Automation scheduling allows you to control exactly when an automation activates, pauses, or stops. This allows you to plan campaigns and customer journeys in advance, reduce manual work, and ensure the right experience is delivered at the right time.
Scheduling of automations is especially useful for time-based or seasonal communication.
Scheduling as draft
After you've created your automation it will be a draft, and can be found in the Draft automations list.
Open it there and you will come to the automation overview and the Activate button:
Press Activate to bring up this panel:
You can choose to either:
- Make your automation become active right away
- Schedule a date and time for it to activate
Choosing Schedule activation will bring up this:
Specify here when the automation is to become active and press Schedule.
Scheduling when active
When your automation is already active, or scheduled to activate, you can add or change its schedule.
To do this, select your automation in the Active list then press Manage status in the top right.
What happens now depends on if your automation is already active or is scheduled to go active.
1 - Already active
In the case of your automation already being active, you will see this:
Now you can:
- End the automation (with some oiptions)
- Schedule a time for it to end
- Pause the automation (see here for more on that)
2 - Scheduled to go active
If your automation is scheduled to be active, you will see this:
Here you can:
- Activate the automation right away, removing the schedule
- Remove the schedule you already have
- Add a schedule to end the automation
- Pause the automation (see here for more on that)
You can schedule multiple status changes to manage the full lifecycle of the automation.
Scheduling statuses
Scheduling defines when an automation transitions between statuses. Each status controls how the automation behaves. They are:
Draft: The automation is not active and no contacts can enter.
Activating: The automation is in the process of being started.
Paused: The automation is temporarily stopped. No new contacts can enter, but it can be resumed.
Deactivating: The automation is being turned off and has two options:
- Finishing: No new contacts enter the automation. Contacts already present will continue until they have completed their journey.
- Archived: The automation will be immediately stopped. No new contacts can enter, and any contacts currently in the automation will not continue their journey.
Viewing scheduled changes
You can view scheduled status changes in several places:
- In the Manage status panel
- In the automation overview (top right corner)
- In the automation list via the calendar icon