Manage Automation Rules

SalesLoft's Automation Rules take care of the repetitive tasks that threaten to dominate your team's work day. Automation Rules fire based on certain criteria set by team admins.

Using Automation Rules alongside your personalized sales engagement allows your reps to focus their energy on prospective customers, rather than menial tasks. 

In this article, we will walk through the ins and outs of managing your team's Automation Rules, including:

• Things to Know Before You Begin
• Automation Rule Page Layout
• Add a New Automation Rule
• Reorder Automation Rules
• Common Automation Rules
• Automation Rule Logs

If you experience any technical issues or sync errors, check out our Automation Rule Troubleshooting article. 

Things to Know Before You Begin

Testing Automation Rules: When creating a new rule for the first time, we recommend setting criteria that restricts the rule to a specific owner (typically yourself) for testing purposes. This allows you to try the rule without impacting your entire team’s data. You can do this by adding criteria stating “SalesLoft Owner equals (Your Name).”

Automation Rules are not retroactive: Just like a line of dominos needs something to start the chain reaction, a rule will only run when a record is created or updated, which triggers the rule.

Automation Rule Page Layout

You will create, manage, edit, and enhance your team's Automation Rules from the Automation Rules page located under your admin Data Settings.  

Let’s break down the Automation Rules page.

The Automation Rule Logs

Above the Automation Rules list, you will see a blue View Rule Logs link. Now, if you are first starting with SalesLoft Automation, this link won’t do you much good. But after you’ve activated Automation Rules you can view all the activity that has occurred.

For more information on the Automation Rule Logs, go here.

New Automation Rules

Next, you will see the New Automation Rule button. Clicking this button will allow you to create new Automation Rules for your team.

For a full walkthrough of how to create new Automation Rules, go here.

The Automation Rule List View

A list of the Automation Rules you've created takes up the majority of the Automation Rules page. Here you can see a full breakdown of the rules you have created and manage which rules are currently active.   

In your Automation Rule list, each itemized rule contains the following details:

• Name: Each time you create a rule, you will give it a unique name so you know that rule’s purpose. The rule name is a clickable, blue link. Click the name to edit the rule. 
• Rule Trigger: The rule field type is listed directly under the rule name. The rule field type determines "when" a rule will trigger. 
• Action: Any actions that take place due the rule are listed under the rule type. These actions are determined by the "then" section when creating a rule. 
• Active: The toggle button turns your Automation Rule on/off. Switching the toggle to active means when the automation event occurs, the activity will trigger.
• More Actions Ellipsis: The ellipsis shows additional actions you can take with your Automation Rule.
• Reorder: Edit the order of the rules in the Automation Rule list. 
• Edit: Make changes to existing rules by selecting Edit.
• Copy: Automation Rules can differ from the slightest criteria. Rather than creating a new rule every single time, you can Copy existing Automation Rules. Once copied, edit the rule to fit your specific criteria, and save.
• Delete: For out-of-date or incorrect rules, delete them permanently from your Automation Rule list by clicking Delete.

Add a New Automation Rule

Automation Rules increase your team’s overall efficiency. But before you can reap the rewards, you have to create the rules. 

Your Automation Rules follow a specific pattern. Basically, you are telling SalesLoft, “When this event occurs, then make this action happen.” Within those confines, you can set specific criteria (which we highly recommend) so that the rule triggers exactly the way you need.

Things to Note: The order of “then” statements matter. Automation criteria will trigger in the order they are listed. Failing to put the criteria in order may result in rules not firing. 

To add a new Automation Rule, follow the steps below: 

1. From the Automation Rule page in your Team Settings, click New Automation Rule.
2. In the text box Automation Rule Name: enter the name of your rule.
3. Go to the Trigger dropdown picklist. Select the trigger you want to create.
4. Add Criteria or group of criteria (optional):
5. Click + Action to create the action that will occur when the rule is triggered.
6. Select the dropdown picklist next to Action to find the result you want to occur. Things to Note: The picklist options change according to the rule trigger. 
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to include all the actions you would like to occur with the rule.
8. Click Save.
9. Your rule has been created and will now appear in your Automation Rule list. As soon as the rule is created it will be toggled Active.

Reorder Automation Rules

When your Automation Rules begin to trigger, they fire in their listed order. This means that if you have an important rule at the end of your list, another rule that is ahead in the list may keep your rule from firing. 

Simply put, the order of your Automation Rules matters.

Which is why SalesLoft gives you control over your list of Automation Rules. You can move rules up, down, straight to the top, or to the bottom of the list.

To reorder your Automation Rules, follow these instructions:

1. Under your Team Settings, navigate to your Automation Rules.
2. Find the Automation Rule you would like to move. 
3. Select the ellipsis (...) on the right side of the Automation Rule's row. 
4. From the dropdown menu, choose which direction you would like the Automation Rule to move.

Common Automation Rules

There are certain Automation Rules that are commonly implemented by SalesLoft users. Check out our Common Automation Rules article as you start building the rules for your team.  

Automation Rule Logs

The Automation Rule Logs track attempted automation activity. So, as soon as your rule is turned on and begins to run, you can view the activity log and check the progress.  

From this page, you can filter logs by the status of their occurrence, as well as get a complete breakdown of the activity that occurred.

Filter

Automation log filters allow you to view your list of completed Automation Rule Logs. You have two filtering options:

• Status: Filter by the status of the rule to see which rules were completed or if any errors occurred. 
  • All: To view all of the automation activity that has occurred.
  • Success: To view only the successful automation activities.
  • Failure: To view only the failed automation activities. Failed activities will appear in red font with a notification icon. When an activity displays as Failed, hover your mouse over the Event status to see the reason the activity failed. This way you can address the failure and correct it in SalesLoft (or in Salesforce if the trigger failed on that end). If you experience any technical issues or sync errors, check out our Automation Rule Troubleshooting article. 
• Rule: Filter by the name of the rule. This way you can quickly see whether a rule has been successful. If the rule has failed you can troubleshoot to correct the issue.