Automation Ideas

Every idea below is built only from what Colleague's automation engine supports today, as described in the Automation Maintenance User Guide. Each automation is one record type, one trigger, an optional saved-search filter, run options, then ordered steps with waits and exit conditions.

In the tables that follow, "Exit" means the condition set on the follow-up steps so the sequence stops once the goal is reached. Wait times are suggestions.

Candidates support every trigger, so this is the richest area: onboarding, pipeline communication, re-engagement and availability.

Contacts can receive emails and Mailchimp adds, so these focus on business development, client service and account nurture. Stage reached is not available for Contacts.

Companies cannot be emailed directly, so company automations drive internal action: tasks, notifications, internal emails, lists and Mailshot Status updates.

Requirement Stage reached enrols once per candidate, so one job can run many parallel sequences. It can be scoped to all requirements, the author's own, or specific requirement IDs.

Offer/Placement stages are Offer created, Offer accepted, Offer rejected, Placement made, Authorised level 1 and Authorised level 2. These records cannot be emailed or have fields updated, so the steps are tasks, notifications, internal emails, history and lists; candidate-facing emails sit on the Candidate side using Stage reached: Placed.

The People record type covers both in one automation, useful wherever the same message applies to everyone with an email address. The guide's trigger table lists triggers per Candidate and Contact, so confirm which triggers the People type exposes before building these.

These use internal emails, notifications, tasks and run summaries to keep the database clean and managers informed, without contacting anyone outside the business.

The engine already suppresses emails to records with no email, archived status, a blocking Mailshot Status or denied/pending GDPR consent. These automations work alongside that to keep consent and data current.

These rules decide whether an idea above will work as intended in a given client's system.

• No back-fill. Record created, Field changed, Stage reached and Watchdog triggers only catch events after activation. For existing records, use a date, no-contact or saved-search trigger.
• Emails only reach Candidates and Contacts. For Companies, Requirements and Placements, use internal emails, tasks or notifications.
• Field updates are narrow. Only Candidate Status, Mailshot Status (Candidate, Contact, Company) and Requirement Status can be set, and only to existing lookup values. Add the lookup values a sequence needs (e.g. Dormant, Unverified) before building it.
• Automation emails don't count as contact by default. The 'Automation - Email Sent' code won't satisfy a contact-made exit. Choose a contact-made history code only if you want sent emails to stop the sequence.
• Date and no-contact triggers scan daily, weekly or monthly and enrol up to 500 records per scan by default.
• Daily email cap is 500 across all automations by default; capped sends retry at 08:00 the next day. Use Max enrolments per day to pace big re-engagement runs.
• Re-enrol after (days) turns one-off sequences into recurring ones (birthdays, quarterly reviews, rolling check-ins). Blank means never.
• Sender needs a Microsoft 365 connection. Otherwise emails fall back to notifications@colleaguesoftware.com, which hurts personalisation.
• Always Preview, then Dry Run. Preview shows who enrols, exclusions, suppression and a merged sample email; Dry Run enrols and logs without sending.
• Field changed relies on Track Changes, switched on automatically when you save; earlier changes won't trigger.
• Watchdog triggers follow the watchdog's schedule, and the watchdog must not have expired.