Automation Workflows

Fund Flow's visual workflow builder lets you automate repetitive investor communications and tasks — sending emails, SMS messages, creating follow-up tasks, and updating contact fields — without writing code.

Plan Limits

Paused automations count against your limit. Delete unused workflows to free up slots.

Building a Workflow

Navigate to Automation in the main sidebar and click + New Workflow.

Step 1 — Name Your Workflow

Give the workflow a descriptive name (e.g., "New Lead Welcome Sequence" or "Deal Stage: Soft Commit Follow-Up") so it is easy to identify in the automations list.

Step 2 — Choose a Trigger

Every workflow starts with exactly one trigger. Available trigger types:

Contact Created

Fires when a new contact is added to your CRM — manually, via CSV import, or through a public sign-up form.

Use this for: Welcome emails, initial qualification tasks, adding contacts to a drip sequence.

Deal Stage Changed

Fires when a contact's pipeline stage updates to a specified value (e.g., "Soft Commit" → "Hard Commit" or "Lead" → "Contacted").

Use this for: Stage-specific follow-up sequences, internal team notifications, commitment paperwork tasks.

Date-Based

Fires at a specified date and time, either on an absolute date (e.g., "January 15, 2025") or relative to a contact field (e.g., "7 days before Commitment Due Date").

Use this for: Deadline reminders, anniversary emails, scheduled distribution notifications.

Manual

Fires when you explicitly select contacts and click Run Workflow. No automatic triggering.

Use this for: One-time bulk actions, re-engagement campaigns, testing before enabling automated triggers.

Step 3 — Add Steps

After the trigger, click + to add a step. Steps execute in sequence from top to bottom.

Send Email

Send a templated or custom email to the contact.

• Template: Select an existing email template or compose inline.
• Personalization: Use tokens like {{first_name}}, {{deal_name}}, and {{booking_link}} (see Email Marketing guide for full token list).
• From: Defaults to the connected Gmail account or Fund Flow's mailer.

Send SMS

Send a text message to the contact's mobile number (requires Twilio integration).

• Message: Up to 160 characters for a single SMS segment. Longer messages are split into multiple segments and billed accordingly.
• Tokens: Use {{first_name}} and {{deal_name}} for personalization.

Create Task

Creates a to-do item in Tasks assigned to a team member.

• Title: Describe the action required (e.g., "Call {{first_name}} to discuss commitment").
• Assignee: Assign to yourself or another team member.
• Due Date: Set to a fixed date or relative offset (e.g., "2 days after this step runs").

Update Field

Update a field on the contact record automatically.

• Field: Choose from standard fields (pipeline stage, investor status, custom fields).
• New Value: The value to write into the field when this step runs.

Use this for: Auto-advancing pipeline stages after a sequence completes, flagging contacts as "Emailed" after an outreach step.

Wait

Pause the workflow for a specified duration before proceeding to the next step.

• Duration: Set in hours, days, or weeks (e.g., "Wait 3 days").
• The contact remains in the workflow during the wait period. You can see which step each contact is on from the workflow's Contacts in Progress view.

If / Else (Condition)

Branch the workflow based on a contact or deal property.

• Condition: Choose a field (e.g., "Pipeline Stage", "Total Invested") and an operator (equals, greater than, contains, is empty).
• Yes path: Steps to run if the condition is true.
• No path: Steps to run if the condition is false.

Example: "If Pipeline Stage equals Soft Commit → Send commitment paperwork email. Else → Send deal overview email."

Step 4 — Activate

Toggle the workflow status to Active and click Save. The workflow will now fire automatically whenever its trigger condition is met.

Example Automations

New Lead Welcome Sequence

Trigger: Contact Created

1. Send Email — "Welcome to [Fund Name]" introduction email (StoryBrand style)
2. Wait — 2 days
3. Create Task — "Review new lead profile and qualify" (assigned to you, due in 1 day)
4. Wait — 5 days
5. Send Email — Deal overview with financials for your current open deal
6. Wait — 7 days
7. If / Else — Pipeline Stage equals "No Response"
   • Yes: Send SMS — "Hi {{first_name}}, did you get a chance to review our deal? Happy to answer any questions."
   • No: End

Soft Commit → Hard Commit Nudge

Trigger: Deal Stage Changed (to "Soft Commit")

1. Send Email — Commitment paperwork and subscription agreement instructions
2. Wait — 3 days
3. Create Task — "Follow up with {{first_name}} on paperwork" (due in 1 day)
4. Wait — 4 days
5. Send SMS — "Hi {{first_name}}, just checking in on the docs. Let me know if you need anything!"

Distribution Announcement

Trigger: Manual

1. Send Email — Distribution notice with amount and expected wire date
2. Update Field — Set "Last Distribution Date" to today

Managing Workflows

Pausing and Resuming

From the Automation list, use the toggle switch to pause or resume any workflow. Contacts already in progress will remain paused at their current step until the workflow is resumed.

Viewing Contact Progress

Click on a workflow name, then select Contacts in Progress to see which contacts are in the workflow, which step they are on, and when the next step is scheduled.

Editing Active Workflows

Changes to an active workflow take effect for contacts who have not yet reached the modified step. Contacts who have already passed a step are unaffected.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a contact be enrolled in multiple workflows at once? Yes. A contact can participate in multiple workflows simultaneously. Fund Flow does not prevent duplicate enrollment by default — use Update Field steps or If/Else conditions to prevent sending duplicate emails.

What happens if a contact's email bounces during an automation? The step is marked as failed in the workflow log. Subsequent steps still run unless you add an If/Else condition checking email deliverability.

Do Wait steps run on weekends? Yes. Wait step durations are calendar days, not business days. If you want to avoid sending on weekends, use a Date-Based trigger or schedule emails manually.

How do I know if an automation is working? Check the Workflow Logs tab on any automation to see a timestamped history of every contact processed, step executed, and any errors encountered.