Booking deposit request
When a new booking lands in the calendar, draft a deposit request for 30% and email it with the booking details.
This is the whole automation. Run it as it is, or change any word, including the tools it names.
- Deposit requested before the work is booked
- First week of work already funded
How it runs
1. Starts
When a new appointment is booked2. Reads
the calendar3. Delivers to
DocumentsEmail4. You decide
Approve each time, or let the steps you trust run. Your choice.
Why small business owners set this up
Bookings get confirmed by a text message and the customer pays at the end, so the owner buys the materials and does the labour first. When a booking is cancelled after the week is already full, the money never arrives and the capacity is gone.
See the whole job: Customer depositsUse it as is. Or make it yours.
Edit it the way you would edit a note to a colleague. It follows the new version from the next run.
Change when it runs
Move it to another day or time, or start it when something arrives, like a new email.
Add your own rules
Limits, exceptions and what good looks like go in the same file, in plain words.
Decide what waits for you
Mark the steps that need your OK, and let the rest run.
You stay in charge.
At every step.
It does the admin. You decide what reaches a customer.
- Nothing sent without your OK
Reminders and replies wait in your drafts until you send them.
- Undo what you don't want
Every step is recorded, and a file it changed can be put back.
- Only what you connect
Each automation reaches only the email, calendar and folders you give it.
Booking deposit request
Approve before it saves the document and sends the email?
Before you download.
- Where does it run?
- On your Mac or Windows computer, in the background. It keeps working after you close its window, and only reaches the folders and apps you connect for each automation.
- How does it connect to our CRM and other tools?
- Through each app's own connection where it offers one, signed in once by you, or by using the app in a browser the way you would. Each automation gets only the connections you give it, and the tools a page names are examples you can swap for your own.
- Does it run when my computer is asleep?
- It keeps your computer awake while a job runs and just before a scheduled one. While the computer is closed or off, nothing runs; when it wakes, it checks the inbox, calendar and other sources it watches for anything that arrived meanwhile.
- How does my team use it?
- Each person who runs automations installs the app. Keep a project in a shared folder, such as Google Drive or a network drive, and teammates can open it and follow every run, while one person owns it and runs it.
- Do I need anyone technical to set it up?
- No. Download the app, add an automation in plain words, and connect only what that job needs. Nothing runs until you switch it on.
Already have tools for this? Here is the difference.
The features in your invoicing or booking app
Sending standard reminders inside that one app.
They stop at that app's edge and can't follow your own rules or exceptions.
Flowchart automation tools
Connecting apps if you have the time to build and maintain the flow.
Most owners never have that time, and every exception becomes another branch.
Doing it in the evening
Full control, every time.
It waits for you, and it slips when the week gets busy.
AUTOMATE.md
Your routine, written in plain words. It runs on its own, follows your rules, handles the exceptions a flowchart can't, and asks you when it matters. The file stays yours, whichever AI model runs it.
Other setups for the same job.
Related workflows
Appointments and no-shows
Confirm every booking, recover the ones that get missed, and keep the calendar honest.
3 automations
Getting paid faster
Send the invoice the day the work is finished, with a payment option attached to it.
2 automations
Onboarding paperwork
Collect signatures, policies, and details before a new client or a first day begins.
2 automations
Start with one job.
Make it your own.
macOS — coming soon- 1
Get the app
It runs on your computer, next to your files.
- 2
Add the automation
Paste the instructions into the app, or save them as a file next to your work.
- 3
Try it, then turn it on
Run it once and check the result. It only runs on its own once you switch it on.