# Automations

Our reports can be automatically generated based on a button click, a date/time period or a status change. This way you can, e.g. create your report monthly / weekly/ daily without any manual work.

## Create report and define actions

#### **Create a PDF report and define which actions you want to use in your automation.**

1. Open the PDF Report Generator view and [create a report](https://help.pdfreportgenerator.com/create-report). 
2. Click on "Actions/Automations", as soon as you are happy with your result.
3. Now define all the actions you want to trigger through automation, e.g. send report via email or save it to a file column. For a detailed explanations on all available actions, please take a look [here](https://help.pdfreportgenerator.com/actions). \
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   We recommend specifying a name so that you can easily identify it later when creating the automation, e.g. "Create NDA" or "Send invoice".
4. Once you have defined all the actions, click on the blue "Setup automation" button.

## Set up an automation

{% embed url="<https://youtu.be/8RI8FrfowTM>" %}

1. Click on integrate (next to "Automate").
2. Search for "PDF Report Generator" and select it.
3. You will find four different automation recipes: 1 Board Recipe and 3 Item Recipes\
   Select the recipe that suits your use case and fill in the parameters. The Report Generator recipe you just defined will be shown in the dropdown.
4. Add the integration to your board. All done. If you now change the status/click a specific button or a certain date is reached, a report will automatically be created (and by choice also send via email).

<figure><img src="https://1390058080-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FF9ADBOi8Mmb40b5fAD2l%2Fuploads%2FYEzWlWp9aoFItctjyrJq%2FPDFReportGenerator_IntegrationRecipes.png?alt=media&#x26;token=5c84a1cb-0c72-4dbe-8bd5-9fd2426ea48d" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### **1) Board recipe: Time period**

Example: **Every Friday create** a board **report** using **PDF Report Generator recipe "Weekly Status Report".**

### **2) Item recipe: Status integration**

Example: Changing the **Status** to **Done**, creates a new report based on the **PDF Report Generator recipe "Project Status Report"**.

### **3) Item recipe: Button integration**

Example: Clicking on the button **Generate PDF**, creates a new report based on the **PDF Report Generator recipe "Portfolio Report"**.\
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In order to use the button integration you need a column that contains a button. You can also create a new one on the fly while adding the integration.

<figure><img src="https://content.gitbook.com/content/F9ADBOi8Mmb40b5fAD2l/blobs/hxn9REenF3xTOBSr3eYw/DocExport_ButtonNewColumn.png" alt="" width="375"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

### **4) Item recipe: Date integration**

Example: 1 day after the timeline end date is reached, create a new report based on the PDF Report Generator recipe "ProjectReport".