Every deal has its own Automators tab showing every automator that's ever run on it. This article covers starting one, following a run's progress, and the step kinds that don't have their own article — decisions, forms, and plain waits. See Completing tasks and approvals, Needs attention on a run, and Reviewing and sending automator emails for the rest.
Starting a run
Select Start automator to see every automator eligible to be started by hand — situational ones first, then grouped by pipeline stage. An automator is eligible here only if it's published and has a Manual trigger (the kind a person starts by hand) — drafts, archived automators, ones that only start themselves (on a status change, a date, or a new deal), and sub-automators never show up in this list. Select Start on one to begin it. If that automator already has an active run on this deal, you'll be asked to confirm before starting a second one at the same time — starting another is never blocked, just double-checked.
Who can start a run
You need one of the following to manually start an automator on a deal:
- You're a team admin, or
- You hold the automator's home role (set by whoever built it) for this deal specifically — for example, if an automator's home role is Transaction Coordinator, this deal's TC can start it even without any other permission, or
- Your role's Automators row in Settings → Roles is set to Edit — for My lanes, only for automators whose home role you hold; for All lanes, for any automator on the team.
An automator with no home role set has no lane to restrict — anyone with Automators: Edit (My lanes or All lanes) can start it. If none of these apply to you, that automator's row simply doesn't show up in this dialog.
If you're a team admin, or hold Automators: Edit for All lanes, the dialog also has a Manage automators link straight to Settings → Automators, where you can add a Manual trigger to one of your own automators and publish it so it shows up here.
Most runs start on their own instead, the moment a deal enters whatever triggers them — see Publishing an automator for how triggers are set.
Following a run
The list on the left is grouped by lane — each automator's home role — not by pipeline stage. The Transaction Coordinator lane always comes first and is always visible to everyone staffed on the deal, since it's the spine most people care about; other lanes follow alphabetically, and any automator with no home role lands in a trailing "No lane" section. A lane you can't see into (you're not the one holding it, not an admin, and your role's Automators access doesn't cover it) collapses to a one-line summary like "Dispo lane — 2 running" instead of a full drilldown — select a lane's header to collapse or expand it either way. Inside a lane you can see, runs are grouped by pipeline stage same as before, with an amber dot on any that need attention. Select one to see its detail: which step it's on (Step 3 of ~7, for example), and a Map toggle that shows the same automator as a diagram with the path taken so far highlighted.
The current step's card has an … Options menu in its bottom-right corner. View in diagram opens the automator builder in a new tab, showing this run's exact version (read-only) in diagram view with the current step already selected — useful for seeing where this step sits in the automator's overall branching, beyond what the Map toggle's path-so-far view shows. Admins also see Step details, the step's raw configuration, mainly for troubleshooting with support.
A lane with nothing running yet shows "Nothing running in this lane" and, if you're allowed to start something there, a Start automator button scoped to that lane.
Who can work a run
One rule covers answering a Decision, submitting a Form, continuing a plain-guidance (Instruction) step, pausing or resuming a run, and clearing a needs-attention banner. You can do these when you're one of:
- the person the step is assigned to,
- the run's owner — the person holding the automator's home role on this deal (or, for a run with no owner, whoever started it), or
- a team admin.
Being able to edit the deal isn't enough by itself, and neither is being the deal's owner. A Dispo rep can open the Transaction Coordinator's run and read it, but can't submit its form. If you're the step's assignee or the run's owner you can do your part even when your role only lets you view deals.
Everyone else sees the step read-only, with Waiting on [name] above it — or Waiting on the [role] (for example, "Waiting on the Transaction Coordinator") when the step isn't assigned to a specific person. Select Nudge to send that person a reminder (once an hour, at most).
A team admin who isn't the person it's waiting on sees Complete on behalf of [name] instead. Select it and confirm, and the step opens up for you to fill in. It's recorded in the deal's activity log as completed on their behalf.
Tasks and approvals work the same way they always have — see Completing tasks and approvals.
Pausing and resuming a run
Need to freeze a run without losing its place — waiting on something outside TED, or just want it to stop moving for a while? Open its detail and select Pause next to the Map toggle. You'll be asked to confirm: pausing keeps the run's place, and any waits or due dates pick up where they left off once you resume — nothing is lost or reset. You'll see this button while the run is running, waiting, or needs attention, if you're the step's assignee, the run's owner, or a team admin (see Who can work a run). The deal's owner can cancel a run but can't pause it unless they're also one of those.
A paused run shows a Paused badge and a note under its name — "Paused since [date] · by [name]" (or "· deal on hold" if it was paused automatically because the deal itself was put on hold). Select Resume to pick it back up. If a run was paused because the deal is on hold, resuming it by hand is a deliberate override — the Resume button's tooltip warns you before you do it. A run that needed attention when it was paused — or got flagged while it was paused — still needs attention after you resume it; sort that out and it moves on from there.
Paused runs still show up in the deal's Automators tab (sorted after running and waiting ones in their lane) and in the team-wide Active Runs list, with a Paused filter chip to find them quickly.
Tasks from a paused run
A task or approval that was already assigned when its run got paused stays completable — you can still mark it done, it just won't advance the run until someone resumes it. It shows a muted Deal on hold badge next to its due date, and it no longer counts as overdue while the run is frozen. On My Tasks, these tasks move to their own On hold group instead of Overdue, so they don't read as more urgent than they are. The Nudge button is hidden on a paused run's task — there's nobody who can act on it until it's resumed.
Canceling a run
Started the wrong automator by accident, or need to stop one that's already running? Open its detail and select Cancel run next to the Map toggle. You'll be asked to confirm: "This stops the run. It can't be resumed once canceled." You'll see this button if you're a team admin, you're the one who started the run, or you're the deal's owner. This is different from Stop recurring on a recurring step, which only appears while that step's loop is the run's current step — Cancel run works from anywhere in a run that's still running or waiting.
A Decision, Form, or plain-guidance (Instruction) step shows Waiting on [name] when it's assigned to someone specific (Waiting on you when that's you) — see Automator step types for how that's chosen when the automator was built. If the step was given a due date, a Due chip sits next to it ("Due Tue Jul 8") and turns amber once the date has passed. That person gets a Waiting on You notification in their bell the moment the run pauses on them — see Understanding notifications.
Decisions
A Decision step shows a button for each option — select one to take that branch. Select What happens next next to an option first if you want to see a preview of where it leads before committing. If the step isn't yours to answer, the options are greyed out, and What happens next still works.
Forms
A Form step collects one or more values — text, numbers, dates, a contact, or a vendor (a contact or company, picked the same way you'd pick one anywhere else in TED) — then Submit & continue moves the run forward. It can also ask for one of your team's own custom fields, shown with the same label and type it has on the Deal Info tab; if that field only applies some of the time, it appears or disappears from the form as you fill in the rest of it. If the form isn't yours to submit, you can read the questions but the fields are greyed out and there's no Submit & continue button.
Some answers also save straight to the deal — whoever built the automator decides which. Those questions start filled in with what the deal already has, and a custom-field question starts with the deal's current value for that field, so you only change what's different. A question that starts filled in and can be emptied (it isn't required) has an info icon next to its label: Filled in from the deal. Clear it to clear this field on the deal. Empty it (for a dropdown, pick — None —) and submit, and that field is cleared on the deal. A question that starts empty and stays empty leaves the deal's field as it is. Some deal fields can never be empty, such as Title Status and Address — clearing one of those shows "Title Status can't be blank" under the question, and you pick a value before you can submit. A dropdown that saves to a deal field such as Property Type, Lead Source, or Selling Reason shows your team's current options for that field — the same list as the Deal Info tab. An option someone adds in Settings shows up right away, without anyone republishing the automator, and an archived one no longer appears. A Lead Source Detail dropdown only lists the details of the lead source you picked in the same form, or the deal's current lead source if the form doesn't ask.
A Title issues & liens field shows the same lien ledger you'd see on Property Facts, right inside the step — add a lien, edit one, or mark one cleared, and it saves immediately (there's nothing to undo by leaving the step). Whatever's still open when you continue is what the step collects; if the field is required, you need at least one open row before you can continue.
Waits
A Wait step just pauses until a set amount of time, or a specific date, has passed — there's nothing to do but wait for it to resume on its own.
When a run finishes
A finished run shows Completed (with its outcome, if the automator set one) or Canceled at the top of its detail, and its full history stays in the timeline underneath.
When a step set a field on the deal, its entry in the timeline shows what it wrote — the field, then the old value and the new one ("Closing Date: Dec 1, 2026 → Dec 20, 2026"), or "(unchanged)" when the field already held that value. Runs from before this was recorded show the step without the values. The same change is in the field's own history on the Deal Info tab — see Seeing what changed a deal field.
A run can also be ended for you. Deleting a deal ends every run still open on it — running, waiting, paused, or stuck on a problem. Those runs show Ended — deal archived instead of Canceled (in Team Runs too), their open tasks leave My Tasks, and nothing they had scheduled goes out. In Team Runs those rows have no View link, because the deal can no longer be opened.
Common issues
- A step's buttons are greyed out or missing, with "Waiting on [name]" — the step belongs to someone else. Only its assignee, the run's owner or a team admin can complete it. Select Nudge, or ask an admin to complete it on their behalf.
- You don't see Pause or Resume — only the step's assignee, the run's owner or a team admin can pause or resume a run.
- "No automators are set up for manual start yet" — nothing on your team is configured to start by hand; ask whoever builds your automators.
- "Couldn't load options." on a form dropdown — the list didn't load; select Try again. If it keeps happening, check your connection.
- "No … options yet. An admin can add them in Settings." — your team hasn't set up that list; a team admin can add options in Settings, then the dropdown fills in. A required question can't be submitted until then.
- "… is no longer one of the … options. Pick another and submit again." — someone archived that option while the form was open. The dropdown refreshes and marks the answer Pick one of the current options; pick a current one and submit again.
- "This deal has no Lead Source yet. Set it on the deal, then reopen this step." — the form asks for a Lead Source Detail but not the Lead Source itself, and the deal doesn't have one. Set the Lead Source on the deal's Deal Info tab, then reopen the step.
- "This field is no longer available." — that custom field was archived after the automator was published. You can skip it; the rest of the form still submits.
- "Title Status can't be blank" (or another field's name) — you emptied a question that saves to a deal field that can never be empty. Pick a value; to leave the deal's value as it was, pick the same one it started with.