form link”, has its own line.

Approve a Smart email or step

For a Smart email or form, select Preview to read the recipient, the subject and the message. The button then reads Close.

Send now approves the email shown.
Edit then send lets you change this email before it goes.
Skip leaves this step unsent.
Snooze 1 day, Snooze 3 days or Snooze 1 week moves it to later.

Edit then send, Skip and the snooze times are in the row’s ⋯ menu. A step that does not send an email uses Do it now. An invoice step uses Issue now.

The opened email shows how many times you approved this step without a change. After five, you can get an offer to make the step automatic. The offer does not switch it for you.

When a step needs a look, the row shows a short warning, such as “Missing: Form link, Your signature”, and a Review button. Select Review to read the full note and the actions that apply. If details are missing, use Edit then send, or fill in the details and select Send now. If the client cannot receive automatic email, or the automation is paused on your plan, Today has no send button for that step. You can skip it.

If an email from a step did not arrive, for example because the address bounced, the step comes back to Today with the warning “This email did not arrive” and the reason. Select Open the email to see it in its conversation, check the address and send it again from there. Select Mark as handled when you have dealt with it. BloomBoard never sends it again by itself.

Answer an enquiry with its Smart reply

When an enquiry waits for an answer and its Smart reply is ready, Today shows them as one row: “Enquiry · a Smart reply is ready”.

Select Preview to read the reply.
Select Send reply. Sending the reply answers the enquiry, and the row leaves Today.

If the reply needs a look, the button reads Review reply. The ⋯ menu has Reply yourself, Mark as replied, Edit then send, Skip the Smart reply and Snooze the Smart reply. Reply yourself opens the event’s Client lens. If you mark the enquiry as replied, the Smart reply stays on Today as its own row. If you skip or snooze the Smart reply, the enquiry stays on Today with Reply.

An enquiry without a Smart reply shows Reply, which opens the event’s Client lens. Mark as replied is in its ⋯ menu.

After you approve a Smart reply, the enquiry stays off Today while the reply waits for its send time. An approved invoice step keeps its invoice off Today in the same way. If you pause the automation, the enquiry or the invoice shows on Today again. If a sent reply is not delivered, the enquiry comes back one hour after the send.

When a send does not go out

When you send, skip or snooze a step, its row leaves at once. If the step cannot go out, the row comes back with a message that says why, for example “Not sent. No value yet for: Form link. Edit the email, or fill it in Settings.” If the email waits for its send window, the message says when it goes out, for example “Approved. It goes out tomorrow at 08:00.” If the step no longer applies, the message says why it did not go out, for example “Not sent. The client has replied.”

Timing checks

If an automation started late, or the event date moved, some steps can fall into the past. They do not go out on their own. Today shows them in Clients, one row for each event, such as “Timing check · 2 steps to review”. Select Review to see each step.

Send now sends an email or a form. Do it now runs another kind of step.
Edit then send lets you change the email first.
Reschedule shows a date and time field. Choose a new time and select Save date. A time in the past cannot be saved.
Skip leaves the step unsent.

Money

An invoice to issue shows its amount and its due date. Open takes you to the event’s Finances. Opening it does not issue anything.
When a Smart step can issue the invoice, the row says “a Smart step can issue it”. Select Issue now to issue it.
A payment to chase shows Unpaid or Card payment failed, the invoice number and the amount. Edit then send opens its payment reminder.
Owners and admins can Skip or Snooze an invoice to issue or a payment to chase. See Today.
A bank transfer a client reported shows Client reported a bank transfer, the invoice number and the reference to look for in your bank. It takes the place of that invoice’s Unpaid or Card payment failed row. Check your bank, then select It’s in my bank to record it. Not received is in the ⋯ menu.
A payment reminder works like a Smart email.
“Payment schedule changed” shows after an accepted proposal revision. Check the schedule in Finances, then select Resume reminders.
Card charge on hold shows when a client who kept a card for the remaining payments replied to the heads-up, or the heads-up did not arrive. The ⋯ menu has Charge as planned (after a reply) or Send a new heads-up, and Cancel the charge. See Client payments.

Tasks, setup and Done for you

Tick the box beside a task to mark it done.

On Studio, until setup is done, one line under the figures shows the next setup step and its button.

At the end of Today, Done for you lists the steps your automations did on their own in the last 7 days, newest first. A step you approved is not in this list. On a quiet day, Today says All clear.

On Core, Today shows built-in automation steps, schedule reviews, unanswered enquiries, client replies, payments to chase and tasks. Staff can read Today, open a row with Preview or Review, and tick their tasks. The other buttons stay off for staff.

In the event, on mobile and by email

In an event, open Client. Your email with the client opens in full, with New email. Beside it, Up next lists the automations with Pause or Resume, Start an automation and the planned steps. Steps that need you show their buttons. With the client hub, Copy hub link sits at the top of Up next. History lists what happened, including a saved card’s heads-ups, holds and charges, and Hub link regenerated. On a phone, use the switch at the top.

Up next and History show days and times on your studio’s clock: the Timezone in Business → Business details. Your computer’s clock does not change them.

While automations run on an event, its header shows one chip. One automation reads like “Wedding running”. Two or more read like “3 automations running”. Put the pointer on the chip to see their names. When the header is short of room, the chip gets shorter first, so the event’s name and date stay in view.

On mobile, open the Today card on the Events tab to review waiting steps in a sheet. A push notification can alert you when a step waits.

The morning email arrives from 7 am in your studio’s timezone on days with work, at most once a day. It shows the Clients, Money and Tasks figures and the same groups as Today, up to five rows each, with a link to the rest. Any member can switch their own Morning digest off in Settings → Email.

When a step hits a problem

If a step cannot run because of an error, BloomBoard tries it again after five minutes and again after ten. After the third try it stops. Today then shows the step in its group with the warning “This step hit a problem three times”. Select Try again to run it again, or select Skip in the row’s ⋯ menu.

Built-in reminders

The built-ins are on and automatic.

Payment reminders follow issued invoices: seven days before the due date, on the due date, three and ten days after, then a task. They skip paid invoices and payments awaiting transfer confirmation. When a client kept a card for the remaining payments and a charge is planned for the invoice, the reminders seven days before and on the due date skip with “A saved card will be charged”. The reminders after the due date still go if the invoice is not paid. They also skip a reminder that falls within 24 hours of another one, including one you sent yourself. A payment milestone without an invoice cannot receive a reminder. Payment reminders start when an invoice is issued, so an invoice issued while they were switched off gets none, even after you switch them on. The invoice’s Reminders card says so.

Brief nudges follow a form you send by email. If the form is not back after 5 days, BloomBoard nudges the client once with a short email, “A gentle nudge from” your studio name, and the form link. You can change the days. A nudge is skipped when the form it asks for is back. That can be on the link it nudges about, or on another link to the same form for that event after the nudged one went out. For example, your client filled in a link you copied, and an automation also emailed the form. As soon as the form is back, Up next drops the nudge, and History shows “Skipped. The form no longer needs a nudge”.

Existing reminders keep working for older documents. The built-in automations take over new documents after Automations are switched on for your studio. A document does not receive both sets of reminders. When you switch a built-in off, nothing goes for the invoices, proposals or forms you send while it is off, even after you switch it back on.

Safety rules

New client-facing steps wait for your OK until you switch them to Automatic. Check the pill on every step before you save. Built-in reminders keep their automatic behavior.

Approval covers what you saw. If the email’s words, amount, date or recipient change, it comes back for approval.
A client reply pauses emails on that event for up to 48 hours, or until you reply. Payment reminders keep going unless the reply is to a payment reminder.
Only one automatic email per client goes out each day across their events. Extra emails wait for another day.
Automatic emails do not go out on the event day unless that step allows it.
Canceling or archiving an event stops its automations. Money still outstanding or refundable raises a task for you.
A blocked email address raises a task instead of an automatic send.
A step never marks an enquiry lost after it has moved on to a proposal or a booking.
Automation emails come from your studio. Where an email has Your signature, it uses the signature of your studio’s owner from Settings → Email.
Leaving Studio pauses your own automations. Returning resumes them. The three built-in automations keep working on Core.

Ask the assistant

The assistant can explain, build and change your automations from the chat, in the editor’s words.

Explain: ask “what does my Wedding automation do?” or “what happens next for the Hart wedding?”. It never reads a planned email’s message.
Build: describe what you want. It builds the automation switched off, with your own saved emails, forms, stages and tags, and makes a missing one.
Change: add, change or remove steps, or switch an automation on or off. Switching on, and changing one that is on or running, ask first on a card. Anything else happens at once, with Undo.

Staff can ask about automations. Owners and admins can build and change them, on Studio. On Core, the assistant explains the three built-ins. When the editor is open, “explain this one” means the automation on the screen. See Work with the BloomBoard Assistant.

Common mistakes

Switching on Wedding does not replace checking its steps. Read the saved emails and timing first. Check its start card: it says “a new enquiry arrives for Wedding”. To choose the Lead column where new enquiries land, open Business → Enquiry form. On the Occasions card, choose a column under Lands in on the occasion’s row. It saves at once. Two switched-on automations for the same occasion both start; switch one off, or give it another occasion.

If a saved email used by a step is deleted, choose another saved email for that step. If the client has no email address, add it to the client’s details. Do not keep pressing Send when a note says something is missing.

After a date change, look for a Timing check row on Today. Steps that moved into the past need a decision: send, reschedule or skip. After an accepted proposal revision, review the payment schedule before selecting Resume reminders. Do not issue another deposit invoice for money already paid.