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Bundling turns a rule that would act once per matching record into a rule that acts once per group. Forty devices with expiring warranties at one company become one ticket, one Planner item or one email that lists all forty. This page is for MSP staff who build automation rules.

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Before you start

  • You need the Automation Rules write or manage permission to create or edit rules. Without it, you cannot create rules, and existing rules open in View Only Mode.
  • Bundling is available on rules with a Date Threshold or Scheduled trigger. The checkbox does not appear for other triggers.
  • Pick the actions first if you can. Bundling changes what Open Ticket, Add to Planner, Send Email, Send Survey and In-App Alert do (see the table below).

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Turn on bundling for a rule

1

Open the rule

Go to Settings > Automation Rules. Click Add Rule for a new rule, or open the row menu (…) on an existing rule and choose Edit.
2

Choose the entity and trigger

Under Trigger Configuration, pick the Entity and a Trigger (Date Threshold or Scheduled). Fill in the trigger settings. For Date Threshold, choose the Date Field, Days, Direction and Mode.
3

Check Combine matching records

Below the trigger settings, check Combine matching records. A Bundle period list appears.
4

Choose the bundle period

Pick one of these options.The day, week, month and quarter options only appear when the entity has a date field. A Date Threshold rule starts on By month. A Scheduled rule starts on Per company.
5

Choose the date field (Scheduled rules only)

On a Scheduled rule with a period other than Per company, a Date Field list appears. Choose the date that decides which period each record falls into. A Date Threshold rule uses its own Date Field automatically.
6

Add the actions

Under Actions, click Add and choose the actions. In the text boxes, use the bundle variables described below. Click Template Variables to see them and click one to insert it.
7

Test the rule

At the bottom of the Setup step, click Run Test in the Test Rule section to see the matching records. If the rule has an Add to Planner action, click Preview bundles to see the Planner items the rule would create, with their company group, period and due dates.
8

Save

Click Next, choose whether to turn on Enable this rule, then click Create Rule (or Save Changes on an existing rule). New rules start inactive.
9

Check the first run

Open Execution Log from the Automation Rules page and look at the run. Confirm the number of tickets, Planner items or emails matches the number of groups you expected.
Company grouping keeps clients separate. Period grouping uses the record date. Devices expiring in April and devices expiring in May at the same company form two groups, even if the rule runs on one day.

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What bundling does to each action

One bundled rule does not always mean one action in total. Companies, periods, recipients and action types each add to the count.

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Write templates for a group

Use these variables in titles, descriptions, subjects and bodies. Single-record variables such as {{entity.serial_number}} do not describe a group. {{entity.company_name}} still works. Example title:
Example body:

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Planner dates and refreshes

The Add to Planner action offers Task Title, Description, Planner Type, Business Value and Due Offset (days). It also has two switches for bundles.
  • Only create future-dated items skips a Planner item when its calculated due date is today or earlier.
  • Use current period for past dates puts the item in the current period when its due date has passed. Turning one switch on turns the other off.
For a bundled Planner item, the due date comes from the record date plus the trigger offset plus Due Offset (days). It is not the day the rule runs. Click Preview bundles to see the calculated dates. With Use current period for past dates on, each company gets one Planner item per Planner period. Groups whose calculated date has already passed roll into the current period’s item. Devices from several overdue quarters share one current-quarter item instead of one item per original quarter. In the preview, Source group shows the range of periods an item covers. A rule keeps its Planner items current when every action in it can be bundled and one of them is Add to Planner. On each run, the rule updates the existing item for a group instead of creating a new one. It can replace the generated title, description, dates and Planner type, so do not put your own notes in those fields. When a run finishes without failures and matched every record, the rule archives Planner items for groups that no longer match. Imported rule sets use this behavior. Quarterly warranty planning keeps one Planner item per company and warranty-expiry quarter. See Example rules.

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Failures and retries

If a group fails, for example because your PSA is briefly unavailable, the rule does not mark that group’s records as processed. The next run matches them again and retries only the failed groups. Groups that succeeded are left alone. A run can fail partway through. Earlier actions may already have sent emails or opened tickets. Check the results in Execution Log before you run the rule again. A bundled rule reads up to 5,000 matching records per run. If more records match, a rule that keeps Planner items current stops with an error instead of syncing partial groups. Narrow the rule with Scope or Conditions and run it again.

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Troubleshooting

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Frequently asked questions

Yes. Check Combine matching records, then choose Per company or a period and its Date Field.
No. Emails, surveys and in-app alerts are also bundled, per recipient. Field and date updates still run once per record.
No, when the rule keeps its Planner items current. The rule updates the existing item for each group. Click Preview bundles to see what it will do.
You can, but the next refresh can replace it. Keep your own notes elsewhere, or change the rule’s Description template.
No. Earlier actions in the run may have succeeded. Open the run in Execution Log to see which actions finished.
No. Groups are always by company, and optionally by day, week, month or quarter of a date field.