Date Field Based Automations
With date field automations we have taken the concept of appointment-based automations and applied it to simple date fields. Use this feature to create time-relative automations (one hour before, two days after, etc.) for any date type field in your CRM, as opposed to for calendar appointments (appointment-based automations).
These types of automations are useful to trigger automated reminders or check-ins relative to a client’s court date, filing date, anniversary, or any other custom date field you may use in your practice all from simply populating the date into a date type field.
To create a date field-based automation all you need to do is use the Match on Fields trigger, select any date type field as your target field, and then select Has Any Value as the condition. This is demonstrated in the example below:
The "Has Any Value" condition means that this automation will trigger once a date is populated into that field for a particular matter and saved, no matter what the date may be.
Alternatively, you can also select Date Field when creating a brand new automation, and the system will prompt you to select from one of your date fields as the trigger.
Once you have set this entry condition, the automation will then become date field-based, and will be labelled accordingly. Click on the yellow label at the top right of your page (highlighted below) to add your time-relative automations. Remember, you will only see this yellow button when the entry condition has been selected as a date field having "any value", as shown below.
Once you click on the Date Automations button, you will see a page similar to the one shown below. Click New Date Automation to add each desired relative time trigger, as has been done in the following example. Each date automation is added separately with its own time-relative trigger, such as one day before and one day after.
After you have created the date automations, you still need to add in the actions you wish to occur at that time. Simply click on the automation name, and then you will see the familiar automation editor page.
You do not need to set entry conditions, because that has already been done with the relative-time trigger. You will click the plus sign icon to add in the desired action item(s), as has been done already in the image below.
Remember that any automated actions added into a date automation will occur based on the relative time trigger. So in the example above, the email will send one day before the Execution Date that was entered on the matter.
After you have created all of your date automations and added any actions that you would like to the main automation, you are now ready to activate the automation. Begin by activating the main part of the automation, this can be done from your Automations page showing all of your firm's automations.
If the automation has current matches, as shown above, it is very important to pause here and decide whether you wish to run the automation on current matches or future matches only.
After you have activated the main automation, you will then click the yellow Date Automations button once more, and activate each appointment automation. You will not see a warning message for current matches on these, since the only way they will have a match is when the time trigger is matched.
If you edit the date in a date field on a matter, the date automations will adjust as per the new date.
FAQ's
What are the benefits of using date automations?
These automations can be extremely useful for sending out automated time-relative reminders/updates for items that do not require a calendar appointment. For consultations or meetings with the client, you will use an appointment-based automation since those ARE appointments you will have on your calendar. Items like client anniversary dates, court dates, etc. do not necessarily require appointments on your calendar, but you still may wish to trigger an automation based on those dates. Date Field Based Automations allow you to do just that.
How are date field based automations different from appointment based automations?
Appointment based automations require an appointment booked on your Lawmatics calendar in order to trigger. Date field based automations only require that a date be populated into a date field. This could be one of the standard date fields in Lawmatics (such as birthdate) or any custom date field you have created.
Can I create an automation triggered by a date field but not use the time-relative date automations?
Yes, the time-relative date automations are simply an additional and optional piece of automations. You may absolutely have an automation that is triggered by a date field, but not need to use the time-relative date automation piece. This is perfectly acceptable. In this situation, you would create your automation just like normal, and you can simply disregard the yellow Date Automations button, since you will not be adding any.