Automating Actions When a Job Changes Stage
Stage trigger automations let Trade2Base do the admin for you. When a job moves to a specific stage — say Engineer on Way or Complete — Trade2Base can automatically send the customer a WhatsApp, fire off an invoice, request a Google review, or email a follow-up. No manual action required. This guide covers setting up, configuring, and testing stage trigger automations.
What stage trigger automations do
A stage trigger automation watches for jobs that move into a specific stage. The moment that transition happens — whether an engineer updates it on the mobile app or the office updates it on the web dashboard — the automation fires according to the delay and action you've configured.
Common examples used by Trade2Base customers:
- Engineer on Way: Send customer a WhatsApp: "Your engineer is on the way — expected in 20 minutes."
- In Progress: Send internal Slack or email notification to the office so they know the job has started.
- Parts Ordered: Send customer a WhatsApp confirming parts are on order and giving an estimated return date.
- Complete: Auto-request a Google review via WhatsApp or email while the job is fresh in the customer's mind.
- Complete: Auto-generate and send the invoice so payment is requested immediately on job completion.
- Awaiting Sign-off: Email the customer a link to review and sign off the completed work via the customer portal.
Setting up a stage trigger automation
Go to Settings → Automations → Stage Triggers. Click + New stage trigger. You'll configure three things:
- Trigger stage — choose which stage moving a job into will fire this automation. The dropdown lists all your active job stages, including any custom ones you've created.
- Delay — choose how long after the stage change the action fires. Options are Immediate, 1 hour, or 24 hours. Immediate is best for “on the way” messages; a 1-hour delay works well for review requests so the customer has time to settle before being asked.
- Action — choose what happens (see the full list in the next section). Configure the message text, recipient, and any other action-specific settings.
Click Save automation. The automation is active immediately for any job that subsequently moves into that stage. Existing jobs already in that stage are not affected — the trigger only fires on the transition.
Available actions per stage trigger
Each stage trigger can run one or more of the following actions:
Send a WhatsApp message to the customer (or a custom number). Use merge tags like {{customer_name}}, {{job_address}}, and {{engineer_name}} to personalise each message automatically. Requires WhatsApp connected via Settings → Integrations.
Send an email to the customer's address on file. Supports a subject line, rich text body, and merge tags. Emails are sent from your connected business email address.
Automatically create a PDF invoice from the job's line items and send it to the customer by their preferred channel (email or WhatsApp). Invoice is created with today's date and your standard payment terms.
Send a Google review link (from your connected Google Business Profile) to the customer. The message is pre-written and includes a direct link to your review page. Best set with a 1-hour delay on the Complete stage.
Send a notification to a specific team member or all admin users. Useful for alerting the office when an engineer marks a job as Complete or In Progress without needing to check the dashboard constantly.
Delay options explained
Choosing the right delay depends on the action and customer experience you want:
Best for: Engineer on Way WhatsApp, invoice on completion, internal notifications
Avoid for: Review requests — firing immediately while the engineer is still packing up can feel rushed
Best for: Review requests (customer has had time to see results), follow-up messages on Awaiting Sign-off stage
Avoid for: Time-sensitive “on the way” messages where immediacy matters
Best for: Post-job check-in messages, second review request if the first had no response, warranty information email
Avoid for: Anything that needs same-day action
Delayed actions can be cancelled manually from the job's Automations tab if a situation changes before the action fires. For example, if a job is moved back to a previous stage within the delay window, the pending action is automatically cancelled.
Testing automations in sandbox mode
Before you go live with a new stage trigger automation, test it in Sandbox mode so no real messages go out to customers.
- Go to Settings → Automations → Stage Triggers.
- Click the automation you want to test and toggle Sandbox mode: On.
- Open any test job and manually move it to the trigger stage.
- In Sandbox mode, the automation fires but all outbound messages are sent only to your own email or test WhatsApp number (configured in Settings → Sandbox → Test recipient).
- Check the message landed correctly, review the content and merge tag values, then toggle Sandbox mode off to go live.
Sandbox mode is per-automation, so you can test one automation while others remain live.
Viewing automation history on a job
Every automation that fires against a job is logged on that job's Automations tab. You can see exactly what fired, when, whether it succeeded, and what the outbound message contained. If an action failed — for example because the customer had no WhatsApp number on file — the failure reason is shown and you can retry manually from the same tab.
The Automations tab also shows any pending delayed actions, with the scheduled fire time and a Cancel button if you need to stop one before it fires.
Still need help?
Contact our UK support team via live chat in Trade2Base or email support@trade2base.com.
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