Automations

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Why Tallyfy is the AI control layer

Section titled “Why Tallyfy is the AI control layer”

What Tallyfy does	Why it matters in the age of AI
Define process steps	You can’t automate anything without a recipe.
Hand small tasks to AI	Massive reduction in mistakes, omissions, and hallucination.
People approve work	Accountability. You can’t blame AI for mistakes.
Hybrid people + AI tasks	AI can’t do every task in a process.
Track real-time status	Tracking AI sessions at scale is a nightmare.
Gradually shift tasks to AI	A total re-do will break a process that works today.

What are automations?

Section titled “What are automations?”

Each automation you add to a template has an If side and a Then side. They make each process adapt based on what users enter in form fields and what happens to tasks. No manual routing needed. For AI-powered task completion, see BYO AI integration.

Automations are also what keep a process reliable when AI is involved, since each task gets checked and routed before the next one runs. See why that matters in the AI task reliability calculator ↗.

Think of automations like a thermostat

Your thermostat runs on one instruction: IF temperature drops below a set point, THEN turn on the heat.

Tallyfy automations work the same way:

• IF something happens in your process (a form answer is “Urgent”, a task gets approved, or a step expires)
• THEN Tallyfy fires an action (assign a task to a manager, show a hidden step, or trigger a webhook)

Automations are like “choose your own adventure”

A customer selects “Complaint” as a support ticket type - the automation routes it to a specialized team. They pick “Feature Request” instead - it goes to the product backlog. One template handles multiple scenarios, guiding each process down the right path.

Types of automations

Visibility

IF this THEN show/hide that step

Assignment

IF this THEN assign someone

Deadline

IF this THEN shift the deadline

Status

IF this THEN re-open a task

What an automation is made of

Section titled “What an automation is made of”

Every automation has two parts: conditions and actions.

Conditions (the “IF” part)

Section titled “Conditions (the “IF” part)”

Conditions tell the automation when to fire. Two categories:

Step conditions - based on what happens to a task:

• Task completed, reopened, approved, rejected, acknowledged, or expired
• Task not assigned

Form field conditions - based on data entered in step form fields or kick-off form fields:

• Contains / doesn’t contain a value
• Equals / doesn’t equal a value
• Equals any of several values
• Greater than / less than (for numbers)
• Is empty / isn’t empty

You can combine multiple conditions with AND/OR logic.

Actions (the “THEN” part)

Section titled “Actions (the “THEN” part)”

When conditions are met, Tallyfy fires one or more actions on a target step:

• Visibility - show or hide a step
• Assignment - add assignees, replace all of them, or clear them all from a task
• Deadline - set a deadline before or after a starting point you choose, in minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months
• Status - reopen a completed task (useful for approval loops)
• Webhook - send an HTTP request to an external URL when conditions are met

Note

Visibility and deadline actions can only target each step once within a single automation.

When does all this actually run?

Section titled “When does all this actually run?”

An automation runs at most once per process. Tallyfy checks automations when the process launches and when a task is completed or reopened. Nothing watches a form field and reacts when its value changes.

That one sentence explains most of the surprises people hit, so it has its own page: when an automation runs.

Naming your automations

Section titled “Naming your automations”

Good names save time when debugging. Be specific:

• “Show steps for USA customers only” beats “Customer automation”
• “Assign to manager if urgent” beats “Automation 1”

Getting started

Section titled “Getting started”

• Actions
• Conditional visibility
• Conditionals
• Examples
• Logic operations explained
• When an automation runs

Browse automation examples for common patterns like service-level routing, approval loops, and dynamic assignment.

Check your automations before anyone runs the process

Automations interact in ways that are hard to see by reading them. A step can end up hidden on every path, two rules can fight over the same step, or a deadline can count from a step that never happens.

Connected AI can walk every path through your template and tell you what is broken, without launching anything or involving anyone. Just ask: “Test my template and tell me what is broken.” See Test a template before anyone runs it.

Related articles

Section titled “Related articles”

Tutorials > Create an automation

Tallyfy automations pair an If with a Then to adapt workflows at runtime. You can hide and…

Automations > Actions

Automation actions are the Then half of an automation. They automatically assign people, adjust…

Automations > Conditionals

Tallyfy’s conditional logic lets workflows make automatic decisions using simple “IF X happens”…

Use Cases > Set up automations in plain language

Describe an automation in plain language to your connected AI instead of using the automation…

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