> This is the Markdown of a Backed Help Centre page, https://admin.backed.giving/help/administrator/communications/automations.md. Every page is listed at https://admin.backed.giving/help/llms.txt.

> This page uses Backed's default terms, such as Funding Round and Application Template. An organisation may rename them, so read each as your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

An automation acts for you. When something happens to a record (the trigger), and the conditions
you set hold, it runs its actions in order. Automations are listed under `Settings > Automations`.

## Before you start

You need `Can access Settings > Organisation`. To save or activate an automation you also need the
permission each of its actions uses, such as assigning tasks to others.

## The list

The `Rules` tab lists every automation with its name, its trigger, its status (`Draft`, `Active` or
`Paused`), when it last fired and how many times it has fired. Select a name to open it.

## Build an automation

1. Go to `Settings > Automations` and select `New automation`.
2. Name it.
3. Under `When`, choose the trigger. Some triggers ask for more: the statuses it moves from and to,
   the decision outcomes, the field tags, or a date and how many days before or after it.
4. Under `If`, add any conditions and choose whether all of them or any of them must be met. Use the
   arrows to reorder them. With no conditions, the actions run every time it fires.
5. Under `Do`, add the actions in the order they should run. Each can wait some minutes, hours or
   days first, up to 90 days; a delayed action checks the conditions again before it runs. An email
   goes only to people who are still members of your organisation: someone removed or disabled since
   is not sent it.
6. Select `Save`. The automation is saved as a `Draft`.
7. Select `Activate`. `Activate` is unavailable while you have unsaved changes.

The person who activates an automation is the person it runs as, shown as "Runs as …, activated …".
Its actions can never do what that person could not.

If something it uses has been deleted, such as an email template or a tag, or you lack a permission
an action needs, the action or condition concerned is marked and nothing is activated.

## Change an active automation

An active automation cannot be edited. Select `Pause`, make your changes, select `Save`, then
`Resume`. Resuming makes you the person it runs as. An automation can also pause itself when it
fires more often in an hour than its limit allows, or when the person it runs as loses a permission
it needs; the page says which.

## Test a draft

On a `Draft`, select `Test` and choose a record. The test shows whether each condition is met and
what each action would do, and warns about any action that would fail for lack of permission.
Nothing is created, sent or changed.

## Log

The `Log` tab lists every time an automation fired, newest first: when, which automation, its
trigger, the record, and whether the conditions were met. Each action shows its outcome:

- `Done`: it ran.
- `Skipped`: there was nothing for it to do, such as nobody to email (everyone it would have gone to
  has been removed or disabled). The reason is shown.
- `Waiting`: it is due to run later, at the time shown.
- `Failed`: it could not run. The reason and the error are shown. An action that hits a passing
  fault is tried again after 1, 5 and 30 minutes before it shows `Failed`.
- `Cancelled`: someone cancelled it, or the conditions no longer held when it was due.

Filter by automation, record type, record ID, outcome or dates. `Export CSV` downloads what the
filters show, one row per action, up to 10,000 rows. If there are more, narrow the filters.

Select `Retry` on a `Failed` action to run it again, or `Cancel` on a `Waiting` action to stop it.
Both need the permission you need to build automations. An automation with waiting actions can't be
deleted until they are cancelled.

Each application, milestone and contract also has an `Automations` panel at the foot of its
`Details` tab, listing the last ten times an automation fired for it. `Show all` opens the log
filtered to that record.

## See also

- [Tasks](tasks.md)
- [Reminders](reminders.md)