An automation is a rule: when something happens to a deal or proposal, 53° runs the steps you've set. Use them for the follow-ups that are easy to forget, like a task to chase a proposal 3 days after it goes out, or setting a company's lifecycle to Customer when you win.
Before you start
Deal and proposal automations live in organisation settings, which owners and admins can open. See Members and roles.
Where to find them
- Select your organisation's name at the top of the sidebar and choose Manage organisation.
- Under Settings, choose Deals or Proposals.
- Open the Automations tab.
Deals automations run when a deal enters a stage, or any one of several stages you choose, or when a tag you choose is added to a deal. Proposals automations run when a proposal is created or sent, and can also move its deal to another stage.
Create an automation
- Choose Add automation.
- Give it a Name, for example "Follow up new proposals". Switched on is on to start with.
- Under When, choose what sets it off:
- For a deal automation, choose Deal enters a stage or Tag is added to a deal under What sets it off.
- For a stage, choose one or more under When a deal enters. Choose several to run the same steps for each, for example every open stage. Creating a deal straight into one of them counts too, and so does moving a deal from one of them to another.
- For a tag, choose it under When this tag is added. Adding it by hand, in bulk or from another automation all count. Removing it stops any run still waiting.
- For a proposal automation, Proposal is created or Proposal is sent. Sent counts the first send only, not Send again.
- Choose + on the canvas, pick what should happen, and fill in its settings. Add more steps in the order they should run, up to 10.
- Choose Create automation.
The steps sit on a canvas. Drag its background to move around, and use − and + in the corner to zoom. Select the percentage to fit the whole automation in view, or choose Expand to give it the whole screen. Drag a step by its handle to change the order.
Steps you can add
| Step | What it does |
|---|---|
| Update tags | Adds or removes tags on the deal, its company or its people. |
| Create a task | Creates a task with a Title, optional description, due date (Due after (days)) and priority. Assign it to The deal owner, A specific member or Nobody, and choose where it shows with Show the task on. |
| Assign a member | Assigns the deal, its company or its people to a member. Tick Only records nobody is assigned to yet to leave existing owners alone. |
| Update the lifecycle | Sets the lifecycle of the deal's company or people, for example to Customer. |
| Move the deal to a stage | Proposal automations only. Moves the deal to an open stage. |
| Add to a list | Puts the deal's people on one of your own lists. Joining a list can start its sequences. Needs the Landing plan. |
| Remove from a list | Takes the deal's people off one of your own lists. |
| Wait | Pauses before the next step, for minutes, hours, days, weeks or months, up to a year. |
| If / else | Sends the run down different paths depending on what's true. See below. |
Move the deal to a stage only offers open stages. A deal with a proposal is won when the contact signs, and moving it to Lost or On hold would cancel or park the proposal that was just sent.
Split a run with If / else
An If / else step checks something and runs different steps for each answer. It's always the last step.
- Under Check, choose The deal, or Each company and person to check each one separately.
- Add up to 4 paths. For each, set its conditions and whether it needs All of these or Any of these.
- Add up to 5 steps to each path. Anything that matches no path takes Otherwise.
The paths sit side by side on the canvas, one column each. The deal can be checked by Deal value, Deal stage, Deal owner and Deal tags. Companies and people can also be checked by Lifecycle, Tags and Signed proposals (how many proposals they've signed across all their deals). Paths can't contain a wait.
A path can end with another If / else, up to three levels deep: choose + at the end of the path, then If / else. When companies and people are checked one by one, the inner one checks only those that took its path.
Turn an automation on or off
Use the switch at the start of its row in the list. Switching one off stops any runs that are waiting part-way through.
Up to 5 automations can be switched on for the same trigger, such as the same stage. Switch one off to make room.
If a stage, tag or member an automation uses is deleted, or a member leaves, the row shows what's wrong. The broken step is skipped when it runs, and you can't switch the automation back on until you fix it.
Check what ran
Select an automation in the list and open Run history. Each run shows who or what it ran for and how it went: Succeeded, Partly ran, Skipped, Failed, Waiting or Stopped. Choose Show details to see each step, and why any were skipped.
A run that's waiting has 2 options:
- Continue now skips the rest of the wait and runs the next step.
- Cancel stops the run where it is.
Run history loads 10 runs at a time. Choose Load more runs for older ones. Runs are kept for 30 days after they finish.
Good to know
- Automations run in the background moments after the change, so they never slow down a drag or a save.
- Signing a proposal isn't a trigger of its own. A signature always moves the deal to Won, so put anything that should follow a win on a Won stage automation under Deals.
- Automations follow the same rules as a person. A step that isn't allowed, like winning a deal whose proposal isn't signed, doesn't happen.
- A proposal automation that moves a deal sets off that stage's deal automations, but the chain stops there.
- A waiting run stops if its deal moves stage, the deal is deleted, or the proposal that set it off is deleted.
- Tasks an automation creates are credited to whoever last saved it, and the activity log names the automation.
- Deleting an automation deletes its run history too.
- Add to a list and Remove from a list reach the deal's people, not its company: only a person can be on a list. To use them you need to be an owner, admin or manager, and they're shown when your plan includes lists of your own. See Automate emails with sequences for what joining a list can start.