How to check whether an automation is actually working
An automation that's switched on isn't the same as an automation that's doing something. We record every contact that goes through it, down to the individual action, so you never have to guess.
Open Automation in the top menu, go to All automations and click the automation. Its page has the tabs Information, Runs and Activities, plus Schedule on a periodic automation.
Is it active?
The status is shown next to the title of the Information tab and in the Status column of All automations:
- Active: it's running.
- Inactive: nothing enters it. A new automation stays inactive until you activate it: click Edit, then Activate at the top right, check the summary and click Activate again.
- Has errors: we stopped it because something in it broke, for example an automated email it sends was deleted, or a periodic automation's filters could no longer be worked out. Fix the cause and activate it again.
- Pending deletion: it's been deleted and we're removing it, along with its runs.
Runs: did anybody go through it?
Runs lists every contact the automation enrolled, newest first, with a Status, Executed at, Created at and Updated at. Filter the list by Contact when one specific person says they didn't get their voucher.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Created | enrolled, not started yet |
| Pending | waiting for the Execution window to open |
| Processing | running now |
| Delayed | waiting in a Delay action |
| Restarted | was stuck for over an hour and was picked up again |
| Completed | reached the end, or stopped at a step that failed |
| Cancelled | stopped before finishing, usually because the automation was deactivated while the contact was waiting in a delay |
Completed doesn't mean every step worked. A run that stopped at a failed step is marked Completed too. Open it to check.
An empty Runs list
A contact only shows up in Runs once they've actually been let in. A contact who was turned away leaves no trace here, so an empty list means one of these:
- The trigger hasn't happened since you activated the automation.
- The filters at the Start step didn't match. Loosen one and check again.
- Re-enrollment is off and the contact has been through the automation before. Off means once, ever.
- Re-enrollment is on, but the contact went through more recently than Contacts can re-enroll once every… allows.
- It's a Contact updated automation and the contact was still going through an earlier run of it.
- The automation is linked to one specific item, such as a form, shown under Linked to in All automations, and the event came from a different one.
One run: what happened to this contact
Click a run to open it.
Overview shows the Contact, what the run was Triggered by, when it was created and executed, and its Start reasons: click Show start reasons to see them. That's the automation telling you why this particular contact qualified, which is the fastest way to find a filter that's broader than you meant.
Actions shows the flow as it ran for this contact: each branch it took, when that branch started, and every action in it with Success or Error and the reason. An email action pointing at an email that's been deleted, a voucher action for a promotion with no unlinked vouchers left: the run shows you the step that broke instead of failing silently.
A Webhook action is the exception. It shows Error only when your endpoint can't be reached at all. If your endpoint answers with an error, the step still shows Success, so check the receiving side too. To send data to another system with retries and a full delivery log, use a webhook subscription instead: see Webhooks: send events from Leat to your own system.
Overview: all your automations at once
The Overview tab under Automation sums up all your automations together: how many runs started and completed, how many actions failed, your Top automations and the Common errors. When one action keeps failing for many contacts, Common errors is where it shows up first.
Activities: who changed it
Activities is the automation's own history, with the Event, the User and when it happened. It records when the automation was created, activated or deactivated, when its Start filters changed, when someone ran a manual automation, and when a periodic automation was stopped because of an error. Changes to the actions, the name and the settings aren't recorded here.
Schedule: when it runs next
On a periodic automation, Schedule shows its previous runs and the Next run dates. If a periodic automation has produced nothing, check here first: a frequency that doesn't match your filter is the usual cause. A filter like "last transaction was exactly 365 days ago" matches a single day, so a weekly schedule misses almost everybody.
A short checklist
- Is the automation Active? Inactive or Has errors means nothing enters it.
- Does Runs show anybody? If not, check the trigger, the Start filters, re-enrollment and what it's linked to.
- Are the runs Completed? Stuck on Delayed means a Delay action. Stuck on Pending means the Execution window on the Settings tab of the editor.
- Open one run's Actions. An Error names the step.
- Still nothing wrong? Look at Activities to see whether it was deactivated or its filters changed recently.