What's in this Article
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. Automation 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 automation 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.
Click Work on the global navigation bar.
Choose Tasks List from the secondary navigation menu.
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.
Click Tasks on the global navigation bar.
Choose Tasks List from the secondary navigation menu.
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 |
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 |
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 |
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. |
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 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 |