Automation

Automations are multi-step workflows that fire on a trigger (a real event in your venue, like a booking being created or a payment being received) and execute a sequence of steps (Schedule a future send, Wait for a duration, Check a Condition, Send an email). They're how you turn one custom email template into a lifecycle flow: trigger → wait 24 hours → check the customer hasn't paid yet → send a payment reminder.

If a Simple email covers what you need (one transactional send, fixed timing), use that. Reach for Automation when the workflow involves timing, conditional logic, or multiple sends spread across the lifecycle of a transaction.

Getting started

Navigate to Mail > Email templates and automations and switch to the Automation tab. Click Create automation to open the builder, or click any row to edit an existing automation.

How it works

The builder has three panels.

Every automation has the same shape: one trigger plus one or more steps. The trigger names the event you're listening for (e.g., "Booking created"). The steps run in order when the trigger fires. The last step must be Send email, since the whole point is to send something.

Save Draft keeps the automation in draft (the trigger is not armed; nothing fires). Save & Activate arms the trigger so the automation runs on the next matching event.

Step-by-step guide

Open the builder

Name the automation

In the left sidebar, fill in:

Pick a trigger

The canvas starts empty. The empty state reads:

Start building your automation Add a trigger to get started, then build your workflow with actions.

Click Add trigger. The Select trigger modal opens with two panels.

Click a category on the left to see its triggers on the right. Click a trigger on the right to select it (a checkmark appears). Click Add trigger to confirm. The canvas updates: the Trigger card appears at the top with a START badge.

Trigger categories

Each category's icon and count display in the left panel; the right panel shows the specific triggers within. The catalog grows over time; if you're looking for a trigger that isn't there, file a Support ticket.

Add steps

Once the trigger is set, an Add step button appears below the Trigger card. Click it to open the step-type menu.

Pick a step type to add it to the canvas and open its configuration modal. Each step is a card on the canvas with an icon, a title, a one-line summary of its config, an edit pencil, and a trash icon. Connector lines link the steps from top to bottom.

The last step in any saved-and-active automation must be a Send email step (otherwise the automation does nothing and Save & Activate is blocked).

Configure a Wait step

A Wait step pauses the workflow for the configured duration after the previous step (or after the trigger fires, if it's the first step). For example: trigger fires, wait 24 hours, then send.

Configure a Schedule step

A Schedule step fires the step at a date / time computed from a reference field plus an offset. The reference field is a date on the trigger's data (e.g., the booking's start date, the gift card's delivery date). The offset is "N units before / after" the reference.

When configured, a preview reads, e.g., "24 hours before Booking Start Date" or "3 days after Payment Received Date".

Schedule is the right choice when timing depends on a date in the data (e.g., remind customers 24 hours before their booking). Wait is the right choice when timing is relative to the previous step (e.g., wait 5 minutes between sends in a sequence).

Configure a Condition step

A Condition step checks one or more rules against the trigger's data. If the rules pass, the workflow continues. If they fail, the workflow halts (subsequent steps don't run).

A Condition step contains one or more conditions. Each condition has three parts: Field (what to check), Condition (the operator), Value (what to compare against). Multiple conditions combine with Logic.

Click Add another condition to add a rule. Each rule is numbered (1, 2, 3, ...) and labeled If (first) / And or Or (subsequent, based on Logic). Click the X on a rule to remove it.

Condition operators

Operators come from the field's data type (string, number, date, list). The full set:

Condition value input

The value field changes based on the chosen field and operator:

A green confirmation appears under each valid condition: e.g., "Game is Escape Room" or "Booking start date is greater than 2026-06-01".

Project conditions

Project triggers offer two condition fields.

Status uses the is and is not conditions. To email people connected to the ticket, choose them as recipients in the Send email step rather than with the Staff field.

Configure a Send email step

Recipient options (Send to):

Connect the flow

Steps run top-to-bottom in the order they appear on the canvas. Connector lines render between steps to show the sequence. Drag the rank handle on a step card to reorder; click the trash icon to delete; click the edit pencil to reopen its configuration.

The last step in an active automation must be Send email. If you try to Save & Activate an automation whose final step isn't Send email, you'll see a validation error.

Save and activate

The top right has two buttons.

Save & Activate runs the full validation chain before saving:

Validation failures show in a single dialog so you can fix them all in one pass. Multiple errors are listed with bullets.

Clear the flow

The canvas header has a Clear button (visible when at least one step exists or a trigger is set). Click to wipe the trigger and all steps back to empty. The button asks for confirmation ("Clear automation flow? This will remove all steps from your automation.") before clearing.

Edit an existing automation

From the automations list (the Automation tab on the landing page), click any row to open it in the builder. The flow re-renders with the saved trigger and steps. Edit, then Save Draft or Save & Activate to save. If the automation is currently active and you Save Draft, it deactivates (the trigger is disarmed until you Save & Activate again).

Worked example: 24-hour booking reminder with conditional send

Goal: 24 hours before each booking starts, check that the customer hasn't already arrived; if not, send the booking reminder template.

Flow: when a booking is created, schedule the workflow to resume 24 hours before that booking's start. At resume time, check the booking status. If it's anything other than Arrived, send the reminder template to the customer.

Worked example: cart abandonment recovery

Goal: when a customer adds items to their cart but doesn't finish checking out, wait a configurable delay and send a branded recovery email, but only if the cart value is worth following up on.

Flow: when a customer's cart goes quiet, wait the configured duration. At resume time, check the cart value. If it's above the threshold, send the recovery template to the customer.

Important behavior to know:

• The clock resets on every new cart activity. Each time the customer adds, removes, or otherwise modifies the cart, the timer restarts. The wait only fires after the cart has been quiet for the full duration.
• Completed checkouts are auto-excluded. If the customer finishes paying before the wait elapses, the workflow halts, so no "you left something behind" email goes out to someone who already paid.
• The default delay is 60 minutes if you don't add a Wait or Schedule step. Add a step explicitly if you want a different duration.
• Cart contents are available to the email template. Cart value and item count can be rendered in the message body so the recovery email can show what the customer left behind.
• Without an active automation, the Simple emails Abandoned cart email still fires as a fallback. Activating a Cart abandoned automation supersedes the simple version; both don't fire side by side.

Worked example: alert staff when an add-on is purchased

Goal: when a customer buys an add-on item during online checkout, email the team that handles inventory so the item can be pulled and made ready before the customer arrives.

Flow: as soon as a customer completes a checkout containing an add-on item, the chosen staff receive an email. Build the template with the booking name, the booking date, and the item details so the message says exactly what to prepare and for when.

Important behavior to know:

• The trigger fires once for each item. An order containing three add-on items sends three emails, one per item. To receive a single email listing the whole order, build the automation on the Transaction category instead and render the line items in the template.
• Items your team adds are a separate trigger. Purchases made on the booking site and items staff add to a transaction in the console are different events. To cover both, build two automations: one on Item purchased on booking site and one on Inventory item added to transaction internally.
• Item details are available to the email template. The item name and quantity can be rendered in the message body alongside the usual booking and customer details.
• Recipients are resolved when the email sends. Choosing roles rather than named individuals means staffing changes are picked up automatically, with no need to revisit the automation.

Tip: Pair this with a condition step if only some add-ons need preparation. A condition on the item details limits the alert to the items that actually require pulling from stock, so the team isn't emailed about every digital or no-prep purchase.

Worked example: email the team when a ticket is done

Goal: send one email to the ticket's assignee and reporter each time a project ticket is marked Done.

1. Click Add trigger, select the Project category, choose Ticket status changed, and click Add trigger.
2. Add a Condition step. Set Field to Status, Condition to is, and Value to Done.
3. Add a Send email step with Send to set to Ticket assignee.
4. Add a second Send email step with Send to set to Ticket reporter.
5. Click Save & Activate.

Flow: when a ticket moves to Done, the Condition passes and both emails send. Moving a ticket to any other status stops the automation at the Condition step. Editing a ticket that is already Done does not run it again.

Tip: Someone who is both the assignee and the reporter receives a single copy of the same template.

Reference

Builder layout

Step types

Trigger categories

Wait step

Schedule step

Condition step

Condition operators

Send email step

Automations list

Per-automation actions

Save buttons

Status badges

Good to know

• Activation arms the trigger. Save Draft saves your work but doesn't fire anything. Save & Activate arms the trigger so the next matching event runs the workflow. Save Draft on an active automation deactivates it.
• Validation runs at activation. Save Draft only checks that the name exists. Save & Activate runs the full validation chain (trigger, steps, all steps configured, last step is Send email). Use Save Draft for work-in-progress.
• Triggers fire on future events only. Activating doesn't retroactively trigger past events. Only events that happen after activation start the workflow.
• Condition steps halt the flow when they fail. A failed Condition is a stop signal, not a branch. If you need a true / false split (e.g., "if paid, send X; if not paid, send Y"), build two automations with opposite Condition steps on the same trigger.
• The last step must be Send email. Other step orderings are fine, but the chain has to end in Send email or the automation does nothing on success.
• Schedule vs Wait. Schedule pins to a data date with an offset ("24 hours before Booking Start Date"). Wait pauses relative to the previous step ("wait 5 minutes after the previous step"). Use Schedule when the timing depends on a real-world date; use Wait when it depends on the workflow itself.
• Templates must be active to be selectable. The Send email step's template picker only shows templates with status = active. Build and activate the template in Email templates first.
• Send to options depend on the trigger. Gift card recipient email only appears for Gift card triggers. Ticket watchers, Ticket assignee, and Ticket reporter only appear for Ticket created, Ticket updated, Ticket status changed, Comment created, Comment updated, and Comment deleted. Customer email is hidden for all Project triggers.
• Ticket status changed fires once per status change. It runs only when a ticket moves to a different status, including subtasks and booking tasks ticked off in the booking drawer. Ticket updated runs on every save of a ticket, so a Status condition under Ticket updated matches again each time a ticket in that status is edited or archived.
• Condition fields are scoped to the trigger. The Field dropdown in a Condition step only shows fields available on the trigger's data. Booking triggers expose booking fields; Gift card triggers expose gift card fields; etc.
• Reference date fields are also scoped. The Schedule step's Reference field dropdown only shows date fields available on the trigger's data. If you don't see the date you want, it's not exposed on that trigger.
• Copy to other groups is a one-shot clone. It clones the automation (trigger + all steps) to other company groups. After copy, each group's copy is independent. Editing the original later doesn't propagate.
• No nested conditions. Condition steps can be chained (one after another), but a Condition can't contain another Condition. Use chaining instead.
• No native test-fire. There's no "fire once for testing" button. To test, save as a draft, activate briefly during a known trigger event (e.g., make a test booking), then deactivate. For the email payload itself, use Send test email on the template in the Email templates builder.
• Cart abandoned default delay is 60 minutes. When you pick the Cart abandoned trigger and don't add a Wait or Schedule step before Send email, the workflow fires 60 minutes after the cart goes quiet. Add an explicit Wait or Schedule step to override the default.
• Cart abandoned activity resets the timer. Every cart action (add item, remove item, etc.) restarts the countdown. The Send email step only runs after the cart has been silent for the full delay.
• Completed checkouts auto-exclude themselves from Cart abandoned. If the customer pays before the delay elapses, the workflow halts. They never get a "you left something behind" email.
• Cart abandoned supersedes the Simple email of the same name. While a Cart abandoned automation is active, the Simple emails Abandoned cart email stops firing for that workflow. With no automation in place, the simple email continues as the fallback.

FAQ

Q: When should I build an Automation vs use a Simple email?

A: Use Simple emails when one of the 13 built-in types fires at the right moment with default content. Use Automation when the workflow involves timing (24 hours before a booking), conditional logic (only if unpaid), or multiple sends across a lifecycle.

Q: How do I send different emails depending on a customer's status?

A: Build two automations on the same trigger with opposite Condition steps. For example: "if booking status = Arrived, send thank-you" and "if booking status is not Arrived, send no-show follow-up". Each automation's Condition halts the flow when it fails, so only one of the two sends fires for any given event.

Q: My template doesn't appear in the Send email picker. Why?

A: The picker only shows active templates. Open the template in the Email templates builder and click Save & activate. Drafts and archived templates aren't selectable.

Q: Why is Save & Activate disabled?

A: One of these is missing: 1) Automation name. 2) A trigger. 3) At least one step. 4) All steps fully configured. 5) The last step is a Send email. The button is enabled only when all five are true.

Q: What happens if a Condition fails?

A: The workflow halts. Subsequent steps don't run. No email is sent for that path. If you want a "do nothing else, send the other email" outcome, build two automations on the same trigger with opposite Conditions.

Q: Can I run two automations on the same trigger?

A: Yes. Each active automation evaluates independently on every matching event. This is also how you build conditional branching: two automations with opposite Condition steps.

Q: I activated an automation but no emails are firing. What should I check?

A: 1) Did a matching event actually happen since activation? (Past events don't fire.) 2) Is the automation status really active in the list? 3) Does the trigger match? (Check the trigger's description in the Select trigger modal.) 4) Is the Send email template active? 5) Are Conditions passing? (If any Condition fails, the workflow halts before reaching Send email.) 6) Is the From email's domain verified in Email settings?

Q: Can a Wait step span days?

A: Yes. Wait supports Minutes, Hours, Days, and Weeks. A Wait of 7 Days pauses for a full week.

Q: How do I test an automation before going live?

A: There's no native test-fire. Practical approach: save the automation as a draft, briefly activate it, perform the trigger action in a test record (e.g., create a test booking, send to a test customer), then deactivate. To test just the template rendering, use Send test email on the template in the Email templates builder.

Q: Will edits to an active automation affect runs already in flight?

A: Runs already in flight (e.g., a Schedule step waiting to fire 24 hours from now) keep the configuration they had at trigger time. Edits apply to new runs (events that happen after the edit). If you need to stop an in-flight run, deactivate the automation; in-flight runs that haven't reached Send email yet will halt.

Q: Can I send to multiple recipients in one step?

A: Yes when Send to is Company user email (pick individual users, one or more roles, or a mix) or Ticket watchers (everyone watching the ticket). Customer email, Custom email, and Gift card recipient email are single-recipient.

Q: How do I email a whole staff role, like every Game master, without maintaining the list by hand?

A: In the Company user email step, use the Select roles dropdown instead of (or alongside) Select company users. Pick one or more roles, and the automation sends to every active user in that location who holds a selected role. Membership is resolved each time the email is about to send, so staff added to the role automatically start receiving it and staff removed stop, with no edits to the automation. If a chosen role currently has no active members and no individual users are selected, that step is skipped safely. For scheduled or delayed sends, the recipient list reflects the roster at the moment the email actually goes out.

Q: What's the difference between Schedule and Wait?

A: Schedule fires the step at a date / time computed from a reference field on the trigger's data (e.g., "24 hours before Booking Start Date"). Wait pauses for a duration relative to the previous step (e.g., "wait 5 minutes after the previous step"). Schedule depends on a real-world date; Wait depends on the workflow itself.

Q: Can I add a Condition mid-workflow?

A: Yes. Conditions can be at any position. They're a stop signal: if the condition fails, the workflow halts; if it passes, the workflow continues. Use them anywhere you need a gate.

Q: How do I move an automation to other locations?

A: From the Automation tab, click the three-dot menu on the automation row and pick Copy to other groups. Pick the target groups; the automation (trigger + all steps) clones to each. After cloning, each group's copy is independent; edits to the original don't propagate.

Q: What if my trigger isn't in the catalog?

A: File a Support ticket describing the event you want to trigger on. New triggers are added regularly based on demand.

Q: Does the order of steps matter?

A: Yes. Steps run top to bottom in the order they appear on the canvas. A Wait or Schedule pauses the workflow at that point. A Condition that fails halts the workflow at that point. The last step must be Send email.

Q: Can I use the same template in multiple automations?

A: Yes. One template can be referenced by any number of Send email steps across automations. Edits to the template apply to future sends from any automation that uses it.

Q: How do I follow up with customers who abandon their cart?

A: Build an automation on the Cart category > Cart abandoned trigger. Add a Wait or Schedule step to set the delay (skipping these uses the built-in 60-minute default), optionally add a Condition step (e.g., "Cart value is greater than $50"), and end with Send email pointing at a recovery template. Customers who finish checkout before the delay elapses are automatically excluded, so no one gets a recovery email after they've paid.

Q: My Cart abandoned automation is firing too late. What's happening?

A: The countdown resets every time the customer touches the cart. If they're still actively adding or removing items, the timer keeps restarting; the send only happens after the cart has been quiet for the full delay. Shorten the Wait duration if you want faster follow-up. For example, use 2 minutes for very fast recovery, or 60 minutes for the default behavior.

Q: Do I still need the Simple emails Abandoned cart email if I have a Cart abandoned automation?

A: No, and they don't fire side by side. When a Cart abandoned automation is active, it supersedes the Simple emails Abandoned cart email for that workflow. The simple email keeps working as a fallback for any group without an active Cart abandoned automation, so nothing breaks if you haven't built one yet.

Q: Can I show the cart contents in the recovery email?

A: Yes. Cart value and item count are available to the email template, so you can render them in the message body. Use a custom Email template designed for cart recovery (showing the items and a link back to checkout) rather than a transaction-confirmation template.