Act-On's new Automated Programs Dashboard is the hub for all data related to your Automated Programs. Use your Dashboard to:

• Start your program
• Pause a program from running
• Add contacts to your program
• Monitor and gather reporting from your Automated Programs

Start or Pause Your Program

With our new Automated Programs Dashboard, you can quickly start, pause, or restart your automated program. Depending on whether you've started or paused your program, the Dashboard will display one of the following statuses:

• Program is Running: Your program is currently running.
  
• Program is Paused: Your program is not currently running. When paused, you can edit your program or start it at any time. This status is the same as Stopped in our Classic Dashboard.
  
• Program has Errors: Your program has errors and cannot be started. Once you've fixed the listed errors, your program's status will change to Program is Paused.
  

Start a Program

Any new Automated Program will be Paused by default. To start your program:

1. Click Program is Paused in the top-right corner of your Dashboard
2. Click Start Program
   

Once started, your program will pull all contacts from the source list or segments you've set under General Settings > Source Lists. Your Dashboard will also display the label Program is Running.

Program has Errors

You cannot start your program if it has any errors. Your Dashboard will display a Program has Errors label if this is the case. To view and fix program errors:

1. Click Program has Errors, then click View Errors
2. In the pop-up, review listed errors to identify which program steps or settings need updating
3. Click Fix Errors to open the Program Flow
4. Update your program's steps, messages, or settings to resolve errors
5. Click Save

Pause a Program

You must pause your program to make changes or stop it from running. To pause your Automated Program:

1. Click Program is Running
2. Click Pause Program

What happens when I pause my program?

Once you've paused your program, all contacts remaining in the program will stay in their current step location. Program automation steps will not run, messages will not send, and new contacts will not enter the program.

How can I end my program?

We have renamed "Stop" to "Pause" as part of our updates. If you are ending your program and do not intend on turning it back on, you can leave it in a Paused state.

Restart a Paused Program

You can restart a paused program at any time. To do this:

1. Click Program is Paused
2. Click Start Program to restart your Automated Program

What happens when I restart a paused program?

Contacts already in your program will resume their progress, starting from the step they were waiting in before you paused the program. If new contacts entered your source list while the program was paused, Act-On will handle them in one of three ways:

• For programs set to add contacts immediately, new contacts in your source list will automatically enter your program when it restarts.
• For programs set to add contacts manually, your Dashboard will alert you to pending contacts waiting to enter your program. You'll manually select one of the following actions:
  • Allow pending contacts to enter
  • Exit pending contacts from your program
• For programs set to add contacts on a schedule, new contacts will enter your program daily, weekly, or monthly at a specified time.

View Automated Program Reports

The Automated Programs Dashboard helps you track a variety of data from any of your Automated Programs, including:

• Your program's overall performance
• Email and SMS Message performance
• How many contacts are on each step of your program
• Your program's current settings

Program Performance

The Program Performance tab gives you insight into how your program is running.

You can switch between the following metrics:

Steps

The Steps tab shows you each step of your Automated Program and the status of your contacts' progression through the program. For each step, you'll see how many contacts are in each of these statuses:

• Waiting: The number of contacts waiting to enter the next step
  • Contacts will stay in a wait step until a specific time or until they meet certain criteria to move to the next step
• Completed: The number of contacts who have completed this step
• Exited: The number of contacts who met early exit criteria, were manually exited at this step, or made a standard exit at this step

Click on any number below a status column to see the full list of contacts with that status.

Email Performance

Use the Email Performance tab to see the total number of emails sent from your program. The All Emails chart shows how many emails have been sent by the program within a selected time frame.

Under Individual Emails, you'll see the list of every email message currently used in your program. View the step in which each message was sent and the performance of each message with unique contacts. Click on an individual email's Subject to see the Sent Message Report, which provides a more detailed view of each email's performance.

SMS Performance

The SMS Performance tab gives you performance metrics for SMS Messages sent by your program. Much like the Email Performance report, you can view SMS messages sent by your program over time and gain key SMS performance metrics per message.

Program Settings

The Program Settings tab provides key information on how your Automated Program is set up. This includes your program's name, its creation date, and the timezone used to schedule program steps.

Under Contact Sources, you can view which contacts were suppressed from entering your program, your program's Source List/Segments, and how your contacts move from the Source List to your program (manually, immediately, or on a schedule).

Options displays which of the following settings you've enabled for your program:

• Allow contacts to repeat steps
• Disable program history
• Use alternate unique identifier
• Attach sent notes to contacts or leads from my CRM lists
• Suppress entrants on suppression lists
• Allow contacts to re-enter
• Ignore email fatigue rules