---
title: "Understanding automations"
slug: "understanding-automations"
updated: 2026-01-19T16:02:04Z
published: 2026-01-19T16:02:04Z
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.gong.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Understanding automations

> **Who can use this**: Tech admin, Business admin
> 
> **Available on**: Gong Engage

Automations are settings that manage how people are added to and interact with flows, which can save time and help teams scale their engagement efforts. Think of them as a way to automate tasks, like adding people to a flow or managing email responses.

Technical and business admins can set up automations for adding people to flows. Once created, they can be applied to company flows.

Automations can help you:

- **Save time.**Minimize manual tasks like adding contacts and leads to flows
- **Ensure timely outreach.**Ensure people are added to flows at the right time without manual checks

## Types of automations

All automations are available for both Salesforce and HubSpot. Automations can be set up for company flows only, not personal flows.

- **Add contacts/leads to flow.** Starts a flow for a contact or lead automatically.

## How automations work

Automations are made up of 3 components:

- **When:** This is the trigger of the automation
- **If:** This is a filter for the trigger
- **Then:** This specifies what should happen when the automation’s conditions are met

First, we evaluate the trigger. If the CRM change matches the trigger definition (for example, lead creation), we evaluate the conditions. If the conditions are met, the action can be executed.

Let's look at an example. Say we're a flower shop that wants to send flowers to every family that just had a child born and are residents of New York City. In this case, we would only want to trigger sending the flowers when a child is born, not when the families move to New York City. In this example, the **When**, or the trigger, is having a child. The **If**, or filtering condition, is to include only residents of New York City. The **Then** is to send flowers.

Our automation rule's logic would look like this:

**When** a child is born in New York City, **If** the parents live in New York City, **Then** send flowers.

Learn more about [Creating and managing automations in Engage](/v1/docs/creating-and-managing-automations).

## Troubleshooting automations

To learn about troubleshooting automations, see [troubleshooting automations](/v1/docs/creating-and-managing-automations#how-to-troubleshoot-automations)..

A team member who manages and configures the Gong platform and handles CRM integrations, user provisioning, permissions, and system settings. [Find my Tech admin](/v1/docs/find-your-technical-or-business-admin).

A team member who manages the business entities in Gong, such as deal and forecast boards. [Find my Business admin](/v1/docs/find-your-technical-or-business-admin).

Gong’s AI-driven sales engagement solution that helps sales teams prioritize, personalize, and automate outreach activities to accelerate their pipelines. Access to features depends on your [company’s plan and your assigned seat](/v1/docs/plans-and-seats).