AUTOMATIONS

Every automation prepares. None of them sends.

Automation is the word on this site most likely to worry a print shop, and the worry is a specific one: software writing to your customer overnight, with your name on it, getting a detail wrong. So the rule comes before the feature list. Every Markyard rule ends at a draft on your desk. A person reads it, edits it where it needs editing, and sends it.

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The rule behind every rule

Prepare, then wait.

A rule writes a draft. It never sends one.
The draft waits for a person, with no time limit on it.
A reply from the customer cancels the rule outright.

This holds for every rule on this page, including the ones that are designed and not yet running.

WHEN, THEN

Five rules, in the words a shop owner would use

An automation here is one sentence in two halves. WHEN something becomes true about a job, THEN Markyard prepares one specific thing. Both halves stay visible, and the second half always stops one step short of the customer.

When
A customer has not replied for the number of days you set
Then
Prepare a follow-up inside the same thread, referring to what was already sent
Designed, not yet live
It does not send the follow-up, and it never opens a second thread the customer has to go looking for.
When
The quantity is missing, or written as a range nobody has confirmed
Then
Prepare a clarification that asks for the quantity and nothing else
Groundwork built, not yet live
It does not guess a number, and it does not let a price be built on top of a guess.
When
The job information becomes complete
Then
Mark the job quote ready and lift it to the top of the review list
Groundwork built, not yet live
Quote ready means the information is complete. It does not mean a price has been calculated.
When
The artwork is unusable at the size the job actually needs
Then
Prepare a request for a better file, naming the specific problem with the one supplied
Designed, not yet live
It does not quietly redraw the file, and it does not send the request.
When
A deadline is close and the job is still not confirmed
Then
Prepare a reminder for the customer and flag the job for your team
Designed, not yet live
It does not move the deadline, and it does not confirm anything on your behalf.

None of these rules runs against real customer mail today. Where each part actually stands is set out further down this page, without rounding it up.

THE ONE RULE

Prepare, then wait. There is no second path.

A rule can read, write, arrange, flag and queue. It cannot send, price, promise or close. That line is not a preference sitting in a settings screen where somebody switches it off by accident on a busy Friday. The approval lives in the database underneath the message, so there is no route around it, whichever screen you are looking at.

If Markyard sent a follow-up on its own and got one detail wrong, your shop would carry that with your customer. Not Markyard. That is the whole reason the send stays with a person, and it is a decision the product is built around rather than a limitation waiting to be lifted in a later version.

What a rule may do

Read an inquiry and work out what is still missing
Write a draft into the thread the customer already has open
Mark a job quote ready, or flag it for someone to look at
Hold that draft until a person opens it

What no rule may ever do

Send a message to a customer
Set, change or quote a price
Confirm a job or promise a delivery date
Close, archive or delete an inquiry

INSIDE ONE RULE

What happens between the WHEN and your desk

The gap between a condition becoming true and a message reaching a customer is where every worry about automation actually lives. Here is the whole of it, for the clarification rule shown on the right.

The condition is checked against the job
Not against your inbox. A rule reads the job record Markyard already keeps, so a signature block or a quoted reply buried further down a thread cannot set it off by accident.
A wait you choose, counted in days
The wait belongs to the rule, and you set it. A follow-up written for day seven does not land on the morning of day one because a thread happened to go quiet overnight.
The message is prepared, not queued for sending
It is written into the thread the customer already has, using what the job knows: the product, the quantity, the deadline, and what was asked the last time anybody wrote.
The draft waits
There is no timer behind it that turns waiting into sending. It waits until somebody opens it, and it will wait all week if that is how long it takes.

What cancels a rule

The customer replies
Somebody on your team answers by hand
The job is confirmed
The inquiry is closed

A cancelled rule prepares nothing at all, so nobody has to go and delete a draft that should never have been written in the first place.

When, on job MY-0312

Quantity given as a range, never confirmed
Size run not stated

Two gaps. Everything else on the job is complete.

Prepared clarification

Waiting for approval

Goes intoThe existing thread

Asks forQuantity, size run

Held sinceToday, 09:14

Nothing leaves until a person opens this and sends it.

WHERE THIS STANDS TODAY

Built, written, and blocked

A page about automations usually reads as though all of it were already humming along in a hundred shops. This one is not, and saying so here is cheaper than saying it after you have signed up. The honest split, in three parts.

Built and tested

Reading a job, and spotting the gaps

The part that turns an inquiry into structured job details, and then works out which of those details are missing, is written and covered by unit tests. It is the piece built first and tested hardest, because a gap caught late is a quote that has to be done twice.

Written, not yet proven

It has never run against real mail

That same reading has only ever run against test fixtures we wrote ourselves. It has not been switched on against a real inquiry from a real customer, so nothing described here has been proven inside a working shop.

Blocked

The Gmail connection is not open yet

Connecting a shop Gmail account needs Google credentials Markyard does not have yet. Until that is settled, no rule on this page can be set off by a message arriving, because no message arrives.

So the five rules above are designed and not running. When they do run, the rule at the top of this page will be the same rule: prepare, then wait. Quoting a job by hand takes twenty minutes to three hours today, as print shops report it. Five minutes is the target Markyard is built around, and automations are one part of reaching that, not the whole of it.

AUTOMATIONS, ANSWERED

Quick answers about what runs on its own

Will Markyard ever email my customer without me?

No. Every rule on this page ends at a draft waiting for a person. There is no setting that turns that off, and the approval is enforced under the interface, in the database beneath the message, rather than only in the screen you happen to be looking at.

Can I switch a single rule off?

Yes. Rules are designed to be turned on one at a time, per shop, and a rule that is off prepares nothing at all. Nothing is enabled for you by default.

What stops a follow-up being prepared after the customer has already replied?

A reply cancels the rule. So does confirming the job, answering by hand, or closing the inquiry. A cancelled rule prepares nothing, so nobody has to go and delete a draft that should never have been written.

Is any of this running in a print shop today?

No. The part that reads an inquiry and spots what is missing is written and covered by tests, but it has never run against real customer mail, and connecting a shop Gmail account is still blocked. The five rules themselves are designed and not yet live.

See the rules before you switch any of them on

Start a trial to work through a review queue yourself, or book a demo and we will walk through the rules on a real inquiry together.