Automation Troubleshooting

When automations don’t run as expected, identifying and resolving issues quickly is crucial. This guide provides a comprehensive approach to troubleshooting Bullhorn Automation workflows. It covers common issues, diagnostic steps, and tools available to pinpoint and fix problems. Whether it’s identifying why a record didn’t enter an automation, resolving errors, or ensuring your settings are configured correctly, this guide equips you with the knowledge to keep your automations running smoothly and efficiently.

Automation Settings

Automation Settings is the best place to start your troubleshooting as it houses sending windows, re-entry, and what to do with records that no longer match your list criteria. For more information on Automation Settings, see Creating an Automation .

Sending Windows

At the top of the Settings area, you have the option to select the days and times that email and text communication can be sent to your Candidates or Sales Contacts. You can choose to keep this within your own time zone, or the time zone of the recipient. If your messages are not being sent out, you may be outside of your sending window depending on the recipients' time zone.

If this is the case, records in your automation will look something like below. Clicking the gray area will show you what time and date those records will complete the email step:

If you're unsure of a recipient's time zone, you can check this on the Additional Details on the Candidate or Sales Contact record.

For more information on time zones see Send Emails or Text Messages in Your Contact's Time Zone.

Remove Record / Pause / Continue Through Automation

In this area you can choose what should happen to records that no longer match your list criteria. The default setting is to remove records from the automation if they no longer match the list criteria. Review this area and make sure you have the best selection for your use case.

Staggered Start

Staggered Start This feature allows you to stagger the start of your campaigns over several days. Instead of sending all your emails at once, they will be evenly distributed over the selected number of days. paces the entry of records into your automation by separating them into equal groupings daily. In the example below, if you have 100 records in your list and separate them into five even groups, 20 records will enter the automation each day.

Re-Entry

These settings look slightly different depending on your automation entity type.

Candidate/Sales Contact

Do Not Allow Re-Entry / Allow Candidates to Re-Enter: You can choose to either not allow re-entry, or allow re-entry along with a specified date range.

Submission/Job/Placement

The automation will have a similar set of options to this example:

• Candidates and not Placements allows for Candidates to re-enter the automation only for new Placements. If a Candidate enters for Placement One, then later they get another assignment, they will enter the automation again for Placement Two.
• Placements and associated Candidates allows for Placements themselves to re-enter the automation if they continue to match list criteria. Using the previous example, both Placements One and Two could re-enter the automation.

The above statements are also true for Submissions. If a Candidate is submitted to multiple jobs they could enter the automation multiple times based on the above settings.

For more information, see Re-entry Settings.

Other Options for Troubleshooting

Auto Pause

If records are not moving through your automation, the first step is making sure the automation is not paused. See Automation Auto Pause for more information.

Records not Moving onto the Next Step

The first step is to check your Automation Settings. Remember, if you're outside of your sending window the record will wait until that window occurs before sending outbound communication.

Advanced Stats

You have the option to review the number of records that have passed through a step, along with timestamps. Hover your cursor over the top right corner of a step and select the Options button that appears, then select Show Advanced Stats. Options will not appear over the Enrollment step or End step, but their criteria will be visible.

This is especially helpful when trying to identify records that have been removed from an automation, or any issues related to timing.

Hibernated and Deleted Automations

If your list has been inactive for 30+ days, there's a chance it may have gone into hibernation. For more information, see Hibernated Automations.

Deleted Automations are a bit more tricky as they cannot be restored. When deleting an automation you'll receive a large warning message informing you of this.