Running Workflows: Output Modes, Scheduling, and Triggers

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Selecting your Output Mode

AutoScaled allows you to generate presentations in two different output modes:

1. One presentation per record: generates a separate deck for each record in your CRM or each row in your spreadsheet. This is perfect for client-facing proposals or upsell decks.
2. Append slides to one deck: adds slides to an existing deck for each record in your CRM or each row in your spreadsheet. This is intended for business reviews or recurring reporting.

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Saving your Presentations

Before running your workflow, you need to decide how to name the presentations and where to store them. In this step you:

• Set a dynamic title: using placeholders in the title to make identification easy
• Choose a destination folder: provide a location to store the newly created presentations

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Setting a Dynamic Title

Configure how generated presentations are named. The title supports the same {{placeholder}} syntax as the template itself. For example: {{Account Name}} — Business Proposal You can easily add the placeholders by clicking the pills containing your placeholders: For example, if you were generating presentations for three companies—“ACME”, “Dunder Mifflin”, and “Stark Industries”—the titles of their respective presentations would be:

• ACME - Business Proposal
• Dunder Mifflin - Business Proposal
• Stark Industries - Business Proposal

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Choosing the Destination Folder

Configure where you want to save your generated presentations. Select a parent folder from Google Drive. For every batch generation, a new folder will be created in this parent folder with the title you provided. A suffix with the date and time is added. The default parent folder is “AutoScaled”. You can validate the final folder and confirm if all looks good:

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Choosing when to run the generation

AutoScaled allows you to generate presentations in three different run modes:

1. Run now: generating all presentations immediately
2. Schedule: generating presentations at a specific date and time or on a recurring schedule
3. Trigger: generating presentations when criteria are met in your CRM

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Run Now: Generate Presentations Instantly

The run mode “Run Now” generates presentations instantly. Select the run now mode and confirm your selection: You now see a workflow summary with all the configurations you have set. Confirm all looks good and click “Generate Presentations” to start generating presentations instantly: The Run Now Mode is the only mode that will generate presentations instantly. Once you’ve clicked on “Generate Presentations”, your workflow will be confirmed: You can click on “Track Progress Here” to track the process of your generation.

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Test Runs: Test Generation Before Running A Full Batch

In the last step of your workflow setup, there is an option to do a test run. The test run is limited to 5 records and allows you to preview how data will be populated in your slides. While stopping a generation is a good last resort, it’s better to validate all before running a workflow. When not sure, do a test run first: Once you run the test, the batch process will kick off limited to 5 presentations. You can see the results of the test run and then click on “Generate All” to continue generation:

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Schedule: Schedule Decks or Make Them Recurring

The run mode “Schedule” generates presentations at a set moment in time. There is also an option to schedule recurring presentations. Select the schedule mode and confirm your selection: Now you have to configure the schedule by setting:

• Date: the start date when the automation will run the first time
• Time: the time of day the automation should run. This is based on your timezone

You have the option to make the schedule “recurring”. This means the generation will happen at a certain cadence based on your preference. The options are: If you want to run recurring generations until a certain date, you can set an end date. Once the end date is reached, the recurring generation will not run moving forward: Once you click Confirm Schedule, a confirmation message appears. You can review a summary of the full workflow and confirm: Click Schedule Workflow. The workflow is added to the Workflows page and your dashboard.

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Trigger: Trigger Presentations When Data Changes

The run mode “Trigger” generates presentations when filter criteria are met. These criteria are the same as the criteria you’ve set to select the right records. There are two ways criteria can be met:

1. New records in your CRM: a new record in your CRM was created that meets the criteria.
2. Existing record updated in your CRM: an existing record in your CRM that previously did not meet the criteria now meets it

Examples:

A new company is created in Salesforce through a lead form. The company is based in the United States. It now meets the criteria from the example above, so a deck is created for this record.

An existing record has its location updated to “USA”. It now meets the criteria from the example above, so a presentation is generated for this record.

To activate a trigger simply select the run mode “Trigger”: Once you click Trigger, a confirmation message appears. You can review a summary of the full workflow and confirm: Click Enable Trigger. The workflow is added to the Workflows page and your dashboard.

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Anything missing? Let us know at support@autoscaled.com and we’ll help you out!