---
title: What are automations?
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/automations
description: Background jobs Tideswell ships with, watching your stock, orders and data so somebody does not have to.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# What are automations?



An **automation** is a background job that Tideswell ships with. It watches something and tells
you when it matters: stock running out, orders piling up, a large order arriving, your data
going stale.

You configure them rather than build them. **Automations** in the sidebar opens with two pages
under it, **Automations** and **Workflows**.

## Why does this exist? [#why-does-this-exist]

Because the alternative is somebody remembering to look.

Fairgreen Golf Co. checked stock every Monday. Anything that ran out on a Tuesday was out for
six days before anybody noticed, and the first sign was usually a customer.

An automation closes that gap. The low-stock watchdog checks continuously and puts an item in
the right people's Inbox the moment something drops, whether or not anybody opened a screen.

## What is the difference from a workflow? [#what-is-the-difference-from-a-workflow]

An **automation** is built by Tideswell. It is a fixed list, and what you control is whether it
runs, who it tells, and how often it is allowed to speak.

A **workflow** is built by you. You choose a trigger, add conditions, and pick what happens.
See <Ref to="workflows" />.

Use an automation for the things every brand needs watched. Use a workflow for the rules that
are yours alone, like "when a repair record is marked urgent, create a task for the warehouse
lead".

## What do the automations cover? [#what-do-the-automations-cover]

Three sorts of job.

**Watchdogs** that alert you: low stock, the fulfilment backlog, notable orders, and store data
going stale. See <Ref to="automations/stock-and-order-alerts" />.

**Written work**: the daily analyst brief, and task due reminders. See
<Ref to="analyst/daily-brief" />.

**Quiet upkeep** that keeps the rest of Tideswell fresh, such as syncing customers, watching
Shopify for changes, refreshing dashboards and recalculating fields. Those need no
configuration and are covered in <Ref to="automations/what-runs-in-the-background" />.

## What can you actually change? [#what-can-you-actually-change]

Four things per job, on the jobs that use them:

* **On or off**, individually.
* **Who gets the alert**, and whether it also goes by email.
* **The threshold** that decides when it speaks.
* **How long it stays quiet** after alerting, so a flapping figure does not buzz all day.

Plus **Run now**, which makes a job due immediately instead of waiting for its turn.

## Where do the alerts land? [#where-do-the-alerts-land]

In the **Inbox** of everybody set to receive them, and on their phone if they have notifications
on. Optionally by email as well.

Three separate switches decide whether a phone actually buzzes: the automation itself, the
person's own toggle, and their quiet hours. That is the first thing to check when somebody says
they are not being told, and it is covered in <Ref to="notifications" />.

## Who can configure them? [#who-can-configure-them]

Managing automations is an admin job by default. Without it you are shown the Workflows page
instead, or told that automation management access is required.

Receiving alerts is separate: the recipient list is drawn from everybody with store access.

## Where to go next [#where-to-go-next]

<Ref to="automations/what-runs-in-the-background" /> is the tour. <Ref to="automations/turn-one-on-or-off" />
and <Ref to="automations/choose-who-gets-alerted" /> are the two jobs you will actually do.