This functionality is available in the 'Automated Office' & "Automation & Service" packages.

Automation allows you to de-skill your office processes and build knowledge into the system rather than having specifics known only by some staff.

Zigaflow can do many things without any manual intervention, using Automated processes.

These include:

• Creating a job, invoice
• Sending internal emails (for example when a quote greater than $10,000 is accepted by a client)
• Sending emails to clients 
• Changing the status of related documents (i.e. the status of a job is changed when an associated invoice is changed)
• Send a notification email to the purchasing department that they can place orders for a job
• Creating an invoice or invoices for a client based on a specific rule for that client
• Notify staff when an order of a certain size is placed

The processes are set up for each module but can trigger automation in other modules, effectively allowing a sequence of automation to run.

 

Example Automated Process

Preventing Accidental Actions (Delaying & Queuing Automations)

Setting up an Automation

Setting When it Will Run

Setting What it Will Do

Sending an Email (Internal Users)

Sending an Email to Your Client

Setting Other Actions

Set to Active (Ready to Run)

Stopping a Triggered Automation

Example Automated Process

1. Client approves a quote using the online client page
2. This triggers the creation of a new job (with a status of 'Waiting Payment)
3. It also triggers the creation of an invoice for 50% of the value of the quote if the customer has a certain tag set. 
4. The invoice is automatically posted to Xero or QuickBooks if they are connected
5. The invoice is placed in a 'To Send' status, or sent automatically. The first automation stops here.
6. When the invoice is paid, its status is manually changed and this triggers an automation to change the status of the associated job to 'Ready to Start'. The second automation stops here.
7. The job is then worked on and manually marked as 'Completed'. This triggers an automation to create an invoice for the remaining amount and send it 
8. It also triggers the automatic creation of a delivery note

Preventing Accidental Actions (Delaying & Queuing Automations)

If a user changes the status of a job by accident, this could trigger a sequence of unwanted actions. To prevent this happening Zigaflow allows you to set a delay before an action is fired, for example, 15 mins after the initial event. At that point, if the status is not what is expected (i.e. the user changed it back) the automation will not run. There is also a 'Queue' where you can see all the actions queued to run and remove the ones you don't want to occur.

How to Stop an Automation

Setting up an Automation

Clients Tags

Automation can make use of client tags - for example, if you tag a client with one you have called 'Part-Invoice in Advance' you can set the condition of an automation to fire only when this is present for the company the automation has been triggered by.

Getting Started

• Select Configure > Automations
• Select a module on the left (This is the "trigger point" to start the automation)

• Click on 'New Automation'
• Set a delay to the automation (i.e. how long it will sit in a queue before running). If you don't set this, it will run immediately

Enter a name and trigger type (e.g. Status Change) and click on 'Add Automation'

Setting When it Will Run

The first screen will show this:

Click on 'Add Conditions' to start adding the trigger conditions:

Click on the 'And' button to add the first condition:

This automation will trigger when the status of the job is set to 'Completed'. However, I only want to execute this for clients who are tagged with 'Part Invoice' so I will set another condition:

Or Conditions

You can use sets of conditions where one set may be triggered, or the other might be, or neither. For example, when an order is confirmed by clients, you might want to invoice some upfront but not others. In this example, clients who are tagged with either 'Part-Invoice' or 'Managed-Account' will have an invoice generated.

The conditions available for the job module are:

There are similar conditions for the other modules.

Setting What it Will Do

The actions available in the job module as of August 2019 are:

There are similar actions in the other modules.

Sending an Email (Internal Users)

Clicking on 'Send Emails' in the 'Add Action' box brings up a form that you can complete with a message that is sent every time. Use the PDF tags for a module to add extra detail to the email, e.g.:

Sending an Email to Your Client

Automatically keep your client informed of what you are doing by setting up automated customer emails. These can be triggered when the status of a job, quote, invoice, or PO is changed. 

Clicking on 'Send Emails' in the 'Add Action' box brings up a form to set up the email message to the client. Add details specific to the job and customer and tick 'To Client/Contact'.

 

Setting Other Actions

When you select an action, such as 'Change Related Quotation Status' this pop-up appears:

Select the desired action and click 'Add Action'.

Set to Active (Ready to Run)

At the top of the panel, make sure you have ticked on 'Is Active' for the process to run. 

Stopping a Triggered Automation

If the automation had a delay trigger set, you can find it in the queue and cancel it.

• To do this, go to the Cog -> Automation Settings
• Click on the Queue button

Each process still to run is listed in the queue:

Click on the arrow to run the process immediately, or on the 'x' to cancel it.