[From Wrike] Updates to Wrike's Automation ๐ค
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Hi everyone!
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Lately, we've had some exciting updates to our Automation Engine! Wrikeโs Automation Engineย is a solution that helps automate routine actions in Wrike. It allows you to run routine procedures automatically, helping you save time and reduce mistakes in repetitive processes.
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In this post, I'd like to go through the recent updates with examples of how you can use them to achieve your best (automated) work โก๏ธ
๐ Conditions ๐
Conditions are a separate automation block that specifies the criteria the triggered item needs to meet for your rule to be executed. If all criteria are met your automation rule will be executed. You can read more about the automation conditions in this Community post.
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Let's go through a quick example of how we can use conditions.
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If I work with creatives at an hourly rate, I'd need to start the payment process when a task (their work) is approved. To automate this, I can create a rule with an IF condition that includes the billing type. If the task is approved, and the person is on an hourly rate, I can create a rule that adds the item to a folder and @mention the user responsible for payments to review the bill before payment.
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Another common example of using the IF condition is to combine importance and due date conditions. If my task's custom field changes to "Critical" and the due date has passed, this would need immediate attention. I can utilize the IF condition here and @mention the assignees with a note asking them to give an update.
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๐ช Space Level Automation with Custom Item Types ๐ช
Spaceย admins can now create and manageย automationย rules forย custom item types in a Space. Previously in order to create a rule an account admin needed to set it up in the Account Settings. With the new update, your department or team space can have its own rules ๐ If you'd like to create the CIT rule for the whole account, it's also possible!
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If you haven't yet heard about Custom Item Types, they are our latest feature, which allows you to create fully customizable task- and project-based item types that can be tailored to the needs of your whole organization or specific departments and teams. You can now create an automation rule on the Space level for Custom Item Types, and view the settings from the three-dot menu with easy access.
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From the three-dot menu, team members who are not Space admins can also view the rules that apply to the items creating more transparency and visibility into which automatic processes apply to their work.
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In parallel to this release, we have also updated ourย Use Case templates, three of them now have pre-built custom item types and space-level automaton rules. You can find out more about the use cases, and how you can use automation to level up your work in this post which includes step-by-step guidelines and video tutorials.
โ Higher Rule Count Limit โ
Previously, we had a limit of 100 automation rules only. This was one of the most common feedback we've received on the automation engine, with more and more teams relying on automation to increase productivity and efficiency the rule limit wasn't enough to catch up. Hearing the feedback, we have increased the rule count based on the subscription plan ๐
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You can see the raised limits below. And if you'd like to find out more about the limits please check out the Help Center article here:
Business: 2000
Enterprise: 3000
Enterprise Pinnacle: 4000
๐จ New UI ๐จ
We changed the look and feel of the Automation Engine to increase intuitiveness, smoothen the onboarding, and improve ease of use.
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We now have a graph-like design to draw the automation processes with boxes and connector lines. Also, each building block has a dedicated color, and each trigger, condition, and action has its icon for easy differentiation ๐
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The structure of the automation rule is pre-made with placeholders to guide you on which minimum building blocks are required to create anย automationย rule. We removed the linear flow so that you can explore whatย automationย can offer without needing to make any decision on which rule you want to create. Once you decide to which item type the automation rule should apply, you can click on triggers and actions to see the options.
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If you have already started using conditions or space-level item type-centric automation, we are interested to learn more about your examples, use cases, and best practices! Please tell us how you use automation in custom item types or automation conditions in the comments below.
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p.s. We are currently running usability testings for Wrike's Automation and looking for participants! If you'd like to participate in the development of future improvements for the Automation Engine check out this post๐
We are just starting to leverage automation rules. Have been happy with the improvements the Wrike team has made as we are now seeing more value of leveraging Automation. A few things we have automation do is notify users about task progress and also help us transition tasks quickly for some of our time sensitive activities.
I love automation. Makes our lives easier with approvals and repetitive tasks.ย
Automation helps us focus on the important things we need to do in Wrike, and allow Wrike to handle the repeatable processes for us.ย From simple automation like closing an Out of Office Request after the due date has passed, to using the @mention features to send team comments on overdue work for status updates.ย One example is for managing New Wrike User requests.ย I typically process the ticket, and send a notification that the request has been completed - applying an automation rule there, I am able to just change to the appropriate status, and the automation rule sends the confirmation to the requestor.ย Helps save a ton of time, reyplying the same thing!
Already love some of our existing automations - looking forward to adding more with the added functionality when the need arises!
We have about 20 automations set up so far and are working on more. Some examples we have:
- If custom field is x, tag personย
- When status is x, add item to folder y, reassign to person, add mention to assignees
- In folder x, when project status is completed or closed, move to folder "archive"
- tasks in x, when new item created by UCMbot, reassign to person
This is great, we don't use automation this way with wrike, but do with forms and other items. I will have to look into it again and see if we can utilize it.
Thank you all for sharing your feedback on Wrike's Automation!
We only have a few automations.
- Notifications for tasks that are near due date or overdue
- Moving tasks from Active to Completed folder (and other similar rules)
- Updating parent tasks to Completed, if all subtasks are Cancelled or Completedย
I would like to see an automation that allows an at mention when a request comes in via blueprint and/or request form. We have some people who need to be informed of the incoming requests but are not responsible for the work at the start.ย
We have been using blueprints and workflow assignment automation, but seeing some of the great automation Melynda and Roxane have implemented inspires me to get some automation in place.
Does anyone else have automation ideas to share?ย
Thank you for all this! Our organization is beginning to work on building automations and utilizing this feature. We have need of automations connect services and coordinating work between teams.
We have several different departments setup in Wrike and each area has different automations pertaining to their specific areas. We use it to move projects to completed and notifications if task is past due, along with a few others. I haven't used the automation with the new custom item types but we will be looking for more ways to automate!
At the moment we are using automation mainly to remind people of overdue tasks (after X days), but also to give messages to specific people if status of a task changes to a specific state.
Also moving tasks or projects automated to an archive folder is used by some teams.
Automation is very useful to let Wrike work like we want.
For example, I would like each new task to be initially assigned to the creator (instead of leaving it unassigned). To do this, I would need the ability to have the automation assign a task to the creator, where I can currently only select a specific user.ย
It's great to hear (read๐) that so many of our Community members use the Automation! Thank you for sharing as always!
2 uses of automationย we use:
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We've had automation rules for the account for a while, and I've just noticed that the ability exists to set up automation rules per space - is there any benefit, and is it even possible to move automation rules from the account level down to the space level, or will I have to recreate my rules at the space level?
Hi Guy Murphy, when you are setting the automation rule you'd be asked in which locations the rule should apply when it's account level. You can select spaces or specific projects. Space level automation only applies to tasks or projects under that space.
Thanks @..., I reckon I'll carry on happily as I am, my account level rules currently apply to tasks in specific folders, and it works so I'll leave it.
Automations are super helpful!
Suggestion: Space admins should be able to do the same automations as admins but ONLY with their space. Only being able to have automations for custom item types isn't super useful for me or my team. Maybe it is my understanding of what a custom item type is, but it seems like I would have to completely customize my entire space to create the automations I need. This is a lot of extra work I feel could be fixed with improved access.ย
Hey Crystal Fugate, welcome to the Community ๐
Thank you for bringing up this topic! This is planned by our team, we'll be announcing it once it's available - please stay tuned ๐
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover