Automations
Everything Base can run for you without being asked, in one place with four tabs. Library is the catalogue, by stage of the job: built-in automations you switch on and off, and add-on packs you install. Running now shows what is watching your business right now. Activity is the log of every time something fired and how it went. A job's own Automations tab shows the add-ons running on that job. The Library is where you decide; the other tabs are for looking.
- The Automations module must be on for you (Settings → Team modules).
- Changing anything needs an admin or team role. Everyone else can read the pages; the buttons are disabled.
- Many automations need something connected first: a mailbox, a texting number, WhatsApp or Xero (Settings → Integrations). An automation turned on without its requirement does nothing until it is met, and says so.
- In Library, find the automation. Each row shows what it does, its kind (always on, a switch, or opt-in), whether it is recommended, whether it uses the assistant, and ticks or crosses for what it needs.
- Press the button on the row: Turn on for one that is off or not set up, Pause for one that is on, Resume for a paused one, Turn on the rest when a group is partly on.
The state badge changes at once and a message confirms ("Daily morning briefing turned on."). A built-in applies to the whole business. Expand a row to read what it does, when it runs, what you'll see (a notification, an email, a task, a draft for you to approve, a message sent for you, records updated, a report, Xero updated), who runs it and needs, plus a link to its history in Activity.
- Press Turn on all recommended.
- Read the list. Anything you paused stays paused; anything missing a connection is left out.
- Press Turn them on.
- Press Set up on the pack (or Add more if it is already on somewhere).
- Optionally press Preview the last 30 days to see how often each recipe would have fired on your real events.
- Tick the recipes you want. Ready ones are pre-ticked; a "coming soon" recipe cannot be ticked.
- Press Choose where it runs and pick All projects, Chosen projects (tick them) or Matching projects (by status). Packs that run for the business as a whole offer only Whole business.
- Press Install.
A message tells you when the first run will be ("tomorrow morning", "on next variation approved"). Installed recipes appear under Running now and on each job's Automations tab.
Open Running now. Your event subscriptions are grouped: default notifications, money-loop switches, default AI automations, the PM agent bundle, installed add-ons and anything your team wired by hand. Each row reads as "what happened → what runs" with on, off or paused. Below are Scheduled agent runs (set up in chat, such as "every Monday at 8") and The system engine: the daemons and sweeps that run for every business with nothing to install. The rows here are read-only; Manage subscriptions opens the raw wiring.
In Running now → Scheduled agent runs, press Stop on the row, then Stop it? to confirm. It will not fire again. Stop all stops every scheduled run at once and needs an admin; event-driven automations are not affected.
Open Activity. Filter by All, Success, Failed, Pending or Dead. Press a row to see the error, the event that triggered it, the handler and its result. Failed deliveries retry on their own; a dead one gave up. Fix the cause (usually a disconnected integration), then replay it from Event subscriptions.
Open the job's Automations tab. Under on this project, each add-on offers Pause / Resume and an uninstall (press the bin, then press it again within a few seconds to confirm). Add-ons installed across every project are listed under from every project and are changed from the Library.
- Every business gets the default notifications installed and on: budget overruns, compliance expiry, bounced email, client decisions, claim deadlines, the Monday money email. An hourly sweep adds any that are missing. It never re-enables one you paused or deleted, and never installs an AI automation; those stay opt-in.
- The money-loop switches (seed the budget on a win, push to Xero, chase an overdue claim) are installed off, for you to turn on.
- Scheduled agent runs on a job stop by themselves when the job is completed, put on hold, archived or deleted.
- A background run drafts; it does not send. An automation that emails or texts on its own has been given that explicitly and says so in what you'll see.
- When deliveries die, a daily review summarises them, replays the transient ones and notifies an admin with what needs a person.
- Turning something on applies to the whole organisation unless the row says per-project. There is no per-person automation.
- "Paused" is remembered. Re-running the defaults installer, the hourly sweep and Turn on all recommended all leave a paused automation paused.
- An automation with an unmet need (no mailbox, no Xero) can be switched on but does nothing. The Library tells you: "it will not do anything until then".
- The first time you open the Library, a short three-step tour appears. Skip is at the bottom.
- Running now and Activity have no switches. Every decision is made in the Library, every raw edit in Event subscriptions.
- Add-on packs installed on one job are paused or removed from that job's tab; the same pack installed across all jobs can only be changed in the Library.