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Video: Setting Up and Using Automations

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Video Tutorial Transcript

Irina from Zanda 0:05 Hello and welcome to a new Zanda tutorial. In this video, let us talk about the Automations feature. I'm Irina and let me step you through setting up this feature and teaching you how to use it. 0:18 The Automations feature is a part of a communications feature in Zanda. Let's have a look how this is set up.

Viewing and Activating Default Automations

0:25 To do that, let's go to the Settings menu. And here in the Communications tab, let's select Automations. If you've created your Zanda trial account after the 15th of May, 2000 and 25, I highly recommend that you click the Show Inactive button to, um, here at the top to see the list of default automations 0:46 that we've preset for you and, uh, saved as inactive automation so that they don't trigger anything until you had a look at them and edited them the way you want to use them. 0:58 So, for example, let's have a look at the pre-appointment general automations. Um, as you can see, it's a pre-appointment automation type. 1:06 Before we move any further, let me demonstrate to you what types of automations there are available. And we have the new client automation type invoicing for unpaid invoices and also pre and post-appointment automations and a recall automation. 1:23 Uh, with each automation, you will also need to set up the conditions for this automation too much to be triggered. 1:30 And the first condition for the pre-appointment automations, for example, is how many days before the appointment date this automation should be triggered and communication to go out. 1:41 You can also set up this automation for, uh, allocation, uh, appointment location in your, um, in your account, also the appointment status. 1:51 Uh, for me, it made sense to set it up for pending and confirmed appointments to send the information, uh, before the appointment. 1:59 You can also set the information, um, the automation to go by this service type, the service that's, um, added to the appointment by the appointment flag. 2:10 By the client's status for each practitioner. And also for the type of client classifications. As you can see here, this is blank because the client classifications feature is 100% custom and you can set up your list of classifications and allocate them to your clients. 2:30 Now that you've set up all the conditions for your automation, let's select the type of the action that should be used. 2:39 So for example, let's select the email. Type, and then for that we need to select a template. Again with the new trials that are created after the 15th of May 2025, we already have prepared the default automation templates. 2:56 Let's just find the one we want to use, and this will be the pre-appointment general information automation. Uh, and then let us click Active to activate this automation and save the changes.

Creating an Unpaid Invoice Automation

3:12 And there you go. You have an active automation in your account. You can add as many automations as you want. 3:21 So, for example, let's click add automation. And this time, let's, for example, set up an automation for unpaid invoices. Here, let's click the automation type, which will be invoicing. 3:39 And then the conditions for the unpaid invoicing automation would be, um, the days after the, uh, invoice date or appointment date. 3:48 So for example, one day after, invoice status should be selected as unpaid, uh, and also you can, uh, select this by client type so that some clients, um, need this reminder and we can set it up for them. 4:03 And then the type of the, uh, action here can be email or SMS that will be sent to your clients or payees of that invoice. 4:12 And it also can be a task for your team, for example, so that they can have a look at the task generated at the unpaid invoice. 4:20 And, for example, select a template, um, that, uh, automations invoicing. Yeah, unpaid invoice email. Let's use that. So, how this automation will work? 4:37 When the criteria are met, the system will generate a task and your team member who is responsible for actioning on those tasks will have a review and Trigger sending the unpaid invoices email manually. 4:54 This is just one of the options that you can use to, uh, set up this automation. Or instead of a task, you can just set up the email, use the unpaid invoice email template. 5:06 Uh, and the system will automatically send this invoice to the clients, um, after the criteria are met. And you can Go on and work on other types of automations, which are new clients, invoicing pre-appointment, post-appointment, and recall, and set them up as you need, just using the criteria that's 5:28 available, and automation templates that are also available. Now let me show you how you can set up or edit your automation templates, the communication templates. 5:39 So for that we'll go into the tools menu, communication, and templates. Uh, and uh, if you are in your account, you might already see the automations, um, templates available here for all types of the automations that we have available. 5:57 Uh, alternatively, we have an article in our knowledge base where we provide. All the, um, templates that can be used and you can copy and create your own templates here. 6:10 But for example, let's have a look at how this should be set up. So we are looking at the unpaid invoice email automation. 6:19 And here just make sure that all the types, the settings fields are, uh, filled out. The left-hand side, the message type name and description, these are the internal settings, they are for you and for your team, just as an overview of what type of template this is. 6:39 And on the right-hand side, the email from name, it can be a person's name or a business name, who is the center of this email, then the email from address. 6:49 Your business address, your financial team address, and so on, uh, where the replies will come to, and the email subject will be the, uh, what this, uh, email is about. 7:01 And then here in the body text, type up the information that you want to share with your clients and For two, I personalize this message, uh, so that the information from the client and the appointment are automatically filled into this template, use the available merch fields. 7:20 So from here, we have a wide range, uh, of the merch fields you can copy one. So for example, the, uh, and you can even use the search field, so. 7:32 I want to find the recipient, um, merge fields, and I want to use the recipient first name. Uh, or even the recipient preferred name, if they have the preferred name, and I will just paste it here, um, in the greeting part of the email. 7:49 Also for the, um, unpaid invoice automation to work, you need to use this invoice PDF link merge field. Again, we can Look it up and copy from the, um, list here. 8:05 So we'll just copy invoice PDF link and paste it here in the body of the text. And this merch field will generate a PDF invoice and a link for the clients to access that invoice and download it. 8:21 Also add some, um, send off information. Like your business name, your phone number, your email address and so on and save the changes. 8:31 And this way you can create multiple different automation templates to use with all the types of automations, um, to really personalize and specify the information that you are sending to the client.

💡 Note: the invoicing automation has recently been enhanced with the paid invoices option. You can now automate sending payment conformations and receipts immediately after an invoice has been fully paid. Learn more here. 

Automation Limits and Sending Time

8:46 And to finish this off, let me tell you that you can set up as many automations as you need for each automation type. 8:53 There is no capping on those settings. And that the system will automatically check and send all the automations that match the criteria at around 2 p.m. 9:04 your local time. So just for you to know where those messages will be sent. And once they are sent, you will see the record in each client's profile. 9:16 Uh, of the all the automation messages that have been sent to them. Well, I hope you found these tutorials useful. 9:23 If you have any questions, please let us know, and please watch the other videos that we have created for you. 9:30 I will see you another time.