Purpose: Learn how to add a new Automation for your business workflow, edit, and delete an Automation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Prerequisites
• How to Add, Edit, and Delete Automations
  • How to Add an Automation
  • How to Edit an Automation
  • How to Delete an Automation
• Automations Best Practices
• Related Articles
• Still Need Help?

Prerequisites

Before learning to create and manage your own Automations, make sure to review the following guides:

✅ Getting Started with Kizen Automations

✅ Automations Steps: Conditions

✅ Automation Steps: Goals
✅ Automation Steps: Delays

✅ Automation Steps: Actions

How to Add, Edit, and Delete Automations

How to Add an Automation

1. Click on the “Automations” tab in the top toolbar menu.
   
   

2. Click on the “New Automation” button in the top right:
   
   

   
   

   
   
   

3. Add an Automation Name (Make sure to call your automation something unique, yet simple so that its purpose is clear, e.g. “New Client Follow-up,” “Contract Validation Workflow,” “Birthday email,” etc.):
   
   

4. Choose the Automation Object from the dropdown menu. You can select the relevant object, whether it’s Contacts and any of your Custom Objects, where the Automation will trigger. (For example, you would only want that “New Client Follow-up” automation to trigger for your Contacts object.) 
   
   

5. [Optional] Choose the “Additional Error Notification Email” and “Folder”:

   1. If the Automation you created fails, you will receive a notification email by default, but you can also choose to add an Additional Error Notification Email recipient. Otherwise, you can leave this blank.

   2. Once you add more Automations, you may choose to organize them in Folders (for example, by different objects, different teams, or specific workflows). Otherwise, you can leave this blank.
      
      

6. Then, click "Save."
   
   

7. In the Automation builder, click on “Click to add new trigger” in the Trigger step.
   
   

   
   

   
   

8. Under “Choose Trigger,” select the event that you would like to automatically start the Automation.
   
   

9. Then, complete the Trigger Settings (the available options will differ based on the trigger you have chosen).
   
   

10. Cick on the “Save” button.
    
    

11. [Optional] Click on “Initialize Variables” to define variables that will fill in fields later on in the Automation — but this is totally optional, so you can skip this step.
    
    

12. Click on the “+” button > "Add Action" or click on the "Action" block under the Automation name at the top to drag and drop to add an Action (and if you’d like, Conditions, Delays, and Goals as well).
    
    

    
    Check our guide on Automation Actions to select the most relevant Action for your needs.

    
    

13. Click on the "Save" button in the upper right corner, and when you’re ready for the automation to run, toggle the “Active?” button on.
    
    

    
    

How to Edit an Automation

1. Click on the “Automations” tab in the top toolbar menu.
   

2. Click into the search bar and type the Automation name, or scroll to find the Automation you would like to edit.
   

3. Click on the Automation Name. This will bring you to the Automation builder.
   
   
   

4. From there, you can make the following changes:

   1. To edit an existing Automation step, click on the “...” icon next to the relevant step > Edit and make the necessary changes. Don’t forget to click “Save”!
      
      

   2. To delete an existing Automation step, click on the “...” icon next to the relevant step > Delete.
      
      

   3. To reorder existing Automation steps, hover over the left-hand side on the step you would like to move, and a drag and drop icon should appear. Drag and drop the step to the new location in the automation.
      
      

   4. To add a new Automation step, click the + icon or drag & drop Actions, Conditions, Delays, and/or Goals.
      
      

   5. Click “Save” in the upper right corner.

⚠️ Note: Adding a step to an Automation only applies to future object records for that Automation, except in these scenarios: Object records currently on a Delay step will start the new steps if the new step is placed after the Delay. Object records currently waiting on a Goal step will start new steps if the new step is placed after the Goal.

How to Delete an Automation

1. Click on the “Automations” tab in the top toolbar menu.
   

2. Click into the search bar and type the Automation name, or scroll to find the Automation you would like to edit.
   

3. Click on the "..." menu under the "Actions" column for the specific Automation you want to delete and click on "Archive":
   
   
   

4. Click on the "Confirm Archive" button. This will permanently delete the Automation.
   
   

Automations Best Practices

We absolutely encourage you to experiment and build an Automation workflow that accomplishes your business goals, but it’s important to prevent confusion when setting up complex workflows.

1. ✅  Give your Automations easy-to-understand names and add descriptions to each step in your Automation.
   
   As you add more Automations to your Kizen account, this can lead to confusion about the purpose and functionality of each Automation. Give your Automations names that will make their purpose clear to everyone in your team, and take advantage of the “Additional Description” box in every component so that you and your team understand the exact purpose of each step. This will also make troubleshooting much easier if an Automation does not work as expected for you.
2. ❌ Avoid redundant or repetitive Automation steps.
   
   Think of Kizen’s user-friendly Automation modules like a flow chart; anytime you edit or add a new step, make sure to go back to the beginning and review the entire Automation workflow so that there aren’t any redundant or missing steps.
3. ❌  Avoid giving multiple team members editing access to your Automations.
   
   If there are multiple people working within your account, we recommend taking advantage of specifying Permissions so that unauthorized team members are unable to edit existing or add new Automations.