Building your first automation

Updated 19 September 2026

Go to Automations in the sidebar.

An automation starts with one trigger, such as a deal changing stage, then runs the steps you connect to it. You build it by dragging nodes onto a canvas and joining them.

Automations page in Lend1, showing the stats bar, the Templates and New Automation buttons, and a table of automations with their trigger, status and run count

Before you start

Building needs the Manage Automations permission, or Manage Own Automations for automations that run on your own deals. The Admin role has full access; the default Broker and Support roles hold Manage Own Automations. An admin grants these under Settings > Roles & Permissions. See Creating custom roles and permissions.
Your plan caps your automations: 5 on Starter, 20 on Pro, unlimited on Enterprise. Drafts and paused automations count; templates don't. At the cap, a Plan limit reached dialog appears when you try to add another. See Managing your plan and billing.

Start from a template or from scratch

Select Templates to open Automation Templates, hover a card and select Use Template. Lend1 creates a Draft copy and opens it in the builder. If the gallery says No templates available, start from scratch.
Select New Automation to start with only a trigger on the canvas.

Build a stage change automation

This example creates a follow-up task whenever a deal moves into a stage you choose.

Step 1: Create the automation

Select New Automation. On Create Automation, enter a Name and set Trigger to Stage Changed. The builder can't change the trigger type later, so choose it here.
Select Create Automation. The builder opens on the Builder tab.

Step 2: Choose the stages

Select the Trigger node on the canvas. In the panel on the right, under Trigger on stages, tick the stages that should start the automation. Leave them all empty to trigger on every stage change.

Step 3: Add the task

From the Node Palette on the left, drag Create Task onto the canvas.
Drag from the connector at the bottom of the Trigger node to the top of Create Task to join them.
Select Create Task and fill in Title, Description, Priority, Due In and Unit.
Select Save. The header shows Unsaved changes until you do.

Automation Builder tab in Lend1, showing the Node Palette, a flow on the canvas and the Trigger panel with stages ticked under Trigger on stages

Available triggers

Below is a table of triggers and when each one fires.

Trigger	Fires when
Deal Created	A deal is created.
Stage Changed	A deal moves to a different stage.
Deal Updated	A deal field is updated.
Contact Created	A contact is created.
Contact Updated	A contact field is updated.
Form Submitted	A client submits a form.
Form Submission Processed	A form submission finishes processing.
Document Uploaded	A document is uploaded.
Document Approved	A document is approved.
Document Rejected	A document is rejected.
eSign Sent	An eSign request is sent.
eSign Signed	Documents are signed.
eSign Declined	An eSign request is declined.
Message Received	A message is received.
Customer Registered	A client registers.
Task Completed	A task is completed.
Task Overdue	A task becomes overdue.
Application Completed	An applicant or co-applicant finishes their application.
Deal Inactive	A deal has been inactive.
Scheduled	The daily or weekly schedule on the Trigger tab comes due.
Manual	You select Run Now on an active automation.
Webhook	An external system calls the webhook URL on the Trigger tab.

Available actions

Below is a table of nodes in the Node Palette and what each one does.

Node	What it does
Send Email	Sends an email, from a template or a custom subject and body. See Writing email templates and global variables.
Send SMS	Sends an SMS.
Notification	Sends an in-app notification.
Update Deal	Updates deal fields, including the stage.
Update Contact	Updates the contact.
Create Deal	Creates a deal.
Assign Deal	Assigns the deal to a user.
Create Task	Creates a task.
Add Note	Adds a note to the deal, or to the contact when the run has no deal.
Assign Form	Assigns a form to the deal.
Request Docs	Requests documents.
Request eSign	Sends an eSign request to the deal's contact.
Condition	Branches on a condition.
Branch	Splits into paths.
Delay	Waits a Fixed Duration or Until Specific Time.
AI Action	Runs an AI-powered action.
API Call	Calls an external API.
Sync Integration	Pushes data to an integration.
End	Ends the flow.

Test it

Select Test. Dry Run Results lists each step and flags any marked Skipped or Would fail. A dry run is safe: "Nothing was sent or changed. Merge fields appear blank because a dry run has no deal attached."

Dry Run Results dialog in Lend1 listing each step that would run, with a note that nothing was sent or changed

Turn it on

Select Activate. The badge changes from Draft to Active. Select Pause to stop it. Both are also open to the Activate/Pause Automations permission.

Congratulations! Your first automation is live. The next deal that moves into one of your chosen stages gets its task.

Read the run history

Open the Runs tab, or select View Runs from the row menu. Each run shows Trigger, When, Duration and Status. Select a row to see Started, Completed and each step under Steps, with the error beside any step that failed.

Status	What it means
Running	Steps are executing. Cancel run stops it.
Waiting	Paused at a Delay; it resumes on its own. Cancel run stops it.
Completed	The run finished.
Failed	A step failed and the run stopped. Retry run tries again.
Cancelled	The run was cancelled.

Please note: when a run fails, Lend1 sends an in-app notification to whoever created the automation and to the user assigned to the deal.

Runs tab of an automation in Lend1 with one Completed run expanded to show its Started and Completed times and its Steps