Automation Settings

Automation Settings are the global toggles that control how FoxCLM's auto-advance cron behaves, whether invoices are locked during approval, and how notifications fire. Find them at Settings -> Automation.

The settings

Auto-advance Confirmed to Occurred

Default: on

The scheduler cron checks every few minutes for sessions in Confirmed status where end_date is in the past. If found, it moves them to Occurred automatically.

Turn off if you want to confirm session completion manually (e.g. for attendance-based workflows).

Prompt before advancing

Default: off

When enabled, the cron does not auto-advance silently. Instead, you see a prompt in the UI on page load: "Session X has ended - mark as Occurred?"

Use this if you want auto-advance behaviour as a nudge, not an automatic action.

Notify on auto-advance

Default: on

When the cron fires a transition, an in-app notification is sent explaining what happened. Turn off if auto-advance runs are too noisy.

Notifications appear in the bell icon (top right).

Survey Calendar Sync

Default: off

When on, pending survey deliveries appear on the scheduler calendar as markers. Useful if you dispatch feedback forms and want to see upcoming deliveries alongside sessions.

Invoice Approval Workflow Lock

Default: off

When on, invoices in Submitted for Approval or Approved status cannot be edited. Only admins can revert to Draft to unlock.

Turn on if your business requires multi-person approval before an invoice is sent. Leave off for solo workflows.

Timezone

Required

IANA timezone identifier (e.g. Asia/Kuala_Lumpur, America/New_York, Europe/London). This controls:

• When auto-advance cron evaluates date conditions
• What "today" means in UI calendars
• Time conversions in emails

You should set this once during setup. Changing it later shifts all interpreted times.

Click Detect to use your browser's current timezone.

Additional automation-related settings

These appear on other Settings pages but affect automation:

Invoice: Show Payment Link (per-invoice)

On each invoice, toggle whether the share view displays a Pay Now button. See Payments.

Status: Count for Payroll (per-status)

On each session status, toggle whether sessions in that status count toward payroll. Default: only Occurred counts. See Payroll.

Status: Auto-advance enabled (per-status)

On each status, toggle whether it should be evaluated by the auto-advance cron. Useful to disable auto-advance for specific statuses (e.g. paused or archived states).

Safe defaults

For most businesses, these defaults work well:

Setting	Recommended
Auto-advance Confirmed to Occurred	On
Prompt before advancing	Off
Notify on auto-advance	On
Survey Calendar Sync	Off (enable when using surveys)
Invoice Approval Lock	Off (enable only for multi-person teams)
Timezone	Set to your business timezone

Troubleshooting

Auto-advance isn't firing. Check: is the transition's condition correct? Is the status flagged as auto-advance? Is the timezone set properly? The cron logs show evaluation results.

Too many notifications. Turn off Notify on auto-advance. Workflow action create_notification still works, so you can selectively notify on important transitions only.

Wrong times in emails. Timezone is the most common cause. Set it correctly and restart the service.

Next steps

• Workflows & Statuses - build transitions the cron will evaluate
• Workflow Actions - fire actions on auto-advance