Automations: let Bitrack do the next step

Automations do the routine next step for you. When a task moves to In Review, Bitrack can hand it to the project lead. When a checklist is complete, the task can move on by itself. When an agreement is signed by both sides, Bitrack can start the project, invoice the first payment and invite your client to the portal.

You’ll find them under Automations in the sidebar. You need the Manage automations right, which Owners and Admins have by default. You can give it to other roles in Team & Access.

#Ready-made automations

The Ready-made tab has automations you can switch on with one click:

Automation	What it does
Draft the agreement when a proposal is accepted	The agreement is ready the moment your client says yes, with the fees they chose. On for every workspace, as Bitrack has always worked.
Kick off a signed agreement	When both sides have signed: starts the project, invoices the first payment and invites your client to the portal.
Chase overdue lead follow-ups	When a lead’s next step slips past its date, its owner is reminded that morning.
Tell the project lead about overdue tasks	When a task slips past its due date, the project lead knows the same morning.
Tell the project lead when a ticket misses its target	When a ticket goes past its response target, the project lead is told as well as the assignee.

To switch one on or off, use its switch. To change how it works, choose Options. For example, in Kick off a signed agreement you can pick who leads the new project and a task template to start it with, whether the first invoice is a draft, goes for approval or is sent right away, and whether your client joins the portal as an admin or a member.

#Start from a template

Under the ready-made automations, Start from a template has common task rules, such as:

• When a task moves to In Review, assign it to the project lead.
• When every checklist item is ticked, move the task to In Review.
• When the last task in a milestone is done, tell the client’s account lead.
• Give a task created without a due date one 3 working days out.
• Every Monday at 9:00, create a “Weekly report” task in a project you pick.
• Two days past its due date, raise a task to High priority and tell the project lead.
• Two days before a task is due, remind its assignee.
• When an urgent ticket is opened, create a task for its assignee.

Choosing one opens the editor filled in, in test mode. Check it (pick a project or a status if it asks), then choose Save. Nothing runs until you save it.

#Build your own

1. Go to Automations and choose New automation.
2. Under When, pick what starts it. The triggers are grouped: Tasks, Schedules, Leads, Proposals, Agreements, Invoices and Tickets. Some have options of their own, for example a status change from and to a status, an assignment to a particular person, or how many days before a due date.
3. Under For, choose The whole workspace, or Only some of it and pick projects, clients or services, or once you have teams, teams. It then runs only on work in one of them.
4. Under If (optional), add conditions, for example Priority is High, Labels has Design, or for tasks Team and Stage. Every condition in a group must match. Choose Or another group for a second set: it runs when any group matches.
5. Under Then, add the steps, in order. Which steps you see depends on the trigger.
6. Give it a name and choose Save.

As you build it, the box at the bottom reads it back as a sentence, so you can check it says what you mean.

What can start it

Tasks	Everything else
A task is created	A new lead comes in, moves to another stage, is won or is lost
A task’s status changes (from, to)	A lead’s next step is overdue
A task is assigned (to anyone, or to one person)	A proposal is accepted; an agreement is signed by both sides
A task’s priority or due date changes	An invoice is sent, partly paid, paid in full or becomes overdue
Someone comments on a task	A ticket is opened, changes status, is assigned or changes priority
A task’s checklist is complete	A ticket misses its response target; all of a ticket’s tasks are done
All tasks in a milestone are done
A task’s due date is coming up (days before)
A task becomes overdue (or is some days overdue)
On a schedule

All tasks in a milestone are done is about the task that finished the milestone, so every task step works on it. Use {milestone.name} to name the milestone in a message.

All of a ticket’s tasks are done starts when the last task linked to a ticket is finished (see Work with tickets). The ready-made Resolve tickets when their tasks are done resolves the ticket and tells its owner.

On a schedule runs every day, every weekday, every week on a day you pick or every month on a date, at an hour in your workspace’s time zone (see Region and currency). Pick the project it’s for, or none: then a Create a task step must name the project.

What it can check

For tasks: the project, the client, the status, the priority, the labels (has or doesn’t have), the assignee (a person, or nobody), the milestone, the title, whether there’s a due date, and your own task fields (see Services, tags and custom fields). Leads, tickets and invoices have their own, such as a lead’s stage and value or a ticket’s priority.

What it can do

• Tasks: set the status, assign it (to a person, the project lead, who set it off, or taking turns between people you pick), unassign it, set the priority, add or remove labels, set the due date (in some days or working days, or clear it), add checklist items, move it to a milestone (by name, in its own project), add a comment, create a task (in the same project or one you pick, with a title, assignee, due date, priority and labels), and add the tasks of a task template.
• Leads: move to a stage, set the next step, give the lead an owner (taking turns between the people you pick).
• Tickets: assign it, send it to a team, set its priority, add an internal note, resolve it.
• Agreements: start the project, invoice the first payment, invite the client to the portal.
• Anything: notify people (by their role in the work, such as the assignee, the project lead, everyone on the project or a ticket’s collaborators, or by name), and send to a webhook.

A comment an automation adds shows as Automation: and its name. Bitrack has no subtasks, so Add tasks from a template puts the template’s tasks in the same project and milestone, each with a link back to the task it belongs to.

Values in messages

Messages, comments, notes, next steps and task titles can include values that are filled in when it runs. Choose Insert value under the box to add one, for example {task.title}, {task.url}, {task.status}, {task.assignee}, {task.due}, {project.name}, {client.name}, {trigger.user} (who set it off), {lead.company}, {ticket.subject} or {invoice.number}. {name} is the name of whatever it’s about.

Values are always plain text: any formatting or code in a task title is left out, so it can’t change how a comment or notification looks.

#Webhooks

A webhook sends what happened to another system, such as Zapier, Make or your own server. The Webhooks tab is there for people who have both Manage automations and Connect & configure in Integrations (see Integrations), because it sends your workspace’s data outside Bitrack.

1. In Webhooks, choose Add a webhook, give it a name and its https address.
2. Copy the secret it shows you into the other system. You only see it this once. If it’s lost, choose the renew button: the old secret stops working straight away.
3. In any automation, add the step Send to a webhook and pick it.

Each delivery is a JSON message with the event and the record’s main details (for a task: its title, status, priority, due date, assignee, labels, project and client). It never includes rates, costs, margins or passwords. It’s signed: the X-Bitrack-Signature header is sha256= followed by the HMAC-SHA256 of the X-Bitrack-Timestamp header, a full stop and the message body, using your secret.

For your safety, Bitrack only sends to addresses on the public internet over https, waits at most 5 seconds, doesn’t follow redirects, and sends at most 60 a minute to one webhook. If the other side is down, it tries again up to 3 more times, waiting a little longer each time. Every try is in the run log.

#Try it, and test mode

• Try it runs the automation once on your most recent matching record, changing nothing, and shows what each step would do.
• Test mode keeps it running in the background the same way: every run is recorded, nothing is created or sent. Switch test mode off when you’re happy with it.

#See what it did

The Activity tab lists every run: what started it, the record it acted on, and each step with Done, Failed, Skipped or Test. Filter by automation, or choose Problems to see only runs where a step failed. Runs are kept for 90 days.

#Built to be safe

• It acts with your rights. An automation does only what the person who last saved it could do by hand, step by step, and that is checked again on every run. If you lose a right, that step fails and you’re told. Whoever saves or switches on an automation becomes the person it runs as.
• It pauses when it should. If the person it runs as leaves the workspace, or it runs more than 200 times in an hour, Bitrack pauses it and tells you. Choose Resume to start it again (it will then run as you).
• No loops. One automation can set off another (a status change that sets a priority that sets off another rule), but a chain stops after three links, and an automation never runs twice on the same record in one chain.
• Each event once. Something that happens once, like a ticket being opened, gets one run per record. Something that can happen again and again, like a status change, gets one run each time, and the same change arriving twice is still one run. A due date reminder is sent once for each due date.
• Nothing old floods in. Overdue triggers only look at the last week (two weeks for invoices), so switching one on doesn’t fire it on everything that was ever late.

#Related

• Rules & SLAs
• A task in detail
• Roles and permissions
• Integrations
• Create an agreement