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Overview

A trigger defines the CRM event that starts an automation. Apten checks your CRM on a regular polling interval and starts one run for each record that matches your trigger since the last check. Triggers are available for Salesforce, Salesforce Sandbox, and Microsoft Dynamics. Only CRMs connected on the Integrations page can be selected. Trigger configuration

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Configuring a Trigger

Select the Trigger card in the builder and fill in:
  • Trigger source — the CRM to watch.
  • Object — the CRM object to watch (for example Lead, Contact, or Opportunity — custom objects are supported).
  • Trigger type — New record, Field updated, or Date reached.

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New record

Fires once for each record of the chosen object created after the automation is turned on. Existing records never fire it — there is no backfill, so this trigger type activates instantly and works on objects of any size.

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Field updated

Fires when a specific field — the Watched field — changes value on any matching record. Two properties make it precise:
  • It fires only on real changes. Apten tracks the watched field’s value per record, so a record being saved without the field changing does not fire the trigger.
  • Repeat transitions fire again. If a Lead’s status moves Qualified → Lost → Qualified, the second arrival at Qualified fires the trigger a second time.
For Field updated triggers you can also add a Watched field filter — a single predicate on the watched field itself. The automation then fires only on transitions where the new value matches the filter (for example, Status equals Qualified fires only when the field becomes Qualified).

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Date reached

Fires when a point in time relative to a date field on the record is reached. Choose a number, a unit (minutes, hours, or days), before or after, and a date field — for example 60 days after Entered Date or 2 days before Appointment Date. Offsets go up to 365 days; 0 means the date itself. Date and date/time fields can be selected.
  • It fires once per date. Each record fires the trigger once when time passes its point. If the date changes, the new date can fire again.
  • It reacts to time passing, not to data changes. A record that starts matching your conditions later, or whose date is set or changed to a point that has already passed, does not fire.
  • Rescheduled dates fire again. If the date changes to a new point that is still ahead, the record fires again when that point is reached.
  • Date fields use days. Fields without a time take an offset in days, and the point is midnight in your organization’s Time Zone setting (see Message Timing). Date/time fields are exact.

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Trigger Conditions

Conditions narrow which records can fire the trigger at all, on any field of the object — for example LeadSource equals Web or State in [CA, NY]. When you add more than one condition, choose how they combine — AND (every condition must match) or OR (at least one must match). To mix AND and OR — like LeadSource equals Web AND (State equals CA OR State equals NY) — add a condition group. Trigger conditions are applied inside the CRM query itself, so records outside your conditions are never even polled.
Trigger conditions use fixed values only. Relative date comparisons (“within 7 days of the trigger”) are available on Filter and Branch steps, not on the trigger.
Date reached triggers check conditions at the moment the date is reached. A record that doesn’t match then won’t fire, even if it matches later.

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Poll Interval

By default Apten checks your CRM every 5 minutes. You can adjust this per automation from the ⋯ menu → Adjust Poll Interval, anywhere from 1 to 60 minutes.
Automations fire on the next poll after a change, not at the instant the change happens in your CRM. With the default interval, expect up to a few minutes between a CRM change and the run appearing on the Runs page. Date reached triggers likewise fire on the next poll after the point is reached.

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Turning an Automation On

What happens when you flip the toggle to On depends on the trigger type:
  • New record triggers activate instantly.
  • Field updated triggers show Activating… while Apten takes an initial snapshot of the watched field across every record matching your conditions. This is what makes exact change detection possible. Activation usually takes seconds to a few minutes depending on how many records match.
  • Date reached triggers activate instantly and start from now — records whose point has already passed do not fire. Changing the date field, the offset, the object, or the trigger source on an active automation also starts over from now; editing only conditions or steps does not. Records that already fired for a date won’t fire again for that same date, even if the offset changes (for example, from 60 to 90 days).

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Record limits for Field updated triggers

Because activation snapshots every matching record, Field updated triggers have a size limit on the matching record set: If your object exceeds the limit, activation fails and the automation returns to Off. Two ways to resolve it:
  1. Narrow the trigger conditions so fewer records match — the limit applies to the records matching your conditions, not the whole object.
  2. Use a New record trigger instead if you only care about records created going forward — New record triggers have no size limit.