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Automations

The follow-up you keep meaning to send, sent.

Someone fills in your form at 11pm. A client no-shows on Tuesday. An invoice slips past its due date. You set up what happens next once, and startbuddi does it every time: the email, the WhatsApp, the task for whoever needs to call.

Start free

Start with the one thing you need. The rest is there when you're ready. Free plan, no card needed. Or book a demo.

Tell Chip

Say it like you would to a colleague.

"When someone books a call, confirm it and remind them the day before." Type that into Tell Chip what you want to automate and Chip plans it as WHEN, DO, WAIT and CHECK, writes the messages, checks every step and saves it switched off. Nothing reaches a customer until you turn it on.

  • Pick a tone: Friendly, Professional or Casual
  • Usually two Chip calls: one to draft, one more if a step needs fixing
  • Free suggestions from what you already use in Bookings, Forms, CRM and Marketing
Templates

Or borrow one that already works.

Seven templates cover the jobs most service businesses forget: welcoming a new lead, onboarding a client, reminding people before a booking, chasing an overdue invoice, winning back a cancellation, sending a no-show a reschedule link, and waking up contacts who went quiet. Pick one, change the words, switch it on.

  • Lead capture welcome flow and New client onboarding
  • Booking reminder stack, Cancellation win-back, No-show reschedule link
  • Invoice overdue recovery and Manual reactivation burst

Templates for lead nurture, onboarding, appointments, payments, retention and re-engagement.

Triggers and steps

Things that already happen in your business start it.

A form, a Facebook lead, a new tag, a booking made, moved, cancelled or missed, an invoice paid or overdue, an email opened or clicked, or a message on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook or Telegram. Then add the steps: emails, texts, WhatsApp messages, waits, conditions, tasks and tags, on one canvas.

  • WhatsApp starts with a template Meta has approved; free text only within 24 hours of their last message
  • "Wait for their reply" on WhatsApp, then branch on what they said
  • Send a row to Google Sheets, an event to Zapier, or a webhook to anything else
Test it first

Test it on Bisi before Bisi gets it.

Press Test, pick a contact or simulate the event, and watch the run step by step. Messages are written but not sent, tags are not applied and waits are skipped, so you can try it ten times without embarrassing yourself. Live, every message step checks your Do Not Contact list and unsubscribes before it sends.

  • A dry run that shows what each step would do
  • Errors must be fixed before it goes live; warnings you can accept
  • Unsubscribed and do-not-contact people are skipped, with the reason logged

A test run: each step says what it would have done, and nothing reaches the customer.

Activity

See who went through it, and where anyone got stuck.

Activity keeps the enrollment history: every contact who entered an automation, newest first, marked Completed, Failed, In progress or Waiting. Click a name to see their whole path. If a step was skipped, say for a missing phone number, the reason is right there.

  • Filter by Completed, Failed, In progress or Waiting
  • Analytics per automation, by email, SMS or WhatsApp
  • Folders and labels for Marketing, Sales, Lifecycle and Operations

Enrollment history: who went through which automation, and whether it completed, is waiting or failed.

What comes next

One enquiry, start to paid.

Your forms, bookings, contacts and invoices already live in startbuddi, so one chain of automations can follow a customer the whole way without a single connector.

Someone fills in your form

  1. They hear back in a minute

    By email, or WhatsApp with an approved template.

    Form submittedSend email

  2. They book

    Booking made sends the confirmation.

    Booking made

  3. They get the bill

    A payment link goes out from the flow.

    Send payment link

  4. They pay

    Invoice paid sends the thank-you and tags them.

    Invoice paidAdd tag
Paid and thanked, nobody chased
Compared

Zapier, Make, n8n, or the one that already has your customers?

Zapier, Make and n8n connect thousands of apps, and they are very good at it. startbuddi connects to only a few, because your forms, bookings, contacts, inbox and invoices are already inside it.

startbuddi AutomationsZapierMaken8n
Free plan2 active automations, 25 runs a month100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps1,000 credits a month, 2 active scenariosFree Community Edition you host yourself
What the monthly allowance countsRuns: one per person who entersTasksCreditsExecutions: one per whole workflow run
Your customers, bookings and invoices already insideYesNoNoNo
Email, SMS and WhatsApp to customers built inYes; SMS and WhatsApp on paid plansThrough apps you connectThrough apps you connectThrough apps you connect
Apps to connectGoogle Sheets, Zapier and webhooks9,000+3,000+Every integration on every plan
Build it by describing itChip, using Chip creditsCopilot, with a daily limit on FreeMaia, from CoreAI assistant credits on cloud plans

Where they're better

  • ZapierOver 9,000 apps. If your tool exists, Zapier probably connects to it, and Free has unlimited two-step Zaps.
  • MakeA visual builder with routers and filters on Free, and unlimited active scenarios from Core, running every minute.
  • n8nFree to self-host, with unlimited users and workflows, and one execution counts the whole workflow however many steps it has.

startbuddi is our product. Facts about other tools come from their own pages, checked on 6 October 2026, and plans change, so check before you buy: Zapier pricing · Make pricing · n8n pricing.

Works with everything

Automations talks to the rest of your business.

Everything below shows up on the client's record by itself, so you never piece the story together by hand.

SitesForms and bookings start automations
CRMTags, stages and owners change on their own
InboxWhatsApp, SMS and Telegram steps, and replies that start flows
AutomationsOne record per client
MarketingEmail opens and clicks start flows; contacts join campaigns
MoneyPaid and overdue invoices start flows; payment links go out
WorkTasks and projects created for your team
Chip AI

Ask Chip. It already knows your automations.

Chip works from your own records, so the answer comes with names, amounts and dates, and a next step you can take in one click.

Meet Chip
Plans

Which plans include Automations?

Automations are on every plan. Free has 2 active automations and 25 runs a month, with email steps; WhatsApp and SMS steps need a paid plan. Starter has 10 active and 500 runs, Growth unlimited active and 5,000 runs, Scale unlimited and 15,000 runs. Building with Chip uses Chip credits; Chip's suggestions are free.

Start freeSee plans and prices
  • FreeIncluded, free forever
  • StarterIncluded, 30-day trial
  • GrowthIncluded, 30-day trial
  • ScaleIncluded, 30-day trial
For agencies

Win the pitch. Bill the work.

Proposals, projects and invoices for every client, without four tools in between.

Start free See it for agencies

Questions about Automations

What counts as a run?
One person going into one automation. If Bisi goes through a flow with eight steps, that is one run. When the month's runs are used up, automations stop starting new runs until the month resets or you unlock a bigger plan.
Can I send WhatsApp messages from an automation?
Yes, on a paid plan with a WhatsApp number connected. To start a conversation you need a message template Meta has approved; free text only reaches people who messaged you in the last 24 hours. You can also wait for their WhatsApp reply and branch on it.
Can Chip build an automation for me?
Yes. Describe it in plain words and Chip plans it, writes the messages, checks the steps and saves it switched off for you to look over. It usually takes two Chip calls, paid in Chip credits. The suggestions Chip shows on the Automations page cost nothing.
Is it a Zapier alternative?
For the follow-ups inside your own business, often yes: the forms, bookings, contacts and invoices are already here, so there is nothing to connect. It is not a general app connector. For anything else, a step can add a Google Sheets row, send an event to Zapier or call a webhook.
Does it work with Slack or HubSpot?
No. startbuddi does not connect to Slack, HubSpot or other CRMs. Contacts come in by CSV import, and a Zapier or webhook step is the way to reach other tools.
Can I start an automation on a date, like a birthday?
Not today. Date and birthday triggers can't be switched on yet. Everything else on this page, from form submissions to overdue invoices, works now.
What if a step can't send?
The run carries on and the reason is logged: no phone number, unsubscribed, or a WhatsApp template that is not approved. Activity shows it against that contact, so you can fix the gap.

Write the follow-up once. Never forget it again.

Tell Chip what should happen, test it on yourself, switch it on. Two automations are free for good.

Start free

No need to set everything up on day one.

Or click around a sample account first, or book a demo and we'll set it up with you.