How to keep a register of client automations and report their results

For agencies that build automations for clients. List each one under Client projects → Client automations, log incidents and changes, let clients ask for changes on their page, and send a monthly results report through Reviews.

Updated 2026-10-26

If you build automations for clients and look after them on a monthly plan, keep each one in the Client automations register. It shows what you built, what has happened to it since, and roughly how much time it saves the client. Open Work → Jobs, switch to the Client projects view and press Client automations. (This is not the Automations page in the menu, which holds Otto's own workflows.)

Only people whose position sees all the work see Client automations. Adding, editing and removing an automation is for whoever manages the business; anyone who sees Client automations can add to the log.

Add an automation

1. Press New automation and pick the client.
2. Fill in its Name, What it does, What starts it, the Tools it runs on, its Owner, its Status (Building, Live, Paused or Retired), the Go-live date and the Project it came from.
3. Type the Hours it saves a month. This is your estimate, and Otto labels it as one wherever it shows it.
4. Press Save.

Name the tools only, such as "Make, HubSpot". Otto never keeps a password, an API key or a login: if any field looks like one, the automation is not saved and Otto says why. Keep the keys in the client's own password manager.

Notes and Owner are for your team only. They never appear on the client's page or report.

How hours saved are counted

Hours saved to date are worked out, not typed: the hours a month you estimated, spread over the days the automation has been live. Pausing or retiring it stops the count and keeps what it saved so far; making it live again starts counting again. Changing the estimate counts the new figure from that day on. An automation added as Live with a go-live date in the past counts from that date.

Log incidents and changes

Press Log on an automation.

• An Incident is something that broke: say what broke and, if you like, who fixed it. Press Mark fixed now once it is fixed. An automation with an open incident shows it in the list.
• A Change is something you changed, and who changed it.

What the client sees

When a client has an automation that is not retired, their private page (the customer portal) shows Your automations: the hours saved to date (marked as an estimate), each live automation with what it does, any that are being built or paused, and their open change requests. It never shows your notes, the owner, who fixed what, or any money.

The client can pick an automation, write what should change and press Send change request. Otto makes a task on the client's project (the one the automation came from, or their newest open project), so the time you spend on it counts against their retainer like any other project time. A client with no project gets a to-do instead. A notice tells you; nothing is sent to anyone. A client can send three change requests a day.

The monthly results report

In the first week of each month, Otto drafts last month's report for each client who had an automation before the month began (retired ones aside): the automations live, incidents, changes, the hours saved (estimate), and the retainer hours used when the client has a retainer. Each client and month is drafted once.

• The report has its own page, ready to print, in your business's name and look.
• An email to the client with the link waits in Reviews. Nothing is sent until someone approves it.
• A client with no email address gets the report but no email, and a notice says so.

To draft one by hand, press Last month's report beside the client. Reports already drafted are listed under Monthly results reports, each with its printable page.