Add an Automation Rule in the Task Workspace

What's in this Article

• Add an Automation Rule to a Task
• Add an Automation Rule to a Subtask
• Common Automation Rules

A Note on Automation Permissions: When creating automation rules, you must also have the required permissions for any actions you wish to automate. For example, if you want a task to update its status once a subtask status has changed, you must have the Change Work Status permission.

These specific permissions do not affect team members who trigger the automation. For example, if you create an automation to change a task status and a team member without the change work status permission completes the triggering event, the automation will still proceed.

Tasks and subtasks can be set up with custom automation rules to help automate your workflow and reduce tedious tasks. Automations can be set to record dates, create tasks, change task statuses, and more. 

At the end of this article, you can view examples of common automations you might want to implement in your own workflow. All automation actions are logged in the Activity Log as the team member. 

Add an Automation Rule to a Task

1. Navigate to a relevant task workspace in Canopy.

1. Click Work on the global navigation bar.
2. Choose Tasks List from the secondary navigation menu.
3. Click on a Task name to navigate to that task's workspace.

Another Option: Create a Task‍ and click Create and manage to navigate to the new task's workspace.

2. Go to the Automation tab.

3. Click Add automation.

4.  Select a Condition using the provided drop-down menu.

• Once you select a condition, additional specification options will appear. 
• Conditions refer to the triggering event. If Canopy recognizes that a specified condition has been met, then it will trigger the selected action automatically.

Condition Option	Description
When the task has a status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action once the task status updates to a specified status
When a specific subtask or client request has a status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action once a selected subtask or client request updates to a specified status
When all subtasks have a status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action once all of the task's associated subtasks update to a specified status
When all client requests have a status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action once all of the task's associated client requests update to a specified status
When all subtasks and client requests have a status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action once all subtasks and client requests associated with the task update to a specified status
When the task is approaching a date	Canopy will trigger the defined action on a specified number of days before a selected date type
When the task reaches a date	Canopy will trigger the defined action on a specified date type
When the task is past a date	Canopy will trigger the defined action on a specified number of days after a selected date type

5. Complete all of the selected condition's specification options.

This information can include selecting Date Types, Statuses, Specific Subtasks, Specific Client Requests, or specifying the number of days.

6. Select an Action to automate using the provided drop-down menu.

Action Option	Description
then record the date	Canopy will set the selected Date Type to the day the action is executed
then set assignee(s)	Canopy will change the task's assignee(s) to those specified in the automation rule
then set the task status	Canopy will change the task's status to the status specified in the automation rule
then send a client email	Canopy will send an email to the specified client using the specified email template
then send team member notification	Canopy will notify the specified team member according to their notification preferences
then create a task	Canopy will create a task using the specified task template

7. Complete all of the selected action's specification options.

This information can include selecting Date Types, Assignee(s), Statuses, Email Addresses, Team Members, or Templates.

8. Click Add Automation to add the automation rule to the task.

Reminder: When an automation rule is added to a recurring task, the rule will appear on the next instance of the task.

Add an Automation Rule to a Subtask

1. Navigate to the parent task workspace in Canopy.

1. Click Tasks on the global navigation bar.
2. Choose Tasks List from the secondary navigation menu.
3. Click on a Task name to navigate to that task's workspace.

2. Under the Work tab, expand the subtask you want to add an automation role to.

If you don't have a subtask, you'll need to click the Add a subtask button to add one. For help creating a subtask, reference our Create a Task‍ article.

3. Click the Add automation button on the expanded subtask.

4. Select a Condition using the provided drop-down menu.

• Once you select a condition, additional specification options will appear. 
• Conditions refer to the triggering event. If Canopy recognizes that a specified condition has been met, then it will trigger the selected action automatically.

Condition Option	Description
When the task has status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action once the task status updates to a specified status
When the subtask has status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action when the selected subtask's status updates to a specified status
When a specific subtask or client request has a status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action once a selected subtask or client request updates to a specified status
When the previous subtask or client request has status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action when the subtask above the selected subtask updates to a specified status  * The order of your subtasks on the task workspace matters. Using a task's inline handle, you can drag and drop subtasks to different positions as needed.
When all previous subtasks have status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action when all subtasks above the selected subtask update to a specified status * The order of your subtasks on the task workspace matters. Using a task's inline handle, you can drag and drop subtasks to different positions as needed.
When all previous client requests have status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action when all of the client requests above the selected subtask update to a specified status * The order of your subtasks on the task workspace matters. Using a task's inline handle, you can drag and drop subtasks to different positions as needed.
When all previous subtasks and client requests have status of	Canopy will trigger the defined action when all of the client requests and subtasks above the selected subtask update to a specified status. * The order of your subtasks on the task workspace matters. Using a task's inline handle, you can drag and drop subtasks to different positions as needed.
When the task is approaching a date	Canopy will trigger the defined action on a specified number of days before a selected date type related to the task
When the task reaches a date	Canopy will trigger the defined action on a specified date type related to the task
When the task is past a date	related to the task
When the subtask is approaching a date	Canopy will trigger the defined action on a specified number of days before a selected date type related to the subtask
When the subtask reaches a date	Canopy will trigger the defined action on a specified date type related to the subtask
When the subtask is past a date	Canopy will trigger the defined action on a specified number of days after a selected date type related to the subtask

4. Complete all of the selected condition's specification options.

This information can include selecting Date Types, Statuses, Specific Subtasks, Specific Client Requests, or specifying the number of days.

5. Select an Action to automate using the provided drop-down menu.

Action Option	Description
then record the date	Canopy will set the selected Date Type to the day the action is executed
then set assignee(s)	Canopy will change the subtask's assignee(s) to those specified in the automation rule
then set the subtask status	Canopy will change the subtask's status to the status specified in the automation rule
then send a client email	Canopy will send an email to the specified client using the specified email template
then send team member notification	Canopy will notify the specified team member according to their notification preferences
then create a task	Canopy will create a task using the specified task template

6. Complete all of the selected action's specification options.

This information can include selecting Date Types, Assignee(s), Statuses, Email Addresses, Team Members, or Templates.

7. Click Add automation to add the automation rule to the task.

Common Automation Rules

Our team has researched some of the most commonly used conditions that our clients set up. We've provided some of these as examples of how you might want to use automation to improve your workflow. Just expand the drop-down below to see these examples.

Rule Type	Setup Photo
When the task or subtask has a status of X, then take an action (send a client email or record a date)
When a task/subtask is approaching a date, then take an action (send a client email or send a team member notification)
When the previous subtask has a status of X, then send a team member notification	* This automation rule is only available on Subtasks.
When a specific subtask has a status of X, then update task/subtask status to X