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Automations and what Sofrito noticed
An automation is a rule Sofrito checks for you on a schedule: "every day at 23:00, if voids today are over 50 €, alert me and email the owners". When the rule's threshold is crossed, Sofrito tells the people the rule names, once a day at most, and keeps what it found in What Sofrito noticed.
Before you start
- Automations run on Sofrito Cloud. On a Sofrito Hub, open your back office at sofritopos.app.
- People who can change Settings make automations; people who can see Reports read what Sofrito noticed.
- Automations email only addresses their owners checked. On the Automations page, select Email me a code and type the code you receive: once is enough. Each owner or manager who should get emails does the same.
Make an automation
- In the back office, select Automations.
- Say what Sofrito should watch, in your own words, for example "Email me when voids pass 50 € in a day", and select Draft it. Or start from one of the ready-made rules, such as The day's figures or Stock running low.
- Read the rule In plain words at the top. Below it, Right now says what the rule would find at this moment.
- Change anything you like:
- When it checks: every day at a time, every week on a day, or during the day every 15, 30 or 60 minutes while you are open (the opening hours on your guest page, or all day if you haven't set them);
- What it measures: sales, guests, average check, sales against a usual day, voids, discounts, refunds, stock running low, the kitchen's ticket time, booking requests waiting, low ratings, or the day's figures; and the period, the comparison and the threshold;
- Who hears about it: an alert here always, and if you like an email to the owners (or owners and managers) and a message on the screens of the managers or of everyone working.
- Select Approve. Nothing runs before you do.
The assistant can also make one when you ask ("tell me every evening how the day went"): it shows you the rule and what it finds right now, in your language, and you approve or refuse it there.
When an automation fires
Sofrito checks the rule at its times. When its threshold is crossed:
- What Sofrito noticed shows what it found, with the facts (who voided, what is running low, who is waiting), and so does the top of the Dashboard while it is new;
- the people it emails get an email with the same, in your restaurant's language, and a link to the rule (if they aren't signed in, they sign in and the rule opens);
- the screens it names show a message: tills and back office screens where someone is signed in, never the customer display or the pickup board. When a Sofrito Hub serves the restaurant, its tills show it too.
A rule tells you once a day at most (once an hour for one that measures the last hour), however often it checks. Every check is recorded: open a rule to see Its checks, with what each found, whether it Told you (and how its emails went) or had Told you already that day.
When a Sofrito Hub serves the restaurant and its latest figures haven't reached Sofrito Cloud (its internet is down, for example), a check says Not checked rather than alert you on old figures.
Automations send a hundred emails a day at most, all rules together; past that, the alert and screen messages still go.
Change, pause or delete a rule
Open a rule to change it and select Save. Use the switch beside a rule to turn it off and on: a rule that is off never checks. Select Delete in a rule to remove it and its history.
A rule made by an older version of Sofrito that can't be read any more is turned off, and What Sofrito noticed says so: open it, delete it, and make it again.
Good practice
- Start with a threshold you would really act on: a rule that fires every day soon goes unread.
- For things that happen during service (voids, slow tickets, requests waiting), check every 15 or 30 minutes; for a day's total or a summary, once a day near closing.
- Mark what you've read as read: new alerts stand out.