Automations: Rules That Take the Next Step
When rent goes late, a tour ends or a work order runs late, take the next step automatically — starters, the builder, messages, activity, and describing a rule in your own words.
Automations take the next step for you when something happens: rent goes late, a tour ends, a lease is about to end, a work order runs past its fix-by time, an inspection finds a problem. Each one is a rule — when this happens, only if this is true, wait this long, then do this. It is under Operations → Automations on the website and in Automations in the iPhone and Android apps, for landlords and management companies.
A rule never moves money, signs anything or decides about a person — those always need somebody on your team.
Starting from a starter
The quickest way in is a starter — a ready-made automation you add and adjust. Every starter is added switched off, so you read what it will do before it does anything.
| Starter | What it does |
|---|---|
| Remind a resident when rent is late | When rent is 3 days late: message the resident and tell you. |
| Follow up after a tour | When a tour ends: wait 2 hours, then message the visitor. |
| Start renewals early | When a lease ends in 75 days: put a reminder on the calendar. |
| Hear about emergencies at once | When a work order is opened and urgency is emergency: tell you. |
| Fix what an inspection finds | When an inspection is completed and overall condition is poor: open a work order. |
| Catch work orders that run late | When a work order passes its fix-by time: tell you. |
| Welcome a new resident | When a lease is fully signed: message the resident. |
| Act on a critical device alert | When a connected device raises an alert and severity is critical: tell you and open a work order. |
Building one
- When — choose what it waits for. Some need a number: how many days late, how many days before a lease ends.
- At — every home, or only the homes you choose.
- Only if — up to 8 checks on the event, such as the amount owed or the urgency of a work order. All of them must hold.
- Wait — act straight away, or wait up to 14 days first. When the wait is over it checks again that the event still matters (that the rent is still unpaid, for example) and does nothing if not.
- Then — up to 5 steps, in order.
While you build it, Seayora writes the rule out in one sentence, so you can read exactly what it will do. If something is missing, the same place tells you what. Try it runs the automation on one of your own records and shows what would happen — it saves nothing and sends nothing.
| Area | What it can wait for | Can it message the person? | Checked again after a wait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leasing | A new prospect gets in touch | No | — |
| Leasing | A tour is booked | Yes — the visitor | That the tour has not been cancelled |
| Leasing | A tour ends | Yes — the visitor | That the tour was not cancelled |
| Leasing | An application comes in | Yes — the applicant | — |
| Leasing | An application is approved | Yes — the applicant | — |
| Leasing | An application is declined | No | — |
| Leasing | A lease is fully signed | Yes — the resident | — |
| Leasing | A lease is about to end (days before the end: 14–180, 60 unless you change it) | Yes — the resident | That the lease still ends on that day |
| Rent | Rent is late (days late: 1–60, 3 unless you change it) | Yes — the resident | That the rent is still unpaid |
| Rent | A rent payment arrives | Yes — the resident | — |
| Rent | A rent payment fails | Yes — the resident | That the rent is still unpaid |
| Maintenance | A work order is opened | Yes — the resident who asked | — |
| Maintenance | A work order is completed | Yes — the resident who asked | — |
| Maintenance | A work order passes its fix-by time | No | That the work order is still open |
| Inspections | An inspection is completed | Yes — the resident | — |
| Connected devices | A connected device raises an alert | No | — |
What it can do
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| Tell people in Seayora | A notification to you, or to the people on your team you choose, with an optional note. |
| Create a task | A task for your team, with a due date, a priority and, if you like, who it is for. Management companies only. |
| Put a reminder on my calendar | A reminder on your calendar. |
| Open a work order | A work order on your maintenance board, in the category you choose. It cannot open an emergency work order — those need a person to decide. |
| Message them in Seayora | A message in Seayora to the person the event is about, in your own words. |
| Send it to my webhooks | Sends the event to your webhooks subscribed to "Automation ran" (Developer → Webhooks). The record's name and ids are sent, never a message. |
Text steps can fill in details from the event — their first name, the home, the amount, the due date and so on. The fill-ins offered depend on what the automation waits for.
Messages
A message goes only to the person the event is about, in your words, between the hours you set, and never after a decline.
- A message never goes after an application is declined: a decline is answered with the adverse-action notice Seayora composes, never with an automated message.
- A prospect who only got in touch is never messaged automatically.
- A message that describes who a home would suit, or what a neighborhood is like, is refused when you save — fair housing law does not allow it in a message to a renter.
- If somebody has blocked you or a restriction stops a message, the automation does not get around it.
Switching it on
An automation does nothing until you switch it on. Only what happens after that can start it — a rent payment that went late last month does not set off a late-rent reminder today. Switching it off cancels anything it was waiting to do.
What it did
Activity lists every run: what it was about, whether each step was done, and why a run was skipped (the rent had already been paid, a check did not hold, a daily limit was reached). A run that stops part-way is marked failed and never run again, so nobody is messaged twice. A run that is waiting can be cancelled.
Describing one in your own words
Type what you want — "when rent is five days late, message the resident and tell me" — and Seayora AI fills in the builder. Nothing is saved or switched on until you read it and press Save. If it cannot work out what you mean, it suggests starters that match.
Settings and limits
- Pause every automation at once. Nothing runs and nothing queues while paused, and when you resume only what happens from then on can start one.
- Message hours: a message waits until these hours, in your calendar's time zone.
- Messages a day across every automation (1 to 1,000). Past it, a message step is not sent — the rest of the run still happens, and its activity says so.
- Each automation can run at most 25 times a day unless you change it (up to 500), as a safety limit if something floods in.
- An account can have up to 100 automations.
Your team, other automations and assistants
On a management company account, team members need access to Automations to see them — managers can change them; leasing and maintenance staff can see them by default.
Message flows in Messages, follow-ups in the contact book and device rules on connected devices keep working on their own screens; Automations shows how many of each are on and where to find them. Automations are the rules that reach across them — a late payment opening a task, an inspection opening a work order.
A connected assistant can list your automations and what they did. It cannot create, change or switch one on — that is done in Seayora, where you read and try the rule first.
Related features and guides
- How the legal-rent audit works — the orders, the steps and the findings — Documentation. Each lease in a stabilized unit's history is checked against the Rent Guidelines Board order that governed it, in order, from the base date. The guideline compounds on the rent the previous step produced, preferential rents follow the 2019 rules, and every gap becomes a finding with its law.
- Contacts, the Pipeline & Follow-ups — Documentation. The contact book for landlords, management companies and contractors: who gets added for you, where each person stands, the next step and the score, logging calls, follow-ups, automations, insights, importing and deleting.
- Voice Messages After Hours — Documentation. Have the voice messages residents and customers send you written out under the recording, let your automations act on the words, and answer a call that rings out with an invitation to leave a voice message.
- Sign In From Any Device — Feature. Seayora runs in the browser on desktop, laptop, tablet, and phone with one account. Messages, voice notes, call history, documents, and payments stay in sync in realtime across every device you are signed in on.
- AI-Assisted Maintenance Dispatch — Feature. AI-assisted dispatch routing and configurable automation rules send maintenance work to the right service pro, so routine repairs never wait on a manual decision.
- Calendar & Scheduling — Feature. Schedule showings, inspections, site visits, and maintenance jobs on a shared calendar so field work and leasing activity stop colliding.