Automations overview

Automations run steps for you after something happens in Plandalf: a checkout is paid, a visitor leaves without paying, a renewal payment fails, a buyer is refunded. Each automation is a sequence: one trigger, then the steps that run when it fires.

The built-in Plandalf app provides the triggers and the core steps, such as sending an email or a webhook. It is always on and needs no connection. Connected apps, such as Kit, Circle or Slack, add their own steps and sometimes their own triggers.

Where to find it

Open Automation in the sidebar. It has four tabs:

• Marketplace: every app you can connect. Live apps have a Connect button; the Plandalf card has Build.
• Templates: ready-made sequences you add to a checkout, plus recipes such as Slack notifications.
• My Sequences: the sequences in your organization.
• My apps: the accounts you have connected, where you can test, reconnect or remove them.

Triggers

Choose Plandalf as the trigger app to start a sequence from a Plandalf event. Most triggers have an Offer field: pick one or more checkouts to limit the sequence to them, or leave it empty for all.

• Checkout Completed: a customer completes a main checkout and the invoice is paid.
• Invoice Paid: any invoice is paid, including checkouts, upsells, subscription renewals and invoices you send.
• Invoice Finalized: a draft invoice is finalized and ready for payment.
• Invoice Voided: an invoice is voided, that is cancelled without payment.
• Invoice Refunded: a refund on a paid invoice succeeds in Stripe, including one you make in the Stripe dashboard. It fires once per refund. Full refunds only is on by default, so the sequence runs once the invoice is refunded in full and a partial refund leaves it alone. Switch it off to run on every refund, for example to tell your team.
• Upsell Created: a new upsell invoice is created after checkout.
• Upsell Accepted: a customer pays an upsell offered after their main checkout.
• Cart Abandoned: a visitor entered their email at checkout but didn’t pay. Choose how long to wait first, from 5 minutes to 7 days (30 minutes by default). When the wait is over Plandalf checks again, and the sequence only runs if they still haven’t paid. Skip GDPR-region visitors leaves out visitors from the EU, EEA and UK.
• Cart Recovery: a payment fails, for example a declined card. The trigger includes a retry_url that opens a payment page for that invoice.
• Webhook Trigger: anything that sends an HTTP request to the trigger’s Webhook URL, such as a script or another tool. The request body becomes the trigger data. Keep the URL private, because anyone who has it can start the sequence.

Plandalf has no subscription-cancelled trigger yet, so a sequence can’t run automatically when a buyer cancels a subscription.

Steps Plandalf can run

• Send Email: sends an email you write. Fill in Recipient Email, Email Subject, Email Body (HTML or plain text) and Sender Email. The sender must use a verified sending domain.
• Send Order Receipt: emails the buyer their receipt. It works after Checkout Completed, Invoice Paid and Upsell Accepted. Recipient Email is optional and defaults to the customer’s email. Send as Test adds TEST to the subject.
• Send Webhook: sends a request to any URL. Set the Webhook URL, the HTTP Method (POST by default), a JSON Payload and optional Headers. The receiver has 30 seconds to answer. Use it for tools that accept webhooks, such as Zapier, Make or your own server.
• Enroll in Promo: enrolls someone in a promo and starts their timer. Promo and Ref are required. Ref identifies the participant, and an email address works. Email defaults to the ref when the ref is an email. Start date is optional and defaults to now.
• Invite to Partner Program: emails a buyer an invite to your affiliate program. You choose whether it sends your signup link, so you approve them like any other applicant, or makes them a partner straight away with their referral link. Nobody is invited twice, and people already in your program or whose purchase was refunded are skipped.
• Delay: waits a number of Minutes before the next step. If a checkout has upsells, a delay before a receipt or invoice step lets every product land on one document.
• Get Current Date & Time: returns the current time in the Timezone and Format you choose, for use in later steps.

Use data from earlier steps

Any field can include data from the trigger or an earlier step. Type it in double curly braces, for example {{trigger.customer_email}}, or pick it from the variable menu next to the field.

The variable menu fills once the trigger has sample data. On the trigger’s 3. Test tab, pick a sample record, such as your most recent checkout. Do the same for each step you want to read from.

The purchase triggers include, among others:

• customer_email, customer_name, customer_first_name, customer_last_name
• total_amount (for example 29.70) and currency
• line_items_summary, a short list of what they bought
• invoice_id, invoice_number and offer_id

Invoice Refunded has the same fields, plus offer_name and the refund:

• refund_amount_formatted, the amount of this refund (for example 29.70), and refunded_total_formatted, everything refunded on the invoice so far. refund_amount and refunded_total are the same amounts in cents.
• is_full_refund, refund_id (Stripe’s re_ ID) and refunded_at

Build a sequence

1. Create it

   Go to Automation → My Sequences and create a sequence. Give it a name that says what it does, such as “Pro plan buyers to Slack”.

2. Choose the trigger

   On 1. Setup, choose the app (Plandalf for purchase events) and the trigger event. On 2. Config, fill in its fields, such as Offer. On 3. Test, pick a sample record.

3. Add steps

   Click Add a step. Choose the app, the action and, for a connected app, the account. Fill in the fields on 2. Config, then run the test on 3. Test.

4. Turn it on

   New sequences are off until you turn them on. Use the On/Off switch on the sequence, or Turn on in the banner at the top.

To start from a template instead, open Automation → Templates, choose a template and pick the checkout it is for. Templates include sending a receipt, recovering an abandoned cart, recovering a failed payment, enrolling buyers in a promo, sending buyers to a CRM by webhook, recording Tolt commissions, removing access on refund and inviting buyers to become partners. A checkout’s Automation view lists the sequences linked to it.

Invite buyers to become partners is available once your affiliate program is set up. It waits 7 days after a checkout, then sends the buyer an invite with your signup link. Like every template, it is added switched off.

Remove access on refund

The Remove access on refund template takes back what a buyer was given in your other apps when their payment is refunded.

1. Add the template

   Go to Automation → Templates, find Remove access on refund and click + Add. Pick the checkout it is for. Plandalf creates the sequence and opens it.

2. Check the trigger

   The trigger is Invoice Refunded, limited to that checkout, with Full refunds only on. Leave it on so a goodwill partial refund doesn’t lock the buyer out.

3. Finish each step

   Plandalf adds one step for each connected app that can remove access, with Email Address already set to {{trigger.customer_email}}. Open each one and pick what to remove: the tag, group, space, offer or course you give buyers of this checkout. Delete any step you don’t need.

4. Turn it on

   The sequence is added switched off. Turn it On once every step is set.

The steps it can add:

Each of these steps is skipped, not failed, when there is nothing to remove, for example when the buyer isn’t in that app.

With none of those apps connected, the template adds a Send refund to webhook step instead. It posts the refund to a URL you fill in: the buyer’s email and name, the checkout, the invoice, the refund amounts and what they bought. Use it for a platform Plandalf doesn’t connect to, through Zapier, Make, n8n or your own site.

Steps are only added for apps connected when you add the template. To cover an app you connect later, add its removal step to the sequence yourself. You can also build the same sequence from scratch with the Invoice Refunded trigger.

Test safely

• Step tests are real. Testing a step sends the email, posts the Slack message or changes the record in the connected app. Use your own email address or test records.
• Test purchases skip automations by default, and so do refunds of test purchases, so a test card can’t email a customer or pay a commission. To try a sequence end to end, open its Settings, switch on Run on test purchases, buy with a test card through the checkout’s test link, then switch it off again.
• Check the result. Each sequence has an Events view that shows every run, which steps ran, and each step’s output or error.

When a run fails, Plandalf emails your notification recipients, at most once every 15 minutes per sequence. Change this under Settings → Notifications → Failed automation notifications. The Slack app can post the same alerts to a channel.

Connect other apps

Connected apps add steps that act in other tools. Each guide covers the credential to get, connecting, the steps and an example:

• Circle: add buyers to your community and its spaces, and remove them from a space on refund.
• Kajabi: grant buyers a Kajabi offer, revoke it on refund, and tag contacts.
• Kit: tag subscribers, add them to forms and sequences, remove tags on refund, and start sequences from Kit events.
• MailerLite: add subscribers to groups, remove them on refund, and update their fields.
• Slack: post purchase, refund and failure alerts to a channel.
• Teachable: enrol buyers in courses and remove them on refund.
• Thinkific: enrol buyers in courses and bundles and end their access on refund.
• Tolt: record affiliate commissions in Tolt.

Not every tool needs an app. Send Webhook reaches any tool that accepts a webhook, and other systems can read and write Plandalf data with an API key.

Common errors

Related guides

• Create a checkout
• Create a promo
• Automations on plandalf.com