Automations: reminders, alerts and follow-ups

Choose Automations in the menu on the left. The Library tab opens on Most popular, the ones most teams turn on first. The categories on the left sort the rest:

Each card says when it runs (the amber tag) and what it does (the grey tags). Search automations at the top right finds one by name. Everything lists them all.

The bottom of each card says how much it takes:

• Works right away: choose Turn on. “Nudge signers after 3 days” is on appears, with Adjust to change it straight away. The card now says On.
• Takes a minute to set up: choose Set up. The automation opens with the part that needs filling in already open, for example the email addresses finance gets, a Slack webhook link or the next template to send. Fill it in and choose Turn on, or Save, leave off to turn it on later.

An automation you've added keeps its Adjust button on the library card, and shows On, or Added, off when it's switched off. Once added, the card shows what your automation does now: its When and its steps. If you changed them from the ready-made version, it reads On · adjusted; choose adjusted to see it in Your automations. Filling in what it needed to set up (like a webhook link) doesn't count as a change.

Choose Adjust on the card, or ••• → Edit in Your automations. The automation reads top to bottom like a sentence, and the line under its name says the whole thing in words.

1. 1Click the name at the top and type your own, for example *Remind signers until they sign*.
2. 2Open When to choose what starts it: something that happens right away (It's sent, A signer opens it, Everyone has signed, A signer declines, Someone asks a question and more) or After some time (Not signed after a while, Nobody opened it, Opened but not signed, Before the links expire, After everyone signed).
3. 3For a time-based one, type the number of days in the box. For reminders, choose Repeat until it's signed, then set how often and how many times, for example again every 2 days, up to 3 times. Don't repeat goes back to once.
4. 4Open Only for to narrow it down: Documents made from one or more templates (or Any template), Only documents sent from Salesforce, or Only when the total is at least an amount. Leave it on All documents for everything.
5. 5Open each Then step to change what it does. Add another step adds up to ten, and the arrows and bin on a step move or remove it.
6. 6Choose Save. Automation saved appears.

See how it runs, under the name, plays the automation out day by day on a sample document, with each email shown the way people will get it. Names, dates and amounts in it are examples. Nothing is sent: automations don't have a test mode, so this is the way to check one before it runs.

Reminders and emails come as your standard company email: your logo, the message and a button. To change the words, open the step under Then:

• Remind the signers: type a line under Note in the reminder (optional). It's shown above the reminder's own text. The subject and the Review and sign button stay the same.
• Send an email: choose who gets it under To (The sender (rep), The signers, Owners and admins or These people… with their addresses), then change Subject and Message. The buttons under Message, like + Document title and + Customer company, add fields that fill in from each document. Check Attach the signed PDF (once everyone has signed) to send the signed copy with it.

To change how it looks, choose Design email on the step (Edit design once it has one). The designer shows the email on the right as people will get it, with your logo, brand color and company name, filled in with sample names. If your logo and colors can't be loaded (for example, the connection drops), the preview says so with Try again instead of showing a stand-in.

1. 1Under Look, choose Standard, Banner, Card, Minimal or Letter.
2. 2Under Accent color, pick a color for the button and banner. The first one is your brand color; the pipette picks any color, or type a hex value.
3. 3Optional: under Background pick a page color, and under Top of the email choose Show your logo, Color band, Your cover photo or Upload a picture (up to 2 MB; about 1200 × 400 px works best), and Left aligned or Centered.
4. 4Under Words, change the Heading, the Message (or the reminder's note), the Button text and an optional Footer. Clear the button text to hide the button.
5. 5Choose the phone icon above the preview to see it on a phone, then Use this design.
6. 6Back in the automation, choose Save. The design is only kept once the automation is saved.

Your automations lists every automation you've added, what it does, how many times it ran and when it last ran. If its last run couldn't do something, the reason is shown in red under it.

• Pause: turn off its switch. “Remind signers until they sign” is off appears. It keeps its settings and its history.
• Turn it back on: turn the switch on again. It starts fresh: a time-based one doesn't catch up on the days it was off.
• Edit: choose •••, then Edit, change it and choose Save.
• Delete: choose •••, then Delete, and OK when your browser asks. Its activity is deleted with it. Automation deleted appears.

The Activity tab shows everything your automations did, newest first: which automation, which document (click it to open the document), what each step did, and the outcome. Choose Refresh to see new runs.

Each run is also written in the document's history, as Automation “Signed: email the rep”: Emailed Avery Brooks.

Until Salesforce is connected (Settings → Salesforce), the library only shows automations that work without it. Once it's connected, three more categories appear, Salesforce updates, Revenue Cloud and Automatic sends, along with Renewal task in Salesforce at 11 months under After signing and Flag expired quotes in Salesforce under Deal hygiene.

Salesforce automations only act on documents sent from Salesforce. Only for can narrow one to a single object, for example From Quotes.

• Each automation runs once per document, and once per repeat for reminders. One on It's sent runs again when an edited document is sent again.
• Time-based automations only cover documents that reach that point after you turn them on, so turning one on never reminds a pile of old documents. They're checked every few minutes.
• Reminders stop on their own once the document is signed, declined or voided, and aren't sent once the signing links have expired.
• Opening or signing your own document never counts as the customer opening or signing it.
• An internal note from your team never reaches the customer: steps that would email the signers or anyone outside your company are skipped for it.
• Everything an automation does, including anything it couldn't do and why, is in Activity and in the document's history.