Automate a request type

Plans: Pro and Agency.

You can automate each request type. With automations you can set it up so that every request of that type gets the same assignee, message, status or Intake Form without anyone on your team lifting a finger. You set this on the Automations tab in Settings › Requests › Request types. Automations apply to every request of that type.

Set up assignees and triggers

Open Settings › Requests › Request types, select a request type and open Automations.
In Assignees, choose one or more team members in Assign and the clients in To clients: specific clients or All clients. You must fill in both.
Select Create new rule to add a rule for other clients — for example, one rule for the account manager of one client and one rule for all other clients.
Select Add new trigger and choose a trigger.
Choose the action: Change status, Send message or Send intake form, and fill in its settings. For example, Creating new Request → Send message tells the client that you received their request.
Select Save.

The Automations tab: assignees (2), another assignment rule (3), triggers (4) and their actions (5), and Save (6).

To change the order of the triggers, drag them by the handle on the left.

Five triggers react to what happens to the request

Trigger	When it runs
Creating new Request	A request of this type is created — by a client, by your team on their behalf, or by a service purchase.
Operator assigned	Somebody from your team is assigned to the request.
Request status changed	The request moves to a status that you pick by name.
Request state changed	The request moves into a state that you pick: Pending, Active or Completed.
Request archived	The request is archived.

Assignment rules name people, not roles

The people in a rule are assigned when the request is created; if a rule names several people, all of them are assigned. Roles play no part in this. If a type has no rules, its requests arrive unassigned, and someone assigns them by hand on the request.

The five triggers, and the action that follows each one.

Automated messages come from the system bot

An automation posts messages as the automated sender, not as a person. You set its name and avatar under System bot in Settings › Brand › Domain & email. A form sent by an automation appears in Forms › Shares with the same sender in the Shared by column. See Name the system bot and set your help links.

Changes apply to requests already in progress

Automations are read each time something happens, so a change to them applies at once, also to requests that are already open. A status change made by an automation does not start other automations, so automations cannot loop.

Automations cannot react to payments, orders, deadlines or schedules

There is no trigger for a payment, an order, a deadline or a schedule. To tell your team about these, use notifications. To make something happen outside Zendo, use Zapier. See Set notification defaults for your team and clients and Connect Zapier.

Updated on: 09/11/2026

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