An automation hands a set allowance to a set list of customers on a schedule. The case it exists for: hostel staff who should simply have 10 GB every month, without anyone remembering to do it.
Go to Automations.
Creating one
Valid for is deliberately separate from Cadence. 10 GB valid for 30 days, handed out on the 1st, is not the same rule as an allowance that dies the moment the next one lands. Set them to match only if that is what you actually want.
What it does not touch
An automation never overrides a plan somebody paid for. A customer who currently holds a purchased plan is skipped on that run, and their plan is left alone. The run history shows those as skipped alongside the ones it granted.
That is why you can put a staff member on an automation without worrying about what happens if they also buy a day pass.
Notifications
Leave Notify customers on unless you have a reason. Data that arrives silently gets spent without anyone knowing it was there — and then they buy a plan they did not need.
Run history
Each automation lists its runs: when it ran, how many people were granted, how many were skipped, and whether a person or the schedule triggered it. That history is the answer to “did my staff actually get it this month”.
You can also run one by hand from its page. A manual run is recorded with your name against it.
How it appears elsewhere
The allowance is delivered as a hidden plan that the automation owns. You will see it on the customer’s page as their current plan and in their session history, but it never appears on your captive portal and nobody can buy it. Do not edit or delete that plan from the Plans page — change the automation instead, and the plan follows.
For a one-off
Automations are for recurring grants. To give one person data once, use the grant and top-up actions on that customer’s page instead — see Customers, devices and sessions.