Automation in PowerTable enables you to reduce repetitive tasks and streamline business processes by automatically running predefined actions when specific events occur. Instead of performing routine tasks manually, you can configure automation workflows that run these tasks automatically when specified data changes or user interactions occur.
Automation helps maintain data consistency across related tables, reduces manual effort, and ensures that business processes run consistently. Data changes, user actions, form submissions, and other events can trigger workflows, allowing PowerTable to respond automatically to changes in your data.
You can use PowerTable automations to:
An automation workflow consists of the following components: a trigger and one or more actions defined using logic.
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Trigger | Starts the workflow when a specified event occurs. |
| Action | Performs one or more tasks when the trigger happens. |
| Logic | Controls how and when actions run by using conditional or repeating groups. |
When a trigger event occurs, PowerTable automatically runs one or more configured actions based on the logic set.
Triggers define when an automation workflow runs. The supported trigger events include:
Refine triggers further by defining conditions or rules that determine when the trigger should start.
Actions define what happens after a trigger occurs. After a trigger starts the workflow, automation can perform one or more actions:
You can combine multiple actions within a single workflow to automate complex business processes.
The following image shows a simple trigger-action automation workflow. Whenever a user creates a record in the Products table, the workflow triggers. It then executes the action of updating the relevant record in the advsubcategory table. You can optionally configure conditions for triggers and actions so that they run only when the specified conditions are met.
PowerTable supports two advanced action options to configure the logic: Conditional Group and Repeating Group.
Conditional Group enables branching logic by evaluating one or more conditions and running different sets of actions based on whether those conditions are met.
The following image shows a Conditional Group in an automation workflow that uses an If/Otherwise branch to determine which action to run based on the available quantity.
If the quantity is less than or equal to 100, the workflow runs the Create Record action to create a new record in the Orders table. Otherwise, the workflow runs the Update Record action to update the corresponding record in the Inventory table. You can add additional conditions to the conditional group by selecting + Add Condition.
Repeating Group processes multiple records by repeating the same set of actions for each record returned by a Find Record(s) action.
In the following image, the Find Record(s) action retrieves records from the Order Requests table, and the repeating group executes the Create Record action once for each retrieved record to create corresponding records in the Orders table.
Automation helps organizations:
An automation workflow performs the following steps:
By combining triggers, actions, and logic, automation helps you automate repetitive business processes, improve data consistency, and perform complex operations with minimal manual effort.
