To help you get started, Zen Planner offers a variety of preset automations with pre-populated message templates: Setting up Preset Automations
However, if you don't see what you are looking for, you can also always create a custom automation.
You can create an automation to send an email, profile alert, staff task or text message (US & Canada only for an extra charge) when certain events occur. The cost to send a text message is 1.5¢ per message.
Custom Automations Setup
Go to Setup > Communication > Automation
On the top left, use the drop-down menu on the top left of the page to select the automation report type. If you aren't sure what report to select, reach out to our Support Team.
1. Select the criteria that will trigger this Automation
In this section, you will want to choose the conditions that must be met to trigger the automation. A good principle here is that less is more. Selecting more criteria decreases the chance that the automation will fire out. For an automation to trigger and send a message, ALL the criteria you have selected must qualify, which is why it’s important to ensure you have made the correct selections.
You can choose multiple items in a list by clicking the multiple check-box and then holding down the Command (Mac) or CTRL key (Windows) while clicking your selections.
If you have any questions about what criteria need to be selected for a specific automation to fire out correctly, reach out to our Support Team.
2. Choose when to send this automation
This section indicates when the message will be sent in relation to a certain event. You can set up automations to fire in relation to many events in the system. In this section, you will want to specify the timeframe and the event that you want the email to fire off of.
There will be different events available in the dropdown menu depending on what automation report type was selected when creating the automation. If you have any questions about this or if you can't find a certain event, reach out to our Support Team.
3. Choose a message template
Use this section to select the message template this automation should use. Zen Planner offers various templates with pre-populated content. The type of templates available will depend on the automation report type. To select a message template, click on the template drop-down menu and select the name that looks right to you.
If you don’t see a pre-made template that suits your need, select "Create a Custom Template" at the bottom of the list and when you save the automation, you will be taken directly to the template editor.
4. Save Automation Setup
Name: Provide a name to identify your automation
Category: Assign a category to help organize your automations
Activate: We highly recommend reviewing/editing the language of the document template BEFORE activating the automation.
Once you have reviewed/edited the document template, check the Activate box to enable the automation. Upon activation, the automation will retroactively fire for any triggering events from the last two days and for anything moving forward.
If you have any further questions, reach out to our Support Team.