Actions overview
Actions are the "then" of your automation — what happens after the trigger fires. Build your workflow by adding action steps in sequence.
How action availability works
The actions you can add depend on your trigger's scope. A company-scoped trigger unlocks company-focused actions; an account-scoped trigger unlocks account-focused actions.
| Trigger scope | Example available actions |
|---|---|
| Account | Assign salesperson, activate products, add tags, create sales order |
| Company | Assign owner, log call, start campaign, create opportunity |
| Contact | Assign owner, send email, add to list, start campaign |
| No entity | Create company, create contact, send webhook, delay, if/else |
Need actions from a different scope? Use lookup steps like Find company, Find contact, or Get associated account to bring additional records into context.
Action categories
Vendasta provides 130+ action steps across these categories:
| Category | What it does | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| AI | Use AI to summarize, categorize, analyze, or prompt | Summarize with AI, Categorize with AI, Send request to AI employee |
| Communication | Send messages across channels | Email, SMS, WhatsApp, Conversations message, review request |
| CRM | Create and update records | Create company, find contact, update fields, log activity |
| Sales | Manage the sales pipeline | Create opportunity, assign salesperson, create proposal |
| Campaigns | Start and manage campaigns | Start campaign, pause campaign, send marketing email |
| Billing | Handle invoicing and payments | Create invoice, charge order, send invoice |
| Notifications | Alert people | Notify user, notify salesperson, send in-app notification |
| Products | Manage product lifecycle | Activate products, deactivate products, start trials |
| Sales orders | Manage order workflow | Create and activate, approve, decline, archive |
| Advanced | Integration and utility | Call endpoint, send webhook, format text, apply account template |
| Flow control | Direct automation logic | If/else, delay, jump, rate filter, end automation |
For the complete list with special cases and examples, see the Automation steps reference.
Building effective workflows
Start simple. Begin with a trigger and one or two actions. Test that the basics work before adding complexity.
Use delays strategically. Some data isn't available immediately after a trigger fires (e.g., salesperson assigned a few minutes after account creation). Add a delay step before actions that depend on that data.
Branch with if/else. Use logic steps to route records down different paths based on conditions — like sending different emails based on sentiment analysis.
Pass data between steps. Use data expressions to extract values from one step's output and feed them into another step's input.
Pages in this section
- Automation steps reference — Complete list of every action step, organized by category
- AI Actions — Summarize, categorize, analyze sentiment, prompt AI, or request an AI employee
- Step deep-dives — Detailed guides for Find company, Find custom object, and Copy AI employee
- Bulk actions — Run automation-powered actions on demand from CRM views