Product guides
Six automations that take hand-offs off your plate
Project management automation for agencies, kept simple: six rules that assign, notify and tidy up at every hand-off, and the limits worth knowing first.
9 min read
Marketing project management software
Campaigns, content and sign-off without the spreadsheet.
Plan the launch on a calendar that is your board, get stakeholders to approve assets where the work lives, and walk into the monthly review with the numbers already done.
The Northwind Rebrand board with Brief, In progress and Client review columns. Priya drags “Logo lockups, final round” from In progress to Client review, where it gets the In review label, then the same jobs switch to the table view.
The problem
The launch plan lives in five places.
Dates in a spreadsheet, briefs in documents, feedback in email and status in the Monday meeting. By the time they agree, something has moved.
- The plan is out of date by Tuesday A spreadsheet of dates doesn't know when a job slips, so someone updates it by hand, or nobody does.
- Approvals happen in the wrong place One stakeholder replies to an old version, another approves in chat, and nobody is sure which file was signed off.
- Hand-offs depend on memory The copy is finished, but design doesn't hear. The design is finished, but the reviewer doesn't know it's waiting.
- The monthly review starts from scratch Working out what shipped, what slipped and why takes a morning every month.
How it works
Three steps from brief to launch
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1
Plan the launch on the calendar
Every asset is a job with a due date on a month calendar. Drag one to another day to reschedule it, or pull it from the Unscheduled tray to give it a date. It's the same jobs as the board, not a copy.
The calendar view on a phone: a month of days with dots where jobs are due and Thursday 15 October picked, listing its four jobs with their first label and assignee, and the jobs with no date below.
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2
Get sign-off on every asset
Name the stakeholders who approve and give them a due date. They review from the email, pin comments on images and PDFs, and approve or request changes. A new version asks them again, so nobody reviews an old one.
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3
Let the board pass the work on
When an asset moves to review, an automation can assign the reviewer and notify the stakeholder. Every change it makes shows on the job with the rule's name.
An automation rule named Review hand-off, switched on: when the label In review is added, assign to Leo Ortiz, then notify Tom Becker. It has run 12 times. Beside it, Priya Shah adds the In review label to Brand guidelines v3, the rule reassigns it from Priya Shah to Leo Ortiz, a row marked with a violet bolt records that in the job's activity, and Tom Becker, the client, is notified.
Why it works
What changes when the launch lives on one board
One plan, three views
Board, table and calendar show the same jobs, and your filters come with you, so the calendar is never out of step with the work.
Briefs that start complete
Give each kind of asset its own job type, with fields for the channel, the audience or a link to the brief. Mark the ones that must be filled in before a job is created.
A view for every stakeholder
Save "Due this week" for the whole team, or a view filtered to you that shows each person their own work when they open it.
Sign-off with a name on it
Each person decides once per version, and the decision stays on the job with who made it, when, and their note.
Numbers for the monthly review
Lead time as a median, a mean and an 85th percentile, throughput and what's at risk. Save the report and have it emailed every month.
Updates where your team already talks
The Slack app posts new jobs, comments, approvals and due date changes to a channel you choose for each project, each linking back to the job.
- The calendar is the board
- Move a job on the calendar and its due date changes everywhere. It's built into Skybase, so there's no second calendar to keep up to date.
- Every version gets a decision
- Approve, approve with changes or request changes, with a name and a note, and changes come back as a new version.
- Reports you can schedule
- Save any report and have it emailed every week or every month to the people you choose in your workspace.
FAQ
What marketing teams ask
Billing questions are on the pricing page. Anything else, email support@skybase.it.
Does Skybase publish or schedule social posts?
No. Skybase is where you plan, brief, make and sign off the work. When an asset is approved, you publish it with the tools you already use.
Does the calendar connect to our other calendars?
No. The calendar is built into Skybase and shows each project's due dates as a month, with an Unscheduled tray for jobs that don't have one yet. Moving a job there changes its due date on the board and the table too. It doesn't connect to other calendar apps.
Can stakeholders outside the team approve assets?
Yes. Invite them as single-project guests, who are free on every plan, and name them as approvers when you ask. They review from their own link in the email without signing in, pin comments on images and PDFs, and approve or request changes. Each decision shows who made it and when.
What do the reports measure?
The Overview shows jobs created, completed, overdue and active, throughput, and what's at risk. Flow shows lead time from creation to completion as a median, a mean and an 85th percentile, and for a single project, time in each column and cumulative flow. Export CSV, print, or save a report and schedule it weekly or monthly.
Can we keep a brief for every kind of asset?
Yes. Anyone on your team who belongs to the project can give it job types such as Social, Email or Web page, each with its own fields: text, longer text, a link or a file upload. Fields can be marked required, and the new-job form won't go on until they're filled in.
Will it post to Slack?
Yes. With the Slack app, each project posts to a channel you choose, and you pick from 11 kinds of update, such as new jobs, comments, file approvals and due date changes. Every message links back to the job.
Read next
Running projects
Planning deadlines with a calendar that matches the board
Use a project calendar view to plan agency deadlines: spot clashes on a month grid, schedule from the Unscheduled tray and keep the board in step.
8 min read
- Guide Board, table and calendar The same jobs three ways: drag them across the board, sort and group them in the table, and plan due dates on the calendar. Read the guide
- Guide Automations Write a rule as a sentence and let the board handle hand-offs: when a job moves, changes or sits too long, assign it, move or archive it, or notify people. Read the guide
Plan your next launch on one board.
Free plan, no credit card. Outside stakeholders you invite to a single project never cost you a seat.
Free plan · No credit card · Clients always free