This article applies to:
Admins
Premium Procurement
About this Article
This article provides an overview of Vendr's automation feature, guiding you through the key concepts, how it works, and the steps to build your own automations. Whether you're new to automation or looking to optimize your process, this guide will help you get started with Vendr's powerful automation capabilities.
What is an Automation?
Automations allow you to build custom flows that automatically run specific actions when certain conditions are met in your procurement workflow. Automations are designed to save time, reduce manual effort, and ensure consistency in your procurement processes.
Key Concepts
Trigger
A trigger is an event that starts the automation. It could be anything from the status of a step changing, a document being upload, or a new request being created. Learn more about what actions Vendr supports.
Action
An action is what happens after the trigger. Actions allow you to automate things inside of Vendr like marking a step as complete and they even support third-party integrations like Google Drive, Jira, and webhooks to help you automate things in external tools. Learn more about what actions Vendr supports.
Steps
Refers to the individual components that make up an automation flow. Each step in an automation defines a specific task that is part of the overall flow. By breaking down an automation into steps, you can create detailed and complex flows that perform multiple actions based on various triggers and conditions.
How It Works
Vendr automations work by linking triggers and actions to create streamlined flows. When this happens [trigger], the automation checks any specified conditions and then performs the defined actions. This process allows for seamless integration and management of various tasks without manual intervention.
Why You Should Use Automations
Efficiency: Automations reduce the need for manual tasks, allowing your team to focus on more strategic activities.
Consistency: Ensure that processes are followed correctly every time without relying on individual discretion.
Speed: Automations can execute tasks instantly, speeding up processes and improving response times.
Scalability: As your business grows, automations can handle increasing volumes of tasks without additional effort.
How to Build an Automation
Creating an automation in Vendr is a straightforward process. You can create automation from any workflow step or from the automation dashboard
Adding from a Workflow Step
Navigate to Workflows templates from the admin page.
Select the desired workflow template or create new Workflow template.
Click on the workflow step where you want to add the automation.
From the step details pane select automations and click the [+] icon within the workflow step to add an automation.
In the automation editor, give your automation a name
Then select the trigger event that will start the automation and click continue.
Specify any conditions that must be met for the automation to proceed (if applicable).
Choose the actions that should occur once the trigger and conditions are met.
For each action, provide the necessary details and click continue.
Click Save to save the automation and then press Turn On to activate it.
Use Test mode in the workflow builder and create a new request to trigger your automation to test that it is working as expected.
Check the automation dashboard to see if your automation has ran and or troubleshoot any errors.
Automation Dashboard
Navigate to automations from the admin page.
In the automation editor, give your automation a name.
Then select the trigger event that will start the automation and click continue.
Specify any conditions that must be met for the automation to proceed (if applicable).
Choose the actions that should occur once the trigger and conditions are met.
For each action, provide the necessary details and click continue.
Click Save to save the automation and then press Turn On to activate it.
Test your automation
After you have created your automation and enabled it you'll want to test it to ensure the automation is working as expected. You can test your automation by leveraging the test mode feature in workflows.
Use Test mode in the workflow builder and create a new request to trigger your automation to test that it is working as expected.
Check the automation dashboard to see if your automation has ran and or troubleshoot any errors.
Next steps
Turn on your automation and test them
View the automation dashboard for errors
Learn about the various triggers and actions automation supports