> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.parsalink.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Automations Overview > Build trigger-based workflows that run automatically — send follow-up emails, assign leads, update stages, and more without manual effort.
AUTOMATIONS OVERVIEW

Build trigger-based workflows that run automatically — send follow-up emails, assign leads, update stages, and more without manual effort.

Overview
## What Are Automations?
🤖 Automations are rules that watch for events in your CRM and execute a sequence of actions when those events occur. Once an automation is active, it runs 24/7 without any manual work from your team.
Every automation follows the same structure:
Trigger → (optional Conditions) → Sequence of Actions
• When a new lead is created AND the source is "Website Form" → Send a welcome email → Wait 2 days → Create a follow-up task. • When an opportunity stage changes to "Closed Won" → Update the linked contact's stage to "Customer" → Send a congratulations email → Notify the sales manager.
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How It Works
## How Automations Work
Select the event that starts the automation. Triggers include record creation, stage changes, field updates, scheduled times, email events, and inactivity conditions. See Triggers for the full list.
Conditions filter which records the automation applies to. For example, a trigger of "Lead Created" with a condition of Source = Website Form means the automation only runs for leads that came in through your website — not cold outreach leads.
Add one or more actions to execute in order. Actions can send emails, create tasks, update fields, assign users, post webhooks, and more. Between actions, add Wait steps to delay execution (e.g., wait 3 days before sending a follow-up).
Toggle the automation to Active. It will begin running immediately for all new events that match the trigger. Existing records are not retroactively enrolled unless you explicitly trigger a manual enrollment.
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First Automation
## Creating Your First Automation Let's build a simple new lead follow-up automation:
Click Automations in the left sidebar and then click New Automation.
Select Lead Created as the trigger. No conditions needed for this example — it will apply to all new leads.
Click Add Action → Send Email. Choose AI-Generated mode and enter a prompt like:
"Write a friendly welcome email to {'{{lead.firstName}}'} introducing our company and offering a 15-minute intro call."
Click Add Step → Wait. Set the wait to 3 days.
Click Add Action → Create Task. Set the task name to {'Follow up with {{lead.firstName}}'}, assign it to the lead's assigned user, and set due date to 1 day from now.
Give the automation a name like "New Lead Follow-Up" and click Save. Toggle it to Active.
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Key Concepts
## Key Concepts
Enrollment — A record is "enrolled" in an automation when it matches the trigger. Each record can only be enrolled in the same automation once at a time (unless re-enrollment is enabled).
Wait Steps — Pause execution between actions. Waits can be a fixed duration (hours, days, weeks) or wait until a specific time of day.
Exit Conditions — Stop the automation early if something changes. For example, exit if the lead is converted before the sequence finishes.
Step Conditions — Skip individual steps based on the current state of the record at execution time.
Full list of all available automation triggers. Full list of all available automation actions. How to use trigger, step, and exit conditions. Pre-built automations ready to install in one click.