Automation rules

Read time: 4 minutes. Who it's for: Merchants on Professional or Enterprise who want to auto-handle incoming quote requests - auto-send, auto-accept, auto-decline, auto-assign, and silence follow-ups - without watching the inbox.

⚠️ Automation requires the Professional plan or higher.

Put quotes on autopilot (Professional and above): rules that act on quote requests the moment they arrive, and follow up with buyers who go quiet. Find them under Automation in the app navigation.

Watch: create your first automation rule - auto-send safely.

What a rule looks like

Every rule is When → If → Then:

When - the trigger. Either a quote is submitted (storefront or customer-account requests; quotes you create manually are never auto-actioned) or a proposal goes unanswered for N days.
If - optional conditions, built with the same condition builder as approval policies: quote value, requested discount %, deepest line discount % (the single deepest line vs catalog - catches a deep-discount line hiding in an otherwise full-price quote), products, customer tags, currency, company location, combined with and/or/not. No conditions = the rule applies to everything the trigger sees.
Then - one action:

Action	What happens
Send the proposal automatically	Creates and sends the proposal at the buyer's requested price (or strictly catalog price). Two guardrails: the safety cap - totals above it always wait for a human - and the price floor (a max % below catalog, checked per line; the rule's own floor, or your shop-wide default from Settings → General). A below-floor line makes the rule skip by default, or pick "Counter at the floor price" to re-price offending lines to exactly the floor and send.
Accept the quote automatically	The instant-close action: creates the proposal at the buyer's requested price and finalizes a full acceptance on their behalf, then runs your usual draft-order/invoice settings. Safety conditions keep humans in control - set a safety cap (totals above it wait for a human) and a price floor (any line more than your floor % below catalog waits for a human; auto-accept never counters), any unpriced or custom line is skipped for review, and any matching merchant or buyer approval policy always takes precedence.
Decline with a message	Declines the request and sends the buyer your templated message (`{quoteReference}` and `{shopName}` fill in automatically). It also lands in the quote's message thread.
Assign to a team member	Routes the quote to a staff member the moment it arrives. Skips quotes someone already claimed.
Email the buyer a follow-up	After N days of silence on a sent proposal, nudges the buyer with a reminder email. Sent at most once per quote.

Things to know

Approvals always win. An auto-sent proposal goes through your approval policies exactly like a manual send - if a policy matches, the quote waits for approval and the buyer sees nothing until the chain approves.
One shot per rule per quote. A rule never fires twice on the same quote, even across retries.
Everything is logged. Each firing (including skips, with the reason) appears in Recent activity on the Automation page and on the quote's timeline.
Pause everything at once with the master switch at the top of the Automation page, or pause a single rule with its row switch.
Follow-ups don't pile on. A buyer who just received an expiry reminder won't get a follow-up the same day (and vice versa).
Customer-tag conditions only match logged-in buyers - guests have no tags.

Common setups

Start from a template on the Automation page:

Auto-send small orders - value < 500 → send at the requested price with a 500 safety cap. Big quotes still get human eyes.
Decline deep discount requests - requested discount > 40% → polite automatic no.
Route big quotes to a manager - value > 5,000 → assigned on arrival.
Nudge after 3 days of silence - proposal unanswered → friendly follow-up email.

Can a rule require a deposit?

On Shopify Plus stores (Professional plan and up), an auto-send rule can stamp a deposit on the outgoing proposal - set "Deposit - % due at checkout" in the rule's action, or start from the "Require a deposit on big orders" template (quotes of 10,000 or more auto-send with a 50% deposit). Approval policies can guard the other direction: the "Manager check on low or waived deposits" template holds any proposal asking less than 25% - including none - for a manager. On non-Plus stores these options don't appear.

Troubleshooting

A rule didn't fire. Check Recent activity - skips show a reason (e.g. over-cap, under-floor when a line is priced below your price floor, floor-unverifiable when a floor is set but a line has no catalog price to check against, unpriced-lines for custom lines without prices, already-assigned, status-moved when a human got there first).
Nothing fires at all. Check the master switch, the rule's own switch, and that your plan is Professional or above.

Auto-accept quotes - the auto-accept action and its safety conditions in depth.
Approval workflows - the human counterpart: multi-step sign-off before proposals go out.
Plans, trial, and billing - automation is Professional+.