How do I build an automation?

Last updated: September 25, 2026

Walk through building a welcome email that triggers when a placement is created.

Automations run actions — like sending emails or creating tasks — when specific events happen in your account. This guide walks you through the most common scenario: sending a welcome email to the employee every time a new placement is created.

Open the automation builder

In your Onboarded account, go to Configuration → Automations or navigate directly to your Automations page. You'll see a list of any automations you've already created. To start building, click New Automation.

Name and describe your automation

A form panel opens. Enter a descriptive name in the Automation Name field — something like "Welcome email on placement creation." Add a Description to explain what it does. These help your team identify the automation later if you need to edit or troubleshoot it.

Configure the trigger (Start node)

The Start node (shown in blue on the canvas) defines when this automation runs. You'll see fields for:

Trigger entity: Select Placement. This automation fires on placement events.
Run on new placement creation: Check this box. This is the key setting — it tells the automation to fire once when a placement is first created.
Dependencies (multi-select): Leave empty. You don't need additional trigger conditions for a simple welcome email.
Rerun Strategy: Select Do not allow reruns. This ensures the welcome email is sent exactly once per placement, not repeatedly if other placement data changes later.

You should see the Start node update with your trigger settings.

Picking the wrong trigger dependency causes email floods. If you select Status or another property in Dependencies, the automation will fire every time that property changes — not once on creation. For a welcome email sent once per placement, always use Run on new placement creation and leave Dependencies empty. If you need to send a task-related email (e.g., when a task status changes), use a Task trigger instead, with the specific task property in Dependencies.

Add a Send Email action

On the canvas, connect a new action node to the Start node. Click Add action and select Send Email from the action menu.

The email form appears. Fill in:

Email service: Leave this on Onboarded Email Service. It's the default on every new action and needs no setup — nothing to connect and no credentials to find.
Email template: Choose one of Onboarded's four standard templates. They differ only in whether the message opens with your branded header band and whether it ends with a call-to-action button.
Send email to: Select Employee. This sends the email to the employee's email address from their onboarding record.
Email subject and Email body: Write the message here. Type # in either field to insert a variable such as {{employee.first_name}}.
Theme (optional): Select a theme to render the email in your logo and colors. Pick one if you chose a template with a header band.
Dynamic Template Data: Leave empty for a simple welcome email. Templates that reference extra variables — a call-to-action button, for example — get a row scaffolded here automatically for each one they expect.

You should see the form validate as you fill it in. For the full walkthrough of this action, see 📄 How do I send an email from an automation?.

Publish your automation

As you build your automation, field changes auto-save (debounced). When you're ready to activate it, click the blue Publish button in the editor's top navigation. This makes the automation live — it will now fire on new placements. The status badge changes from Draft to Published, and the Publish button becomes inactive.

Once published, you'll see your automation listed on the Automations page with a status of Published.

Verify it works

Create a test placement in your account. The automation should fire immediately and the email should be sent. Go back to your automation and check the Events column — you should see a count of successful runs. To inspect a run block by block — its logs, the data it evaluated, and a Rerun button — see 📄 How do I check an automation's run history with the Events panel? If the email arrives with a blank spot in it, a variable path didn't resolve — the Data tab in that panel shows which one.

Heads up: If you need to add conditional branching (like "only send this email if the placement's employment type is full-time"), you'll need to rebuild the automation from scratch with a condition block inserted. Condition nodes can't be added to an existing published automation — save your current version first, delete it, and rebuild with the condition included.