Test an automation before you switch it on

Test run walks an automation through from top to bottom against a record you choose, using your workspace's real settings, and sends nothing. No emails, no texts, no webhooks, and nothing is saved to any record.

Open an automation, choose Test run, pick the record to rehearse against, and choose Run test.

Picking what to test against

A real record is the normal way: search for a real customer, deal, lead or contact and the automation runs as though that record had just set it off. The one you used last is remembered per automation, so repeat tests take one click.

Pasted data is there for the few triggers that have no saved record behind them, such as a form being submitted. Paste the details the automation would receive.

A rehearsal ignores whether the automation is switched on, so you can try a draft before you commit to it.

What it checks for real

For every step that sends something, the test run uses your actual settings and stops just short of handing the message over. Under each step it lists what it checked, marked Checked:

• ⟦Who it comes from⟧: the name or number the message would go out from, and whether it is one your workspace is allowed to use.
• ⟦Who it goes to⟧: that an address or number was actually found for this record, and that it is usable.
• ⟦The template exists⟧: that the saved template the step points at still exists.
• ⟦The message text⟧: that the message text fills in.
• ⟦Not opted out⟧: that this person has not asked to stop receiving texts.

If any of these would refuse the message, the step is shown as failing here, before it can happen to a real customer.

Amber warnings are worth reading

These do not stop the automation. They are the quiet problems, where the message goes out and disappoints somebody:

• Fields that come out blank. A merge field that is empty for this record still sends, leaving a gap where a name should be. The warning lists which ones.
• A sender your workspace does not own. It may be refused when it really sends, even though the rehearsal got this far.
• A text long enough to be billed as several. Worth knowing before an automation sends it a few thousand times.

What it cannot tell you

Listed under each step as Not checked, and worth taking seriously. A rehearsal stops before anything is handed over, so it can never promise that the message is accepted, that it arrives, or that an email lands in the inbox rather than junk. Those only happen for real.

It also runs the whole automation at once, so a waiting step is skipped rather than waited out, and conditions are judged on how the record looks right now.

Reading the result

Each step shows in order, with conditions marked as taking the Yes branch or No branch, and each sending step showing who it would go to and a preview of the text.

If the automation would set off other automations further down the line, those are listed too. They are not rehearsed here. Run a test on each one separately.

Past runs

Every rehearsal is kept under Past test runs, so you can change a step and compare the result against the last attempt rather than holding it in your head.