Automations allow you to automate actions in your project's life cycle, sending out emails, creating internal tasks, or sending certain files at the cadence of your choice... while still allowing room for your personal touch to shine through!

In this article, we’ll review:

Automations are sets of automated steps that handle pieces of your business process, so you don’t need to oversee every element. Each step in an automation consists of an action (such as sending an email or document, or creating an internal task), and a trigger (the activity that causes the action to fire, and the timing for that firing).

From your automations dashboard in HoneyBook, you’ll create any number of automations that can then be applied at various points in any project’s lifecycle. An automation can be applied to a project in a couple different ways, by setting it to begin:

Once applied, the automation’s steps will run based on the actions, triggers, and timing you set up.

So, for example, you may have an automation that is set to activate when a contact form inquiry comes in, with the first step set to send an email 2 hours after activation; so, 2 hours after submitting a contact form, a client will automatically receive the predetermined email from you!

The short version? Automations let you keep control of the process where you want to, and automate the parts of your business that don’t need as much personal attention, getting rid of hours of administrative work per week—so you can spend more time on the parts of the business that you love.

Each automation can begin/be activated in three ways:

From your automations dashboard, you can designate which automations are activated by incoming contact form inquiries and lead form submissions.

So, for example, you may have a standard “Welcome Automation” that you assign all incoming inquiries. Or, you can create different automations that are specific to different project types, allowing, for example, your web design clients to automatically get a different email and file than your branding clients.

For automations that don’t need to activate as soon as an inquiry comes in, you can apply them to projects manually (and make edits to the automation’s sequence before activating, if you need!). Once the automation has been applied, it will begin running based on the actions, triggers, and timing you set up.

So, for example, if you’ve applied an automation with a step that sends an email 2 days after a contract is signed, you can apply the automation at any point pre-signing. That way, it’s ready to begin running 2 days after your client signs their contract, whenever that may be.

With all the action, trigger, and timing options you have at your disposal, the sky’s the limit with automations! Here are a few examples to get the wheels turning.

New inquiry kick-off automation

Post-booking automation

Post-project feedback automation

1-year check-in automation

Got the gist? Now, it’s time to build out some automations and get that ball rolling! Here’s everything you need to know about creating and activating your automations.

Still have questions? Feel free to send us a message by clicking the Question Mark icon on any HoneyBook page. Our team is always happy to help!