On Monday, Marta opens the accounting office's inbox again. In a six-person team, someone has to spot the invoices, save the attachments, and check that no email has been missed - and in September Marta counted 94 such messages. Task automation can take the repetitive steps off her hands, if mail, files and tasks are all in the same program.
Task automation starts at the boundary of the program
If you want to save an attachment from Mail into a Task Manager folder, you can set up a rule within the program. If it's meant to connect apps from different providers, you need an integration tool such as Zapier. Zapier offers a catalogue of over 9,000 integrations - an advantage that Task Manager's built-in Automations don't replace.
So Marta doesn't start with the question "which apps should I connect?". She first writes down the path of a single matter: an email with an attachment arrives in her inbox, the file goes into a folder, and she gets a notification. All of this can happen within Task Manager, without adding an external service for this particular path.
Things look different in a company where an order is placed in a shop, stock levels sit in a separate warehouse system, and the result has to be entered into a spreadsheet. In that case, Zapier's broad catalogue of integrations becomes practically important.
WHEN - IF - DO: one recipe, three decisions
A rule in Task Manager starts with a WHEN event, is narrowed down by IF conditions, and ends with DO actions. This order lets you read a recipe like an instruction for a colleague, rather than decoding a connection diagram.
WHEN defines the starting point. It can be a task being created, a status change, an approaching due date, silence on a task, a new message, a mention, an added attachment, an event in Calendar, a new email, or a chosen time on selected days of the week. For invoices dropped into a chat, choose "Attachment added", not "New message": the program first saves the message, and only then uploads the file. An image pasted into the body of a message is not an attachment and won't trigger this rule.
IF filters out events that don't match. You can check the workspace, status, assigned person, author, or file name; for mail - the sender and subject of the email. Different conditions are combined with "and": each one must be met. The exception is the single "contains" field - entering faktur, fv, rozliczen means just one of these phrases is enough.
If on Tuesday Marta enters "invoice" as a condition, the rule won't catch "invoices" or "invoicing", because it looks for a text fragment, not word inflections. The stem "invoic" would cover those forms. When you need two different sets of conditions joined by "or", set up two recipes.
DO defines what the program does once the conditions are passed. Among other things, it can create a task, save attachments to a folder, add a note, show a notification, or send an email from the author's own inbox. There can be up to 10 actions, and they run in order. If a message is meant to go into a new task, set "Create task" first, and only then the action of writing the message.
You can tell the AI Assistant a rule in one sentence
You don't have to arrange all the cards by hand: the AI Assistant will prepare a draft from a plain-sentence description. The draft stays unsaved and switched off, so the instruction alone doesn't trigger the automation.
Marta can write: "I want every file that comes into the Accounting chat to be saved to the FV folder, and for me to get a notification saying 'FV has been saved'." The Assistant will draft the name, trigger, conditions and actions, and will show a "Go to Automations" card beneath the reply. Only clicking the card opens the window with the draft.
Then Marta adds: "Change the folder to Invoices" or "Remove the notification." She can also ask for a condition relating to the PDF's file name. She refers to names the way her team does - "Accounting chat", "FV folder", "Kasia Dąbrowska" - and if the program can't match one of them, she'll see a note above the draft. Before saving, read through the whole WHEN - IF - DO layout. Describing an intent and confirming an action are two separate steps.
If you'd rather start from a template, open Automations using the views icon in the top bar and click “+”. The library includes, among others, “Invoice from email → folder (AI)”, “Issue report → task” and “Friday weekly summary (AI)”. A template also opens as an unsaved draft; some require you to pick a workspace or chat. Items marked “(AI)” appear once AI is configured, and mail-related ones once you have access to Mail. More scenarios are shown in automation described in plain words.
Three recurring tasks, three different recipes
An invoice, a customer enquiry and a weekly report can each be handled by three separate recipes. Each has its own starting point and outcome, so it's easier to check them individually than to build one rule for everything.
Tuesday: invoice attachment. Marta sets up WHEN "New email in inbox", IF "Has attachment" and "AI evaluates: does the attachment look like an invoice". DO saves the attachment to Invoices / {{rok}} / {{miesiac}} and shows her a notification. Missing folders are created on save, and a file with the same name and size is skipped as a duplicate. This is an example with an AI condition, so it requires a configured model; based on the file name alone and the available context, you shouldn't expect every invoice to be recognised with certainty.
Wednesday: an e-mail from a client. Piotr handles customer enquiries in an eight-person team. He sets WHEN "New e-mail in inbox", IF the sender contains the client's domain, and THEN, in sequence: create a task in the chosen workspace with an assigned person and a due date of +2 days, add the message to its thread and save the attachments in Enquiries / {{rok}} / {{miesiac}}. The task's subject and content can be filled in with the variables {{mail.temat}} and {{mail.tresc}} - a variable is a field into which the program inserts data from the current e-mail. The task stays linked to the correspondence. However, this recipe won't read a due date from the e-mail content, nor will it choose the responsible person based on it. If different enquiries should go to different people, Piotr creates separate rules with different conditions. You can also read about this kind of handover between the inbox and the task list in the article an e-mail that creates a task.
Friday, 3pm: the state of the week. Kasia selects a chat in the “Friday weekly summary (AI)” template. At that time, AI writes there what's been completed, what's in progress and what's overdue. This is a different kind of work than moving a file: the result is text prepared by the model, so AI needs to be configured before using the template.
A rule can also save the result of AI's work as a note. The screen below shows a report about a lead in the Leads folder.
AI can assess events, but it doesn't read the contents of a file in this condition
The “AI assesses” condition is useful when a rigid phrase isn't enough to make a decision. It doesn't, however, look inside the attachment: it receives, among other things, the sender, subject, author, a fragment of the content and file names, and then answers “yes” or “no”. When unsure, it answers “no”.
The instruction “does the attachment look like an invoice” in Marta's recipe doesn't mean reading line items and amounts from the PDF. If a client names the file scan001.pdf and doesn't mention an invoice in the message, AI may have no grounds to let it through. It's better to see such a case in the History as a skip than to assume the model read the document.
The AI condition is checked last, after the other filters. An administrator can set a daily limit of AI requests from Automations in Settings → AI; by default it's 200, and once it's used up, recipes with AI are skipped for that day with an entry in the History. Recipes without AI elements don't need a model key.
If you add a chosen note or folder as a knowledge source to the “Write a message via AI” action, their content will be sent to the model for matching events. Task Manager runs on your own server, but it sends the request with context to the chosen AI provider using your own key - OpenAI, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude or xAI Grok. Before attaching correspondence or documents, check what reaches the AI provider.
“Test” shows you the mistake before you make it for real
The “Test” button takes recent events matching the trigger and shows which ones would pass the conditions and what messages might be produced. It doesn't execute or send anything, so you can refine the phrase or the order of actions before saving the enabled rule.
Once running, check the History from time to time. For 30 days it shows runs completed along with their steps, runs skipped along with the condition that stopped them, and errors with the server's message. With mail, remember the distinction: an email rejected by a filter set at the trigger stage won't appear in the History; an email stopped by an IF condition will be visible there with the reason.
A rule can be enabled and still do nothing - for example, if a client changed how they title their emails. After 48 hours without a run, the program shows information about the last run and the rejected events. After more than a week since the rule was enabled, the trigger may cover at least 10 events without a single run. In that case, you'll get a notification in the Notification Centre stating the condition that was stopping it.
There are also permission limits. A recipe acts as its author: it won't write into a task the author has no access to, and it won't cover someone else's inbox - even when the recipe is edited by an administrator, because it still runs with the author's permissions. After three errors in a row it's paused; an hourly run limit protects it from a flood of events. You can check the reason in the History instead of guessing whether the automation is still working.
Task Manager or Zapier: choose based on where the work happens
Task Manager suits rules about work inside its own tasks, chats, Mail, Files and Calendar. Zapier has a broader integration scope when a process passes through apps from different providers; its directory covers over 9,000 apps.
| Question | Task Manager | Zapier |
|---|---|---|
| Where does the automation run? | In the program installed on your own server. | In the Zapier service connecting apps. |
| What does it cover? | Events and actions inside Task Manager, including the author's own Mail. | Flows between apps from a directory of over 9,000 integrations. |
| How do you pay? | Automations are included in the Pro tier. The licence is perpetual, the per-seat fee is one-off, and after 12 months the update renewal is optional. | Pricing lists Free, Professional, Team and Enterprise plans, along with billing based on task usage. |
| What limits the runs? | The administrator sets an hourly run limit; for AI elements, a separate daily request limit is set. | The Free plan includes 100 tasks per month; paid plans let you choose a usage tier. Not every flow run counts as one billed task. |
| How do you enable AI? | The program works without AI; if you use it, you rely on your own key with the model provider. | Zapier offers AI tools as part of its platform. |
Don't compare Zapier's “100 tasks” figure with the number of tasks on your team's list. Zapier's pricing refers to automation usage units, not company matters to complete; how they're counted depends on the flow's steps.
For a team of up to 20 people, the Pro plan of Task Manager costs 3,990 PLN. In exchange, you also get Mail and Files, but not Zapier's integration catalogue. The n8n integration in Task Manager is experimental and switched off by default - don't treat it as a promise of ready-made connections to third-party systems. If you want to check the scope of this module itself, see Automations in Task Manager. Zapier is a name and trademark belonging to its owner.
Tomorrow, pick one activity, not the whole process
Tomorrow, write down three activities you've done manually more than five times in the past week, and pick one that happens inside Task Manager. Describe it to the AI Assistant in one sentence, check the draft with the "Test" button, refine the conditions, and only then click "Save". Want to see the programme first? Open the Demo.
Frequently asked questions
Are Automations included in every Task Manager plan?
No, Automations are available in the Pro variant, together with Mail and Files. The Classic plan in this variant covers a team of up to 20 people and costs PLN 3,990 under the perpetual licence model.
Do I need to know how to code to build a rule?
No, you choose an event, conditions and actions in a WHEN - IF - DO layout, or describe your intent to the AI Assistant. The draft it prepares does not work until you save it.
Can someone else trigger an automation on my inbox?
No, a mail recipe reacts only to its author's own inbox. An administrator can edit the recipe, but cannot make it run on someone else's mail.
Can I check a rule before it starts working?
Yes, "Test" shows the likely outcome based on recent events, without carrying out or sending anything. Once it's running, you can check runs and reasons for skips in History for 30 days.
Will task automation in Task Manager replace Zapier?
Yes, if you're automating work inside Task Manager; no, if you need to connect many external apps. Zapier offers a catalogue of over 9,000 integrations, while Task Manager's built-in Automations cover events and actions within its own program.
Sources
- Task Manager, Automations - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/automatyzacje (accessed: 2026-10-01).
- Task Manager, Automation described in words - https://taskmanager.pl/use-cases/automatyzacja-opisana-slowami (accessed: 2026-10-01).
- Task Manager, AI in automations - https://taskmanager.pl/ai/ai-w-automatyzacjach (accessed: 2026-10-01).
- Task Manager, pricing - https://taskmanager.pl/#pricing (accessed: 2026-10-01).
- Zapier, Plans & Pricing - https://zapier.com/pricing (accessed: 2026-10-01).
- Zapier, Apps and Software Integrations - https://zapier.com/apps (accessed: 2026-10-01).
- Zapier, How is task usage measured in Zapier? - https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496196837261-How-is-task-usage-measured-in-Zapier (accessed: 2026-10-01).
The Task Manager Team - we write about teamwork, AI in business and keeping tasks organised, using examples from Task Manager, software installed on your own server. Task Manager has been developed by Blue Creation Group (Piotr Łącz) since 2013 and is used by organisations including Neonet, the Military University of Technology and Polpharma - read customer reviews. We check our articles against the user guide and the latest version of the software.
