What is an action?

An automation action is a step that performs a task, activity, event, or change such as sending an email.

Think of an Action as:

When Something happens (the Trigger) and These Conditions are true, then This Event (the Action) occurs.

Select the action

After creating your automation and selecting your Trigger, now it is time to specify the action you want to perform when the automation fires. You can select your Action in the Then do this section at the bottom of the right-hand column.

Available Actions

Select from the available native SmartSuite actions to get started:

Create a Record
Update Records
Delete records
Send an email
Find Records
Merge Records
Create a Comment

Create a Record

Whenever your automation trigger fires and the conditions are met, the "Create a Record" actions will create a new record (row).

Select the Table you want the action to occur in and set up the conditions or scenarios that will cause the automation to trigger.

Update Records

Whenever your trigger and its conditions are met, the "Update Records" action will allow you to change values in one or more SmartSuite records by specifying which records you want to update. To do this, you can either use the triggering record or use the Find Record action to create a list of records you want to update.

Configuring the Update Records action takes just a few steps:

1. Select Solution and Table

You will need to select a Solution and Table in which to update records. The default is the triggering Table.

2. Select Records to Update

If you have previously configured a Find Records action and you select a Solution and Table that was specified in a find action, you can use the output of that find to take action on the record or records that are returned by the find. When you do this, the fields you specify to update will be updated in every record returned by the find action. Carefully create your find actions to only select records you want to update! (and more on Find Records actions below)

3. Specify Fields to Update

Once you have identified the records you want to update, it's time to specify the fields to be updated and your desired values. The process goes like this:

Click on Add Field in Fields to Update
Select the field that should be updated
Specify the update value, which can come from fields in the triggering record, fields from another Find Record action, or values from the field (e.g. a specific Status value, for example)
Repeat steps 1-3 for each field that should be updated.

3. Choose whether to Append/Replace/Clear the Value

After picking the fields that should be updated, you'll also see the ability to decide whether you'd like to replace with a new value, clear the field's value, or in some cases append new values to the original.

Note: The ability to append is restricted to text based fields or fields that support multiple values such as Checklist, Linked Records, Multiple Select, etc.

4. Math Operations

You have the ability to calculate for numeric fields in the Update Records action.

You may choose between using a Static value, a manual input, or a Dynamic value derived from another field.

Choose the math operation to be performed by click on the operator dropdown displayed to the left of the input area for the field. You can select Add, Subtract, Multiply or Divide.

5. Working With Lists (Arrays)

For our Linked Record and Multiple Select field types, you now have the ability to choose if you'd like to parse the value(s) that you're mapping into the field!

For example, if you have a GET_LIST formula returning a list of Linked Record titles, you can map this value into the matching Linked Record field, checking the box to allow for parsing the value.

Note: This list must be semicolon (;) separated. If any other separator is used, you will need to utilize the REPLACE() function in a formula to replace the separator with a semicolon.

Delete Records

The Delete Record action is similar to our "Update Record" action in configuration, but instead of changing any data within the records you'll be deleting them. The only selection you need to make is deciding which records to delete. By default you are only able to delete the triggering record, but adding additional Find Records steps will allow you to also Find & Delete records based on a trigger criteria.

In the example below, the automation is configured that when a record in Accounts has a status of "Cancelled", we delete the record.

Find Records

You may choose the "Find Record" action to build a list of one or more records that match your specified conditions. This list of records can then be used in a subsequent Update Records action to update fields in the matching record or records.

The find is configured as follows:

1. Records to Find

First, decide if you would like a single record or multiple records to be returned from a search. With Multiple Find, you can update records that were found, but it won’t pass the records’ data to the next actions. However with A single record selected, the returned data can be used in any subsequent action, just like fields from the trigger.

2. Select Solution and Table

Next, identify the Solution and Table you want to perform the search on using the Solution and Table dropdowns.

3. Additional Settings

You can set additional advanced settings to narrow down and select just the right records. You have two available settings:

Limit number of Records found. This option is only available on the Multiple Records option, defaults to 100, and can be decreased to a minimum of 2. The find will return up to this number of records matching your conditions. If this is changed to 1, the Records to Find option will be changed to A Single Record.
Sort the Records found by. This setting allows you to adjust the way matched records are sorted. For example if your find returns 10 records but you have a max records set to 2, you can use a sort on "Last Updated" date to return the most recently saved record.

4. Optionally Name your Search
You can optionally name your search to make it easier to identify in later Update Records actions. This is particularly useful if you have more than one Find Records action in your automation.

5. Decide How to Proceed if No Records Found

You can toggle between how you would like SmartSuite to proceed with the following actions based on the result of the Find Records action, choosing whether you would like the automation to continue or fail.

6. Specify Conditions for the Find

You then specify the conditions that should be used to match records in your target Table. You can use a combination of conditions if required by clicking the Add Condition button to add an additional condition row.

When you have multiple conditions you can select whether they all need to be true (AND) or whether to match if any of the conditions are true (OR).

Additional details:

Single Record Find:
- When configured to return a single record, the “Find” action will retrieve only one matching result.
- This is useful when you need to locate a specific item based on certain criteria.
- The result of a single record find can be used in subsequent actions as an input option.
Multiple Records Find:
- If configured to return a list of multiple records, the “Find” action will retrieve all matching results.
- This is helpful when you want to retrieve a set of related items (e.g., all orders from a specific customer).
- The list of multiple records can be used in a subsequent Update Record action.
Input Option for Field Values:
- When setting field values in subsequent actions you can reference the result of a single record find.
- For example, if you find a specific customer record, you can use its details (e.g., customer ID, name) to populate other fields.

Send an email

The Send an email action lets you create a SmartSuite notification, which includes an email message and a notification center alert. Configuring it is easy, and follows these steps:

1. Set Send To

Determine your recipient(s), the email subject, and the custom message to be sent each time the automation triggers. You can optionally CC and BCC recipients as well.

2. Specify Email Contents

You can configure the Subject, Message and even select attachments for the email. Note that you can click the + icon to add field values from the triggering record.

When the automation triggers successfully, an email will be sent to all specified recipients, along with the custom information.

3. Specify Notification Center Message

Specify the short text message that should be displayed in SmartSuite's message center when the notification is triggered. This text can also include field content.

Merge Records

After creating your automation and selecting your Trigger, you can select Merge Records from the SmartSuite section of the Add Actions list.

There are three types of action available:

Replace. This option will overwrite the original record's value for the field with the one in the record being merged.
Append. The append option combines the two records' values by appending the value from the record being merged to the original value. Note that only certain fields have this option, including text-type fields and fields where values can be combined such as multiple select.
Ignore. This option instructs the merge operation to ignore the value from the record being merged, preserving the original record's value.

See more details on how to merge records here.

Create a Comment

The Create a Comment action lets you create a SmartSuite comment on a given record, along with optionally assigning to a user which would also include an email message and a notification center alert. Configuring it is easy, and follows these steps:

1. Select Records to Add Comment To

Determine which record you want to add a comment to. This can be any trigger, or records found during a previous Find Record step.

2. Specify Comment Contents

You can configure the Comment, Assign To and even select attachments for the comment. Note that you can click the + icon to add field values from the triggering record.

When the automation triggers successfully, a comment will be added to the specified record(s), along with the custom information.

See more details on the create a comment action here.