An action is what the automation does after its trigger fires. Add actions by clicking Add action on the automation canvas, which opens the Add an action panel ("Choose what happens next."). Click an action to open its settings straight away; Back returns you to the list. You can chain several actions one after another, and insert delays or conditional branches between them.
The panel groups the actions:
- Paths and timing — Add conditions, Delay, Find people and organisations.
- Update records — Create a task, Create post, Manage categories, Update custom fields.
- Send a message — Send an email, Send a text message.
- Not available here — actions that can't be used at this point in the path, with the reason. For example Split by record type appears here with "Needs one person or organisation, and this path doesn't have one." until the path carries a single record.
Each action's settings start with a Step name, which is what the canvas shows for that step (the action type stays underneath it). The available actions are listed below; conditional branching (Add conditions (If/Then)) is covered in Conditional outcomes & branching.
Update custom fields
"Set or update custom fields on a contact." Use this action to change the value of a custom field automatically.
- Choose Which contact will be updated? (the target). The options are grouped — the trigger's own options appear under the trigger's name (for example Affected Contact for Custom field updated, or Created contacts, Updated contacts and Created or updated contacts for Form submitted), while Specific People and Specific Orgs appear under Custom:
- The trigger's contact (for example Affected Contact) — the contact tied to the trigger.
- Specific People — pick a specific list of people.
- Specific Orgs — pick a specific list of organisations.
- Choose Which Custom Field you want to update.
- Choose What sort of change to make:
- Set — sets the field to this value. For a select field, all existing selected options are replaced.
- Add — adds this value to the field. For a single-select field, only adds if the field is currently empty.
- Remove — removes this value from the field. No effect if the value isn't present.
- Clear — clears the value for this field.
- Set What value should be set (where applicable). For date custom fields, the picker also accepts relative dates like @today, @tomorrow or @today(+7d), set relative to when the automation runs. You can also insert merge fields (type @) into the value; suggestions match on any part of the field name, so typing @text finds every field with "text" in its name.
Send an email
"Deliver a personalised message or notification to contacts." Use this action to send an email automatically.
- Choose Who is the recipient of your email?:
- The trigger's contact — the email address of the contact tied to the trigger (labelled Affected Contact's Email for a Custom field updated trigger, or The contact who filled the form for a Form submitted trigger).
- Specific email addresses — type a list of addresses, separated by commas (for example, an internal team).
- Set the Sender name and Sender email. The sender email is a Username field plus a Domain dropdown (for example, swiftfoxcrm.com). Sender name, sender email, subject line and email body are all required.
- Enter the Subject line.
- Compose the Email body in the rich-text editor. You can also Browse templates to start from a saved template, Save as template, or select Go to full builder to compose on the full email canvas.
- Insert merge field values (type @) where you want contact, form or transaction details to appear. The fields available depend on the trigger that started the automation — not all fields are available in every journey. See Merge fields availability & limitations by trigger.
Send a text message
"Reach contacts directly via SMS for urgent or quick updates." Use this action to send a text message automatically.
- Choose Who is the recipient of your text? (the target).
- Under Sender details, choose the Sender Number (a sender name plus number) your recipients will recognise and trust, from the dropdown.
- Write the Message. A live counter shows the character count and number of SMS units used.
- Choose an Unsubscribe (opt-out) method for campaign recipients:
- Recipients can reply UNSUB to opt-out.
- Create a custom message.
- No unsubscribe option (not recommended).
- Insert merge field values (type @) where needed. A Message preview shows how the text will appear. Availability of merge fields depends on the trigger.
Find people and organisations
"Run steps for each matching record." Use this action to pick a set of records and run the steps that follow once for each of them. It is the usual first step after a Schedule trigger (see Triggers (custom field, address, contact, form submitted, receipt)), because a schedule has no contact of its own.
- Under Who to find, choose the Record type: People or Organisations.
- Choose the Source:
- A saved list — pick a Saved list built in List Builder. With People selected, only lists of people are shown. Once you choose one, the panel shows how many records currently match.
- Criteria — click Add criteria and build the rules here, using the same field menus and operators as List Builder (see List Builder field menus and operators).
- Under For each match, choose what happens If a step fails for one person (or organisation): Continue with the next person (the rest of the steps are skipped for that one only) or Stop the automation (no more records are processed).
- Under More settings, optionally change the Results name (later steps use it to insert details, for example @People results: Current query item name) and the Record limit (maximum 10,000). If more records match than the limit, the step stops before any actions run.
- Click Add action.
On the canvas the step has two outcomes: the steps you place inside the loop run once for each record, and when they are all done the automation carries on through Done. Inside the loop, the current record is available to later steps (as a target for Update custom fields, Create post, emails and texts) and as merge fields.
Create post
"Create a post for selected records." Use this action to add a post to one or more profiles automatically.
- Under Link the post to, choose who the post is recorded against. After a trigger or step that carries a record, that record is offered; otherwise choose Specific people or Specific organisations and pick them.
- Write the Post content. Type @ to insert a merge field.
- Click Add action.
Split by record type
"Follow a different path for a person or organisation." Use this action when a path can carry either a person or an organisation — for example after a Receipt trigger, where the receipt may belong to either — and the next step only works for one of them (such as Update custom fields, which needs to know which record type's field to change). The step splits the canvas into a person path and an organisation path; add the right actions under each. It is only offered when the path carries a single person or organisation.
Delay
"Wait a set time before the next step." Use this action to pause the journey before the next action runs — this is what turns a single action into a staged, multi-step journey.
- Set the Duration (a number) and the Timeframe: Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, or Weeks.
- The next action only runs once the delay has elapsed.
Create a task
"Generate a new to-do item for yourself or your team." Use this action to raise a follow-up task automatically.
- Enter a Task name describing the task.
- Optionally set a Due date. As well as a fixed date, the picker accepts relative dates like @today, @tomorrow or @today(+7d), so the due date is worked out from when the automation runs (for example a task due seven days after it triggers).
- Assign to a User or a Team, then choose who from the list.
- Set Permissions via Sharing permissions to control who can view or edit the task.
Manage categories
"Add or remove categories from a person or organisation." Use this action to update the categories on a record.
- The Record Type is determined automatically from the trigger.
- Under Add Categories, select the categories to add to the record.
- Under Remove Categories, select the categories to remove from the record.
Combining actions
- Click Add action again after any action to chain another one.
- Mix emails, text messages, posts, custom field updates, category changes, tasks, delays, record lookups and conditional branches in a single automation to build a complete journey. See Building multi-step journeys (chaining, delays).