How to Automate Tasks in the SMS
- Title – Add a Title for your automated task.
- Active – Set the report to Active to make it available for use.
- Description – Enter a short Description for your automated task.
- Action – Select the SMS feature you want to automate from the Action drop-down menu. There are four (4) features you can automate: Email, SMS, Task, and Report. For this tutorial, select Tasks, which will open additional fields for you to complete.
- Task Template – Select the template from your Task Template list.
- Due Date in X Day – Enter the number of days for the task’s due date in the Due Date field.
- Field – Determine the Field that will trigger the task. Field values can be either Student or Enrolment fields. In this example, the Field will be Student – USI Status.
- Operator – Select an Operator. Examples of an Operator include greater than, less than, equals, is not blank, is blank, etc. The options will change depending on the selected field. In this example, the Operator is equals.
- Value – Set a Value for your Condition Trigger. The value field corresponds to your Condition field and the selected Operator.
- Field – Determine the Field that will trigger the task automation. In this example, a task will be created to follow up on students with an invalid USI using their enrolment start date as the date trigger.
- Period – Determine the Period of the automation in days, weeks, or months.
- Number – Based on the Period you set, determine how many days, weeks, or months before or after the selected date field the task will automatically be created.
- When – Determine whether you want to automate the task before or after the selected date field.
When configuring an automation with more than one date trigger, it is important to understand that all configured date conditions must be true on the same day for the automation to apply. Multiple date triggers do not cause the automation to run multiple times; instead, they further narrow down which records are eligible.
The system checks the automation conditions daily. On each check, it evaluates whether every date trigger resolves to the current date. If even one condition is not met, the automation will not run.
Example to illustrate the logic
Consider the following Automation designed to send a payment reminder email after 3 weeks from the course start date and 5 days before the course end date.:
Course Start Date: 1 January
Course End Date: 28 January
Date Trigger 1:
3 weeks after Start Date
Resolves to 22 January (true only on this date)
Date Trigger 2:
5 days before End Date
Resolves to 23 January (true only on this date)
Because these two triggers resolve to different dates, there is no single day on which both conditions are true. As a result, the automation will not run.
On 22 January: Trigger 1 is true, Trigger 2 is false → automation does not run
On 23 January: Trigger 2 is true, Trigger 1 is false → automation does not run
On all other days: both triggers are false → automation does not run
This behaviour is expected and is by design.
When using two date triggers is appropriate
Using two date triggers is only effective when they are intentionally designed to align on the same day. For example, an RTO may wish to send a compliance reminder only when:
a certain amount of time has passed since a start date, and
the item is approaching its end date.
If both triggers are configured so they resolve to the same calendar date (for example, a midpoint of an activity), the automation will run once at that precise and meaningful point in time.
Final clarification
While the examples above reference start and end dates for simplicity, this logic is not limited to enrolment or course-related dates. The same behaviour applies to any date fields supported by the automation feature across the system.
Careful planning of date offsets is essential when using multiple date triggers to ensure the automation behaves as intended.
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