🤖Automations

Automatic customer messages and follow-up work. Covers campaigns you build, Shortcut's built-in automations, and how to see exactly what each one did.

Automations send the right message, or create the right follow-up, at the right time, so nobody on your team has to remember.

Only company admins can open Automations. Open Settings → Operations → Automations (click your name at the bottom-left of the sidebar, then Settings), or type "Automations" into Jump to…. It opens inside Settings; click Back to Shortcut at the top of the settings list to return. Open Automations →

Automations lives under Settings → Operations. Review requests is pinned to the top of the list.

Two kinds of automation

Campaigns are the automations you build. Each one has three parts:

• a start, such as "an invoice becomes overdue"

• steps, such as "email them, wait 7 days, create a task if they still haven't paid"

• rules for how often it can run

You build a campaign from a template or from scratch, review it, then start it. Shortcut records everything the campaign does, message by message.

Built-in automations are the ready-made messages Shortcut has always sent, like Proposal Sent, Invoice Paid, and Day-Before Reminder. They show in the same list with a Library badge. If you built or duplicated your own automations before campaigns existed, those show with a Legacy badge. Both keep working exactly as they did. See Library and legacy automations.

Review requests has its own pinned row at the top of the list and its own settings page. See Review requests.

Campaigns are included on the current Shortcut plan and during your free trial. Some older plans can only switch the built-in automations on and off and edit their wording. On those plans the Templates tab says Editing is limited on your plan and there's no New campaign button. If your plan doesn't include automations, you'll see a preview of the page instead.

How a campaign works

1

Something starts it

Every campaign has at least one start. There are three kinds:

• When something happens: a business event, such as a visit being scheduled or an invoice becoming overdue.

• When customers meet conditions: Shortcut keeps checking and starts the campaign for each customer who newly matches your rules.

• On a date or schedule: a set date, a date relative to a record (like "3 days before a visit"), or a repeating schedule (like "every Monday at 9:00").

2

Each start becomes a run

A run is one trip through the campaign for one customer, or for one invoice, visit, or estimate. The campaign's Run settings decide how often the same customer or record can start a new run.

3

Steps do the work

Steps send emails and texts, wait, notify your team, create tasks, change tags and custom fields, and split into paths. Each step can have its own Only run when condition.

4

Everything is recorded

Every message gets a receipt: exactly what was sent, to whom, and what the email or text provider reported back. Every run shows the steps it took.

5

Changes only affect new runs

Each time you publish, the campaign gets a new version number (v1, v2, and so on). Runs already in progress finish on the version they started with. Only new starts use your changes.

To build one, see Build and publish a campaign. To see what one did, see Campaign results, activity, and receipts.

Campaign statuses

Status	What it means
Draft	Saved but never started. Nothing runs.
Live	Running. New customers who qualify start runs. The campaign's own page shows this as Active.
Stopped	Not accepting anyone new. Runs in progress were ended when you stopped it.
Archived	Stopped and hidden from the default list. History and receipts are kept.

The Automations list

The page has three tabs:

• Campaigns: everything, with Review requests pinned first.

• Templates: ready-to-edit starting points, grouped by what they're for. See Templates, starts, and steps.

• Needs attention: only campaigns with something to look at. The tab shows a count when there is one.

Use Search name or purpose to find something by name. The filter chips narrow the list:

Filter	Options
Status	Live, Draft, Stopped, Archived
Starts when	Something happens, Customers match conditions, A date or schedule
Channel	Email, SMS
Health	Healthy, Needs attention

Sort by Last updated, Name, or Runs. Archived campaigns are hidden unless you tick Archived in the Status filter.

Reading a row

Each row has five columns: Campaign · Starts when · Activity · Health · Updated.

• Campaign: a status icon (hover it to see Live, Draft, Stopped, or Archived), the name, and any badges: Library, Legacy, Built-in (Review requests), or Draft changes (a live campaign with saved edits that aren't published yet).

• Starts when: what starts it, for example Invoice paid or Lead created · or Customer tag added.

• Activity:

  • Campaigns show N runs and N delivered, or N need attention in red if something went wrong. These are all-time totals.

  • Library and legacy automations show N starts · 30d (starts in the last 30 days).

  • Review requests shows N sent and N clicked.

• Health: whether anything has gone wrong. It's separate from status: a live campaign can still need attention, and a stopped one can be perfectly fine.

• Updated: when it was last changed.

Health	What it means
Healthy	Nothing has gone wrong. Healthy · 3 active now means three runs are in progress.
N needs attention	At least one run failed, or at least one message failed, bounced, was blocked, or has an unknown outcome. Open Activity to see which.
Not published	A draft that has never been started.
Stopped	Not accepting new customers. For Review requests this reads Not active.
History retained	Archived. Its activity and receipts are kept.

The row menu

Click ⋮ on a row:

Row	Menu
Campaign	Open, Edit draft, Duplicate, Stop… (live), Restart… (stopped), Archive… or Restore… (archived)
Library	Open, Deactivate… or Activate
Legacy	Open, Duplicate, Deactivate… or Activate, Archive…
Review requests	No menu. Click the row to open its settings.

Duplicate on a campaign makes a new draft called [name] copy and opens it. Stop…, Restart…, Archive…, and Restore… ask you to confirm first. See Stop, restart, archive, and restore.

Library and legacy automations

Your built-in automations haven't been converted or switched off. They keep running as before, and new campaigns don't change them. The one exception is the day-before reminder, explained below.

The Library set (see what each one does):

• Proposal Sent, Proposal Reminder, Proposal Voided

• Job Scheduled, Job Rescheduled, Job Canceled, Day-Before Reminder

• Invoice Paid, Invoice Overdue, Payment Failed

• New Lead Welcome

Opening a Library or Legacy row takes you to the classic editor. There you can see how often it has triggered, change the wording of its messages (merge tags like {{FIRSTNAME}} and {{COMPANYNAME}} fill in the customer's details), and click Save changes, Deactivate, or Save & Activate. To make your own copy of a Library automation, use Duplicate from the ⋮ menu inside the classic editor. On some older plans you can only change the wording and timing there.

Library and legacy automations still open in the classic editor.

Avoid sending the same thing twice. If you build a campaign that does the same job as a Library automation, Deactivate the Library one. For example, an Overdue invoice recovery campaign next to Invoice Overdue, or a Visit reminder campaign next to Day-Before Reminder. Shortcut doesn't do this for you, except in the case below.

The day-before reminder is the one exception

If you publish a campaign that starts on Day before service (grouped per customer), it replaces the old Day-Before Reminder. You have to confirm this on the review screen. From then on:

• The old reminder never sends again, even if you later stop or archive the new campaign. If you stop the campaign, no day-before reminders go out at all until you restart it.

• Only one campaign can own the day-before reminder. To change it, edit that campaign.

• Shortcut won't let you switch over while old reminders are still waiting to send. Try again after they've gone out.

The new reminder goes out at the same time of day as the old one. It sends one message per customer covering all of their visits tomorrow.

Good to know

• Timing. Campaign texts to customers only go out between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM in the campaign's timezone. A text that's due overnight waits until 8:00 AM. Emails, and texts to your team, go out as soon as their step is reached. If time of day matters for those, add a Sending window step before the message. Every template that messages customers already has one, except Day-before service reminder, which goes out at the same time of day as the old reminder.

• Timezone. Each campaign uses the timezone in its Run settings, copied from your company timezone when the campaign is created. If your company timezone is ever corrected, update each campaign's Run settings too.

• Opted-out and bounced customers. These messages show as Skipped, not failed.

  • Texts: a customer who replied STOP, or a number your team has blocked, isn't texted by any automation, including campaigns, the day-before reminder, and review requests.

  • Emails are held for an address that bounced or marked you as spam, and for a customer who turned off that kind of email from you. A campaign's emails are billing, service, or marketing depending on what started the run: an invoice or payment start sends billing emails, a visit, service, estimate, or task start sends service emails, and a customer, lead, or tag start sends marketing emails. Of the Library automations, Invoice Overdue, Invoice Paid, and Payment Failed are billing emails, the proposal and job automations are service emails, and New Lead Welcome is a marketing email. See Which kind a campaign email is.

• Deactivated customers. Campaigns don't check whether a customer is active. If a campaign shouldn't reach former customers, add the rule Customer account status is active to its start.

• Manual payments. If a customer pays by cash or check, mark the invoice as paid so payment reminders stop.

• On your phone. In the Shortcut mobile app you can watch campaigns, open receipts, and stop a campaign or a single run. Building and publishing happen on the web.

Related pages

• Build and publish a campaign

• Templates, starts, and steps

• Campaign results, activity, and receipts

• Review requests

• Troubleshooting: an automation didn't fire

Still stuck? Email [e-mail] with the automation or campaign name, the customer name, and a screenshot of its Activity tab.