How to turn an automation on, off, or run it now

Every alert and background job in Brain › Automations has its own switch, and turning one on or off changes nothing about the others. See How to see what runs in the background for what each one does, and What are automations? for what an automation is.

Before you start

You need Manage automations, which starts at admin, and the Automations module switched on. See How to set who can do what and How to switch parts of Tideswell on and off.

How do you switch one on?

For an alert, use the switch at the end of its row under Alerts. It saves as soon as you press it.

A background job has no switch in its row. Press Show all 17 under Background jobs, open the job, and use the switch at the top of its panel. The panel confirms with "Switched on." or "Switched off.", and an alert's panel has the same switch.

Most alerts start switched off. Task due reminders, Late purchase orders and Purchase order results start on. Turn the others on one at a time as you decide you want them.

Which should you turn on first?

Low stock, if you carry stock. Running out is the gap that costs real money, and the alert stays quiet by nature: each product alerts once and alerts again only after it has recovered and dropped a second time.

Then Shipping backlog, with a threshold set to a number that would genuinely worry you. See How to set up the stock and order alerts.

Turn on Daily analyst brief once somebody will read it each morning. See How to read your updates and the daily brief.

How do you switch on the agent in chat?

From the Agent card near the top of the page, with Add the agent and then Switch on. See How to add the Agent to chat.

Switch the agent off the same way, with Switch off on that card. The card's Check in on late tasks switch starts off and is set on its own. See How to have the Agent check in on late tasks.

What does Run now do?

Run now sits at the foot of every alert's and job's panel. It runs that one straight away instead of waiting for its next turn, and confirms with "Run started." Only that job runs; nothing else on the page runs with it.

It uses the same queue as the schedule, so a job can never run twice at once. Switch it on before you press Run now, because only a switched-on job runs.

Use it right after switching one on, so you find out now whether it works rather than tomorrow. Read the newest line under Recent activity in the panel for the result. See How to check whether an automation worked.

What happens when you turn one off?

It stops running. Its settings, its recipients and its run history are all kept, so turning it back on carries on where you left off.

Several of them run a feature you use elsewhere. Where a panel says what stops, it reads "If you switch it off:" and the line quoted here. Turn these off only if you mean to stop that feature too:

• Workflow engine: "Every workflow stops." See What are workflows?.
• Shopify change watcher: "Every order, product and customer workflow stops."
• Inventory sync: "Workflows that react to stock changes stop firing."
• Calculated field refresh: "Every calculated number freezes at its last value." See How to build a field that works itself out.
• Catalog sync: "Product details stop updating from Shopify."
• Sales history: "Daily sales stop being saved."
• Inventory snapshot: "Stock stops being recorded. If it is off at the end of a month, that month-end reading is never taken."
• Purchase order results: "Results wait until you switch it back on. Nothing is lost: each one is measured as at the day its window closed." See How to commit to an outcome and have it measured.
• Report delivery: scheduled report emails stop. See How to build, save and schedule a report.
• Register special orders: register sales noted SPL no longer become special orders. See How to turn a register sale into a special order.

The Agent's own background check is on neither list, because it shows on the Agent card. If the Agent is on but the check is off, the card reads "Its background check is switched off. New @Agent mentions still start immediately." Press Switch the check back on to restart it.

What if an alert is useful but too frequent?

Keep it on and choose a longer Wait between alerts in its panel: No wait, 1 hour, 4 hours, 12 hours, 1 day or 2 days. After an alert goes out, new ones wait that long, then go out together, as covered in How to choose who gets an alert and how often.

If the alert is right but buzzes your phone too often, change your own settings instead. See What are notifications?.

Why did nothing happen after I switched it on?

Check these in order.

1. The job has not come round yet. Each job has its own schedule. Press Run now rather than waiting.
2. There was nothing to report. The Latest column then reads the alert's all-clear, such as Nothing low, or ends nothing new to send. Both are healthy runs.
3. The run was skipped. The reason shows in the Latest column and under Recent activity in the panel, such as a module switched off or Shopify not connected. See How to see what runs in the background.

If the line starts Failed, see How to check whether an automation worked.

How do you add an automation of your own?

Build a workflow. Open the Create new (+) menu and choose Automation: Tideswell creates a workflow called Untitled automation and opens it on the workflow canvas.

You need Build and edit workflows to see that item. The steps are in How to build your first workflow.