New rule

This page is where you build an automation rule from scratch. You name it, say which kind of record it watches, choose what starts it, narrow down which records qualify, and add the actions it carries out, in order.

Where to find it

Click New rule on the Rules tab (Account menu > Settings > Workflows > Rules). The breadcrumbs read Settings > Workflows > Rules > New rule.

The page also opens pre-filled from the runs pages: Schedule automatic demand runs on Demand runs, Schedule automatic payout runs on Payout runs, and Schedule automatic revenue runs on the runs tab of Revenue Recognition. Each button sits on that page's "Automatic demand runs" / "Automatic payout runs" / "Automatic revenue runs" card and shows only with the Create permission on Workflow Rules. See "Presets" below.

You need the View permission on Workflow Rules to open the page. To save a rule you need the Create permission on Workflow Rules (in the default roles, only the Administrator); without it the whole form is read-only and shows "You can view this rule but not change it."

Before you start

• Decide which kind of record the rule is about. Once saved, that can't change.
• If the rule should send an email, prepare the wording first as a message template, or write the subject and body inside the rule.
• If the rule should attach or generate a document, that document template must be Published (see Document templates).
• If the rule should notify or assign a role, that role must exist under Roles & Permissions.
• Make sure you hold the permissions the rule's actions need. A rule can only do what the person who saves it may do, and the save is refused otherwise.

What you see

The header reads New rule, with the line "Automate what happens when records change." Next to the title sit the trigger badge, an Active or Inactive badge, and Unsaved changes once you have typed something. The Create rule button sits on the right.

If something stops the save, a red banner at the top reads "Fix the problems below before saving." with the list of problems; the offending action card is outlined in red.

Basics

"What the rule is called and which records it applies to."

Field	What it means
Name (required)	Up to 150 characters, unique in your organization. Messages: "Name is required", "Use at most 150 characters", and on save "A workflow rule named '<name>' already exists". Placeholder: "Remind buyer before demand due".
Entity (required)	The kind of record the rule watches (hint "The kind of record the rule watches."). One of Opportunity, Estimate, Booking, Allottee, Termsheet, Schedule row, Demand, Payment, Commission, Construction stage, Contact, Unit, Task, Project, Books, RERA sweep or Escrow withdrawal (the last two belong to the Payments module). Message: "Choose an entity". Changing it clears the watched columns and event type.
Description	Optional, up to 255 characters.
Project scope	"All projects" by default; pick one project to limit the rule to that project's records (hint "Limit the rule to one project's records."). If you can't browse projects the field is greyed out with "You cannot browse projects; the rule applies to all of them." Contact rules can't have a project: "Contact rules are organization-wide".
Priority	−1000 to 1000, default 0. "Lower runs first when several rules match (−1000 to 1000)."
Active	Ticked by default. "Inactive rules are kept but never run."

Trigger

"What starts this rule." Five cards; pick one:

Trigger	When it fires
On Create (default)	"Runs once when a new record is created."
On Update	"Runs when a record changes; optionally only when chosen columns change." Shows Watched columns: tick the columns that matter (up to 50, "Watch at most 50 columns"; the created / updated stamps are not offered). The hint reads "Runs only when one of the N ticked column(s) changes." or "None ticked: runs on every update of the record."
On Event	"Runs when a named event of this entity is raised (system or custom)." Shows Event type: the entity's active event types as "name (code)", placeholder "Choose an event type…" or "No event types for this entity". Hint: "Generic record events are not listed: use On Create / On Update for those. Custom event types are defined on the Event types tab." Message: "Choose the event type this rule listens to".
Scheduled	"Runs on a cron schedule over every record that matches the conditions." Shows the Schedule (below). Each firing creates one run per matching record.
Manual	"A button on the record; the user fills in a small form first." Shows Input form (below).

Schedule (Scheduled rules)

The schedule works like a meeting recurrence:

• Start date (required, "Pick a start date") and Time (default 09:00, "Pick a time"). Start today fills in today's date.
• "Repeat every" a number from 1 to 99 and a unit: day, week (default: every week), month or year (shown as days, weeks… when the number is above 1).
• For weeks, seven day chips lettered M, T, W, T, F, S, S (hover shows the day name; Monday is picked by default; "Pick at least one day of the week").
• For months and years, "on day" 1 to 31; for years also the month (default April). A month that doesn't have that day is skipped.
• Until: an optional end date. Without one the hint reads "no end date: runs for ever"; once set, a bin icon (No end date) clears it. Message: "The end date must be on or after the start date".
• A sentence sums it up, for example "Occurs every week on Mon at 09:00 from 28 Sep 2026, with no end date · first run 2026-09-28, then for ever", or "N runs between the two dates" when there is an end date ("no runs" when the dates never meet the pattern). Before a start date it reads "Pick a start date to see the schedule."
• The hint under the field reads "Times are in the server's timezone." (Asia/Kolkata on a standard set-up) or, on a saved rule, "Next run <date and time> (server time)".

Use a cron expression switches to Schedule (cron), a five-part expression (placeholder "0 8 * * *", hint "minute hour day month weekday; the server checks the expression when you save."). Messages: "Enter a schedule", "Use five fields: minute hour day month weekday"; an expression the server can't read is refused on save. Use the calendar picker instead switches back.

Input form (Manual rules)

"The fields a user fills in before the rule runs on a record." A table with one row per field:

• Name: the short name used to refer to the value in texts and conditions; lower-case letters, digits and underscores (what you type is converted; placeholder "reason"). Row messages: "Required", "snake_case", "Duplicate".
• Label: what the person sees on the form (placeholder "Reason").
• Type: string, text, number, integer, date, boolean or select.
• Required: tick to make the field mandatory.
• Options / limits: for select, the options, comma separated ("Comma separated"); for string and text, a maximum length; for number and integer, a minimum and maximum.
• Move up, Move down and Remove field icons.

Add field adds a row (up to 20). The counter reads "N/20 · values are available as {{ input.<name> }} and input.<name> in conditions". With no rows: "A Manual rule needs at least one input field."

On save the app checks: "Manual rules need at least one input field.", "Manual rules take at most 20 input fields.", "Input field N: name is required.", "Input field N: name must be snake_case (letters, digits, underscores).", "Input field N: name "<x>" is used twice.", "Input field N: label is required.", "Input field N: a select needs at least one option."

Conditions

"Only records that match run the actions. Leave empty to match every record the trigger delivers." Until you pick an entity it reads "Choose an entity first."

• With no conditions yet it reads "Add a condition to narrow which records this rule applies to."
• The AND / OR switch decides whether "all of these" or "any of these" must hold.
• Condition adds a row: a field ("Choose a field…"), an operator and a value. Group adds a nested group with its own AND / OR (up to 5 levels: "Groups nest at most 5 levels"); an empty nested group reads "Empty group: it always matches." Up to 50 conditions in all; Condition greys out when they are used up. The x on a row removes it (Remove condition, Remove group).
• The field list is grouped as Columns (the record's own fields), Related rows (a linked record, such as the contact of an opportunity: "A column of the related contact row, e.g. contact.name"), Context (values from the manual form, the event, what changed, or earlier actions) and Custom path… for anything typed by hand.
• Operators: ==, !=, >, >=, <, <=, IN, NOT IN and, for On Update rules only, CHANGED_TO ("True when this column changed to the value in this update.").
• The value box fits the field: a drop-down for statuses and stages ("Choose…"), true / false, a number, or a date. A date can be a fixed Date or Relative: Today, Today + days or Today − days. For IN and NOT IN you pick several values (chips for statuses, otherwise a comma-separated list, "one, two, three"). On a related-row or context path the app can't know the type, so the box reads 'text, 12, true, null or "quoted text"': numbers, true, false and null are typed automatically, and double quotes keep a value as text.
• The counter reads "No conditions: the rule matches every record." or "N conditions". Scheduled rules add " · Scheduled rules compare bare columns only.": they can only compare the record's own columns, not related rows or context.
• JSON shows the raw condition tree for copying or pasting: "Applied when the box loses focus. Leaves are {field, op, value}; groups are {operator, rules}."
• A condition without a field stops the save: "Conditions: every condition needs a field."

Actions

"What the rule does, in order (N/25). Results of earlier steps are available to later ones as actions.<n>." With no actions yet: "No actions yet" and "A rule without actions matches records but does nothing."

Add action (greyed out with "Choose an entity first" until you pick an entity, or "At most 25 actions" when the rule is full) opens the "Add action" dialog. It lists the actions that apply to the entity in two groups:

• Side effects: "Notify people, create tasks, send messages, call other systems."
• Domain operations: "Change records the way a user would; each needs the same permissions."

Each card shows the action's description and, where it applies, "needs <permission>". Actions that your server can't run are greyed out with the tooltip "Not available on this server" and an Unavailable badge. Cancel closes the dialog. New actions are added at the end of the list.

Action	Group	For	What you set	Permission needed
Notify users	Side effect	Any record	Title (required), Body, and the recipients: Users, User fields ("Columns of the record that hold a user.") and Roles ("Every active user holding the role."). At least one recipient: "Recipients: pick at least one user, user field or role." The recipients see it under Notifications.	—
Create task	Side effect	Any record	Title (required), Description, Assign to (A user, A user field of the record or A role; a role goes to the member with the fewest open tasks), Due in days ("0 = today; blank = no due date."), Priority (default Normal), Link the task to the record. The task appears on the assignee's Tasks page.	the Create permission on Tasks
Close open tasks	Side effect	Any record	Note on each closed task (a template; 'Appended as "Closed automatically: <note>."; may use merge fields.'). Cancels the Open and In Progress tasks linked to the record and adds the note to the end of each task's description; a record with no open task is skipped.	the Edit permission on Tasks
Send email	Side effect	Any record	To (required; addresses or merge fields, comma separated, up to 20), then either Use a message template (Email template: "Active Email templates from the Message templates tab.") or Write the email here (Subject and Body), and Attach documents: Add attachment adds a row with a document template ("Choose a template…") and a format (PDF or Word), up to 5 ("Generated for the record when the email goes out (published templates of this record type)."). With a message template: "Attachments configured on the message template itself are added too."	—
Update field	Side effect	Any record	Column ("Only columns the registry marks updatable.") and Set to as a fixed Value or a Template. Money and other financial columns can't be written this way.	the Edit permission on the record's module
Call webhook	Side effect	Any record	URL ("https:// only; templates allowed."), Method (POST or PUT), Timeout (s) (1 to 15, default 10), Headers (Header adds a name / value row; up to 10), Body ("Template; blank sends the record as JSON.").	—
Send WhatsApp	Side effect	Any record	Unavailable: "Needs a WhatsApp Business provider".	—
Send SMS	Side effect	Any record	Unavailable: "Needs an SMS provider".	—
Generate document	Side effect	Any record	Document template (required; "A published template of this record type; the document is numbered and filed on the record."), Format (PDF or Word), Email to (optional) ("Leave blank to only file the document. Comma separated addresses or templates such as {{ contact.email }}."); once an address is typed, Email subject ("Blank = the document title.") and Email body appear.	the Create permission on Generated Documents
Cancel booking	Domain	Booking	Reason. Refused once money has been recorded on the booking.	the Edit permission on Bookings
Cancel the booked estimate	Domain	Booking	Nothing to set.	the Edit permission on Estimates
Cancel the allottee's offer	Domain	Booking	Nothing to set.	the Edit permission on Termsheets
Reverse demand	Domain	Demand, Booking	Reason, Cancel date ("A date (YYYY-MM-DD) or a template such as {{ today }}; blank = today."). Raises a credit note; refused once anything is paid.	the Edit permission on Demands
Release unit	Domain	Unit	"Releases the unit of this record. Nothing to configure."	the Edit permission on Towers, Floors & Units
Assign opportunity	Domain	Opportunity	Assign to: A user or A role ("Exactly one: a user, or a role (the engine picks a member of that role)."). A role goes to the member with the fewest open opportunities.	the Edit permission on Opportunities
Mark opportunity lost	Domain	Opportunity	The reason.	the Edit permission on Opportunities
Reopen opportunity	Domain	Opportunity	Nothing to set.	the Edit permission on Opportunities
Create demand run	Domain	Project	"One demand per buyer (or member offer) of the project, holding every open installment due on or before the as-of date. Nothing due means no run." Bill everything due on or before (default TODAY; a date or a token such as TODAY, THIS_MONTH_END or LAST_MONTH_END, each with an optional +N / −N days), Demand date (usually TODAY, the day the rule fires), Due after (days) (default 15, up to 365), Subjects (Bookings (buyers), Member offers (charges and GST) or Bookings and member offers), Issue the demands at once (ticked; unticked, "the run stays Draft for someone to review and issue"), Skip when nothing is due (ticked; unticked, "an empty Draft run is recorded"), Narration on each demand.	the Create permission on Demands, plus the Issue permission on Demands when issuing at once
Post RERA sweeps	Domain	Project, Payment	On a payment it posts one sweep for that receipt alone, dated its clearing date, and does nothing unless the record is a cleared consideration receipt into the project's collection account that is not on a live sweep; on a project it sweeps by clearing date. "Mirrors the bank's sweep of the project's collection account: one sweep per clearing date with receipts not yet swept, the escrow share in force to the RERA separate account and the rest to the operative account, as one Contra voucher. On a payment event it sweeps that receipt alone, dated its clearing date; on a project it sweeps everything cleared up to the date." Sweep receipts cleared on or before (default TODAY; "A date (YYYY-MM-DD) or TODAY, THIS_MONTH_START, THIS_MONTH_END, LAST_MONTH_START, LAST_MONTH_END, each with an optional +N / -N days (LAST_MONTH_END, TODAY-3)."), Post the sweeps at once (ticked; "The bank has already moved the money; the voucher only mirrors it (needs the Edit permission on Payments). Unticked: Draft sweeps wait under Payments > RERA sweeps."), Skip when nothing is unswept (ticked; "No action result when every cleared receipt into the collection account is already swept."), Notes on each sweep ("Optional Jinja template."). The seeded rules "Receipt cleared into the collection account: post its RERA sweep (system)" (on a payment) and "Daily RERA sweeps (system)" (on a project) use it; see RERA sweeps.	the Create and Edit permissions on Payments
Create payout run	Domain	Books	"One Pending payout per payee for everything due on or before the as-of date in these books. Approval stays manual unless switched on; clearing always is." Kind (required: Member benefits (rent, corpus, shifting; accrued first), Channel-partner commissions or Refunds of cancelled bookings), Project filter ("Blank = every project of the books."; only if you may list projects), Pay everything due on or before, Payment date, Mode (default NEFT), From our account (Primary bank account, Cash or A specific bank account (id)), Approve the run at once (unticked; "Unticked: a Finance Lead approves before the bank file is exported."), Skip when nothing is due (ticked), Notes on the run.	the Create permission on Payments, plus the Approve permission on Payments when approving at once
Prepare revenue run	Domain	Books	The period end (default: the end of last month) and notes. Prepares a Draft revenue run; skipped when a Draft already exists. Posting stays manual.	the Create permission on Revenue Recognition
Refund payment	Domain	Booking, Payment	Unavailable: refunds come from the booking cancellation wizard.	—
Post charge	Domain	Booking	Unavailable: cancellation charges come from the booking cancellation wizard.	—

A few actions (Cancel the booked estimate, Cancel the allottee's offer, Mark opportunity lost, Reopen opportunity, Prepare revenue run) have no form of their own; their settings show as a small JSON box with "No form for this operation yet; edit the config as JSON."

Each action card shows:

• its number, the action name and a Domain or Side effect badge;
• Name (optional), a label for the action (up to 100 characters);
• Active (an inactive action is kept but skipped, and the card shows an Inactive badge) and Continue on error (when ticked, a failure of this action is noted and the run carries on);
• Move up, Move down, Duplicate action and Remove action icons;
• the settings form;
• "Needs <permissions> (checked against whoever saved the rule when it runs)." where the action needs permissions;
• Template variables, a collapsible reminder of the merge fields you can use in the action's texts: the record's columns, related rows, the manual form's values, event keys, old and new values of changed columns, earlier actions' results, your organization's name, today's date and the link to the app;
• Only when…: conditions for this action alone. "Evaluated just before this step; when false the step is skipped and the run continues." The badge "conditions set" shows when some are set.

If an action on the rule is one your server can't run, its card shows "<Action> is not available on this server: <reason> The rule cannot be saved while this action is on it; remove it or wait until the operation is enabled." and the save is refused with "actions[N]: <ACTION> is not available on this server; remove it to save."

Advanced

"Chain rules by raising a custom event when this one finishes." Show reveals Emits event type (placeholder "None", or "No custom event types yet"): "Only custom (non-system) event types, of any entity. Rules listening to it run next (depth-limited by the engine)." Collapsed, it reads "Nothing configured." or "Raises a custom event after the actions run."

The event must belong to the same entity as the rule (the server refuses one of another entity with "<CODE> is about <entity>, not <entity>"), must be a custom event ("A rule can only emit a custom event type") and can't be the event the rule itself listens to ("A rule cannot emit the event it listens to").

What you can do

Create rule

Saves the rule as version 1 and opens its page (Rule), with the message ""<name>" created." For an active Scheduled rule the next run time is worked out straight away.

• Who: anyone with the Create permission on Workflow Rules. Without it the button isn't shown.
• The rule is checked in full before it is saved. Common refusals:
  • "Fix the problems below before saving." with the client-side checks listed above;
  • "A rule needs at least one action or an emitted event";
  • "A workflow rule named '<name>' already exists";
  • an action that needs a permission you don't hold, named in the banner as "actions[N]: <ACTION> needs <permission>";
  • texts with a merge-field mistake, shown as "<field>: <problem> (line N)";
  • "SEND_EMAIL needs a message_template_id or both subject and body" when a Send email action has neither a template nor a subject and body;
  • "Role '<name>' does not exist in this organization", or "Not active users of this organization: …" for a user who has been deactivated;
  • "UPDATE_FIELD cannot write <entity>.<column>; allowed: …" for a column Update field may not write;
  • "Headers not allowed: …", "At most 10 headers" or "Must be an https:// URL." on a Call webhook action;
  • "conditions: <path> is not a field of <entity>" for a condition on a field that doesn't exist. Problems land on the field, on the offending action card (outlined in red) or above the conditions.

Add action, Add field, Condition, Group

Build the rule as described under "What you see". These change the page only; nothing is saved until Create rule.

Presets

When the page opens from a runs page it is pre-filled, and Create rule is enabled at once:

• Schedule automatic demand runs: a Scheduled rule on Project named "Monthly billing: demand run for everything due", monthly on the 1st at 09:00 from today, with a Create demand run action and a Notify users action named "Tell finance" that tells the Finance Lead role about the run (only when a run was created).
• Schedule automatic payout runs: a Scheduled rule on Books named "Monthly member payouts", monthly on the 5th at 09:00, with a Create payout run action and the same "Tell finance" action.
• Schedule automatic revenue runs: a Scheduled rule on Books named "Monthly close: revenue run", monthly on the 1st at 09:00, with a Prepare revenue run action and a "Tell finance" action.
• Schedule automatic RERA sweeps (from the RERA sweeps page): a Scheduled rule on Project named "Daily RERA sweeps", every day at 09:00 from today, with a Post RERA sweeps action and a Notify users action named "Tell finance about failures" (only when a day could not be posted).

Adjust the schedule and options, then Create rule. The rules the presets create are ordinary rules, so you can change them later. Alternatively, switch on "Daily demand runs (system)", "Daily payout runs (system)" or "Monthly revenue run (system)" on the Rules tab. The RERA sweeps normally need no rule of yours: "Receipt cleared into the collection account: post its RERA sweep (system)" ships switched on and posts each receipt's own sweep the moment it clears; the system catch-up "Daily RERA sweeps (system)" ships off. Clone the immediate rule to leave Drafts to review.

Statuses

A new rule starts Active unless you untick Active, at version 1.

Things to know

• You become the rule's owner. A rule that fires on its own acts as the person who last saved it or switched it on. That is why the save checks every action against your permissions: the rule will never do more than you could do yourself. A Manual rule instead acts as the person who presses its button, and checks their permissions at that moment.
• Rules don't set each other off. Whatever a rule changes never triggers other rules, so an On Update rule never reacts to another rule's edit, and a task created by Create task doesn't trigger the task rules. The only way to chain rules is Emits event type together with an On Event rule, and a chain can only go two levels deep: runs beyond that are marked Blocked.
• Scheduled rules run over every matching record. Each firing looks at up to 1,000 records that meet the conditions and creates one run per record, once per record per scheduled time. Keep the conditions tight, or the rule will act on far more records than you meant.
• Scheduled rules compare bare columns only. Their conditions can't look at related rows or context, because they are turned into a database query. Conditions inside an action's Only when… block are evaluated at run time and can use more.
• Dates and "today". The schedule's time follows the server's timezone (Asia/Kolkata on a standard set-up). Today in a relative date condition and the today merge field use the calendar date in UTC, which is five and a half hours behind India: early-morning runs may still see yesterday's date.
• A Books rule can't be limited to a project. Books don't belong to a project, so a Project scope on a Books rule never matches any record. Leave it as "All projects".
• Two guards on sending. A Send email action only offers Active Email templates, and a document can only be attached or generated from a Published document template of the same record type.
• Update field writes notes and dates, never money. It offers only a few harmless columns per record type (notes, descriptions, dates such as an estimate's validity, a task's assignee or priority); it never writes money, statuses or anything the app manages itself.
• Money in texts. The money format offered in the variables reference groups digits the international way (1,250,000.00); the system rules use the Indian-grouping format (12,50,000.00) instead.
• Priority decides the order when several rules react to the same event: lower numbers first.

Related

• Rules
• Rule
• Event types
• Message templates
• Runs
• Document templates
• Demand runs
• Payout runs
• Roles & Permissions
• Tasks
• Notifications