How do Automations work in Task Manager?
Automation in Task Manager can take some of the work off your hands when handling form submissions. A submission arrives by email. Someone has to read it, copy the company details into a note and create a task due tomorrow. As submissions increase, these tasks take up more and more time.
Automations is a module of the Pro variant. A Recipe has three parts: WHEN something happens, IF conditions are met, DO actions. You don't have to build it from blocks. You can tell the AI Assistant: “I want all files that arrive in the Accounting chat to be saved to the Invoices folder, and to get a notification saying ‘Invoice has been saved’.” The Assistant will prepare a draft with a name, trigger, conditions and actions.
The draft is unsaved and disabled. The recipe won’t run until you click Save. You decide whether the rule can take actions on your behalf.
What does setting up a rule look like?
When you ask the Assistant for a rule based on the materials you specify, it lays out a plan in steps: WHEN, IF, DO. If the Automations window is closed and the plan looks right, click the “Go to Automations” card and save the draft. If not, reply: “Change the folder to Invoices”, “Add a condition that the file must be a PDF” or “Remove the notification”. If the Automations window is open, your changes are applied to the draft straight away, without a card. You can specify a name such as “Accounting chat”, “Invoices folder” or “Kasia Dąbrowska”. The app will find the right item, and list any names it doesn’t recognise in the notes above the draft.
A condition doesn’t have to be a fixed filter. Alongside priority, status or a phrase in the subject, there’s “AI evaluates (custom condition)”. You can ask whether an attachment looks like an invoice. AI can see the sender, subject, author, part of the message, event title and attachment names, but it doesn’t look inside files. It answers “yes” or “no”; if it’s unsure, it chooses “no”. This condition is checked last, after the other filters, so you don’t pay for unnecessary queries.
Before enabling a recipe, the Test button checks recent events that match the trigger and shows what would happen. It doesn’t perform or send anything. Later, in History, you can see the steps performed, the condition that stopped a skipped run, or a server error message. Entries are kept for 30 days.
What do you gain?
You don’t have to copy each submission from an email into a note and task. Instead of going back to the message between meetings, you can read the prepared summary and follow up with the contact.
You don’t need someone who knows how to build rules. Describe what should happen as you would to a new person on your team. If the plan doesn’t meet your needs, say what to change.
When you’re not checking your email, a submission can still be added to a prepared note or task. However, the rule only applies to your mailbox, and the task goes to the person specified in advance. If your recipe encounters an error, you’ll be notified after the first error in a series, rather than finding out about the problem from a customer.
Use case: a form lead becomes a note and a task
The office receives submissions from a website form. In the template library, under +, there are two recipes in the *Sales and leads* category. The first, *Form lead → note (AI)*, recognises the submission, writes a report on who is getting in touch, what they need and what the first step could be, then saves it as a note in the Leads folder. You don’t need to fill anything in, but you can change the folder.
The second, *New lead → follow-up task (AI)*, uses the same recognition to create a task with high priority and a due date of tomorrow. You choose the Workspace before saving. Both recipes open as unsaved drafts, so you can review them.
A recipe that creates a task from an email won’t read a due date from the message or choose an assignee based on the submission. You set the due date as *+N days* from when the email arrives, and assign the person you specify. If submissions need to go to different people, create several recipes with different conditions based on the sender or subject.
Frequently asked questions
Are Automations included in the Standard plan?
No, it is a module in the Pro plan.
Will a recipe created by the Assistant start running on its own?
No. The Assistant prepares an unsaved, disabled draft. The recipe will only start running once you review it and click Save.
Do I have to use AI for the condition?
No. You can set a condition based on priority, status, Workspace, a phrase in the subject or message, sender, file name or event time. “AI evaluates” is one of the options. The *Incident report → task* template uses the keywords “incident”, “urgent” and “not working”.
What happens if a recipe starts making mistakes or runs too often?
After three consecutive errors, the recipe is automatically paused, and you receive a notification and an email. It is also paused if it exceeds the hourly run limit.
Will an automation access someone else’s email?
No. A recipe only responds to messages in the creator’s mailboxes and runs with their permissions. It won’t write to someone else’s task or add a task to someone else’s Workspace. Even an administrator can’t do that.