Automations¶

An automation is a rule your firm writes once: when something happens, Firmdesk does one thing. For example: when a request is complete for a T1, create the task “Prepare the T1 return” for the preparer. Each automation acts once for each task, request, document or invoice.

Owners and admins make them in Settings › Automations. What they make is there for the whole team: their tasks are in My work and on Today, and the requests and emails they send are in Requests and Emails sent.

Add an automation¶

Go to Settings › Automations and click New automation.
Give it a Name: how your firm knows it, such as “T1 ready to prepare”.
Under When, choose what sets it off.
Under Only for, narrow it down if you like: a Service, the Clients (individuals or businesses), and for tasks, Only tasks named (words in the task's name, like “Review”).
Under Then, choose what it does, and fill in that action's fields.
Under Wait (days), leave 0 for it to act at once, or choose how many days later.
Click Add automation.

It acts on what happens from then on: what happened before isn't looked at.

Start from a suggestion¶

Under Start from a suggestion, click Use it beside one. The form opens filled in: change anything you like, then click Add automation.

T1 ready to prepare: when a request is complete for a T1, create “Prepare the T1 return” for the preparer.
File the T2 once approved: when a client approves a T2 document, create “File the T2 return” for the partner. It looks at each document the client approves (the statements, the return…), but while the task is open it doesn't make a second one.
Thank clients who pay: when an invoice is paid in full, email the client that it's paid, with a thank-you.
Tell the preparer when a client signs: when a client signs a document, email the preparer.
Review and file once the checklist is done: when every checklist task on a deadline is done, create “Review and file” for the reviewer.

What sets one off¶

When	What it's about
A task is marked done	The task
Every checklist task on a deadline is done	The deadline: its checklist tasks are all done or not needed, and one at least is done
A deadline is marked done	The deadline
A client answers everything on a request	The request, now waiting for your review
A request is complete	The request, once you've accepted every item
A client uploads documents	The documents they sent at once
A client approves a document	The document
A client signs a document	The document (not an engagement letter: it has its own, below)
A client signs an engagement letter	The engagement letter, once what signing it sets up is done
An invoice is sent	The invoice
An invoice is paid in full	The invoice

Only what people do sets one off: someone on your team, a client, a payment. What Firmdesk does by itself to keep things in step (new deadlines, checklist tasks) doesn't, and neither does what an automation does: one automation never sets off another.

What it can do¶

Create a task: a one-off task on the client, linked to the service and the deadline it's about (while that deadline is open). Choose Who does it: a role on the client's team, like The client's preparer (whoever holds it then), or a person. It's due some business days after it acts (Due in (business days), skipping your province's holidays), or on the deadline's date when you tick Due on the deadline's date and it's about an open deadline. It isn't made when the client already has a task with the same name open for that service.
Send a request from a template: made from one of your request templates and sent at once, with the template's title, message, items and due date. The client is emailed as when you send one, and your reminders follow it when they're on for the client. It isn't sent when the client has a request with the same title open.
Email the client: your Subject and Message, to the client's contacts who can sign in to the portal and get its emails. It comes from your firm's name. Replies go to the address under Replies go to in the portal settings, or else to your firm's contact email: set one of them, or replies can't reach you. It's your own text, like a reminder: no signature is added. When it's about a request, an invoice or a document the client can see, it has a button to it in the portal (for someone who hasn't chosen a password yet, to choose one first).
Email someone at the firm: your Subject and Message (optional), from Firmdesk, to a role on the client's team or to a person, with a button to what it's about and the automation's name. The person whose change set it off isn't emailed: they know already.
Move the deadline to In progress: the deadline it's about, or its service's next open deadline (for a request, say). A deadline that's done or not needed is left as it is.

Fields¶

In a task's name, a subject or a message, words in braces are filled in when it acts: {client}, {first_name}, {firm}, {service}, {deadline}, {due_date}, {document}, {request}, {invoice} and {task}. Fields you can use, on the form, says what each becomes. {due_date} is “October 16, 2026” in a message, and “October 16” in a subject or a task's name.

{task}, {request}, {invoice} and {document} are only filled in for that kind of thing: the form says so when one can't be, like {invoice} when a task is marked done.

A field with nothing to fill in is left out, and in a message, so is its line; What they did lately says which lines were left out. When nothing would be left of the message but a greeting and a signature, or of a subject or a task's name, it doesn't act, and says why.

Waiting a few days¶

With Wait (days) above 0, the automation acts that many days later, in calendar days and in your firm's time zone, in the first hour of that day. It then acts only if what set it off still stands: a task reopened in the meantime, or an invoice voided, calls for nothing. It's also skipped if you turn the automation off before its day.

Once for each thing¶

Each automation acts once for each task, deadline, request, document or invoice. When a task is marked done, reopened and marked done again, the automation doesn't act a second time. Two automations for the same event each act once.

When nothing happens¶

An automation doesn't act:

for a client that isn't active (a prospect, or inactive);
while your firm's plan is paused, or read-only after a trial or a missed payment. One that waits keeps waiting, for up to a week past its day;
while it's off. Turn it on or off with its switch in the list.

In a sample firm, automations act, but no email goes out: its people are made up. One that only emails is skipped, and says so.

What they did lately¶

Under What they did lately, the latest 50: when, which automation, what it was about (and for which client), and what happened. Done says what it did, Scheduled the day it acts, Acting that it's acting now, Skipped why it didn't act (nobody to email, a template deleted, a client that isn't active), and Failed what went wrong.

An automation that failed isn't tried again for that thing: do what it was to do by hand, if it's still needed. Each one that acted, or failed, is also in the Activity log, by “Firmdesk (automation)”.

Change or delete one¶

Click Edit beside it, change it, then click Save automation. If it was for someone who has left the team, the form says so: choose who it's for now.

Delete automation, once you confirm, deletes it and its list of what it did. The tasks, requests and emails it made stay. What it's scheduled to do, for the automations that wait, doesn't happen: the confirmation says how many.

Good to know¶

Only owners and admins see Settings › Automations. Everyone on the team sees what the automations make.
A task an automation creates is a one-off task: changing a service's checklist never changes it.
When you delete a client for good, what your automations did about it goes too.