Automations let you set up workflows that run automatically when something happens in Classcard - such as sending a welcome email when a student books online, or creating a staff task when an invoice is generated.
Automations involve two main parts:
1. Trigger: This is what starts the automation. It's an event that tells the system, "It's time to do something." For example, receiving an online booking or marking a student's attendance could be a trigger.
2. Action: This is what the system does in response to the trigger. For instance, sending a customised email or adding a task to a staff member's task list could be actions.
Within your actions, you can also add:
Filters: conditions that control when the automation continues (e.g. only if the booking is for a specific subject)
Delays: pauses between steps (e.g. wait 1 day before sending a follow-up email)
So, in simple terms, a trigger is like pressing a start button, and the action is what happens after you press it.
Creating a New Automation
Navigate to the ⚡ icon at the top of any screen on Classcard. Click + Create automation in the top-right corner.
A blank canvas will open with two options:
Click the Trigger block to build from scratch
Or click Start with a template to begin from a pre-built workflow
Option A: Build from Scratch
Step 1: Choose a Trigger
Click the Trigger block to open the trigger selector. There are 18 triggers to choose from, including:
Trial booked - when a student or lead books a trial via your web or app
Online booking successful - when a student or lead completes a booking online
Attendance marked - when a student's or lead's attendance status is recorded for a class
Invoice created - when a new invoice is generated, manually or automatically
Payment recorded - when a successful transaction is logged against an invoice
Holiday - on specific dates you've designated as holidays in your calendar
Student's birthday - on the date matching the birth date in the student's profile
And more
Select a trigger and click Continue.
💡 If you need to change the trigger later, you'll be warned that any actions referencing the old trigger's data will need to be reconfigured.
Step 2: Add Actions
Once a trigger is set, select an action from the Action dropdown. Click the + node to add more steps.
Filters
Click Add Filter to narrow down which records the automation should apply to. For example, only continue if the booking is in a specific category.
Click Add new filter and choose a field from the dropdown (e.g. Lead name, Invoice status, Staff name)
Choose a condition: is, is any of, is not, is none of, is empty, is not empty
Enter the value(s) to match
You can add multiple filter conditions.
Delays
Click Add a Delay to pause the automation for a set amount of time before the next step runs (e.g. 10 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day).
Send an Email
Send a personalised email to a student, parent, or staff member.
To - select the recipient (e.g. Student/Lead → Email address)
Reply to - set the email address replies should go to
From name - shown as the sender name (defaults to {{Institute_name}})
Email subject - required
Email content - rich text editor; use the {x} button to insert dynamic variables (e.g. student name, class details)
Send test email - sends a preview to check formatting
Receive a copy - tick to get a copy of every email sent
Update Profile
Automatically update a student or lead's record in Classcard.
Choose profile type: Student or Lead
Select the fields to update from the dropdown (e.g. last name, phone, birthday)
Create a Task
Assign an internal to-do task to a staff member.
Start a Chat
Send a direct message to a student, parent, or staff member via:
Classcard - type a free-text message, using variables to personalise it
WhatsApp - choose a pre-approved WhatsApp template from your template library, then map the template variables (e.g. {{1}} → Student first name) to the correct fields
After adding the action, click Continue.
Step 3: Publish
When your automation is ready, click Publish in the top-right corner. In the Publish automation pop-up, add the automation Name and toggle the Set live button. Click Save and set live.
The automation will go Live and start executing whenever the trigger event occurs.
To make changes to a live automation, edit it and click Publish changes.
To pause an automation without deleting it, toggle it off from the automations list.
Here's a video on how to build custom automations:
Option B: Start with a Template
Templates give you a pre-built automation you can customise. There are four available, grouped by category:
Operations
Post booking instructions - Send specific instructions to a student when they complete an online booking
Auto-pin note for new students - Automatically attach and highlight a specified field on a student's profile when they're added
Sales
Post trial follow up - Create a staff task to follow up with a lead after they've attended a trial session
Marketing
Birthday promotion reminder - Send your students a birthday message with a promotional offer
Select a template to load it into the editor, then adjust the steps to fit your needs.
Here's a video on building automations using ready-made templates:
Run History
Click into any automation and go to the Run history tab to see a log of every time it has run.
Filter runs by:
All runs
Successful
In progress
Failed
You can adjust the time range by clicking on the calendar icon.
Click on any run to expand it and see:
The trigger data (e.g. student name, subject, category, location, event date)
The result of each step (Completed or Failed)
This is useful for troubleshooting if an automation isn't behaving as expected.
Managing Automations
From the automations list, click the three-dot menu (⋮) on any automation to rename, duplicate, or delete it.
Paused automations remain saved but won't run until you toggle them back on.
💡 Automations only apply to events that happen after the automation is published. They do not run retroactively on past records.