---
title: Automation and enrollment states
description: The modes an automation can be in, how versions work, and the states an enrollment, an enrollment step and a delivery pass through from creation to completion.
sidebar:
  order: 3
area: flows
feature: automations
appPath: /flows/home
lastVerified: 2026-10-22
version: "2026-10-16"
audience: admin
related:
  - flows/automations/change-the-mode
  - flows/automations/publish-an-automation
  - activity/enrollments
intercom:
  - id: "6023999"
    title: How to schedule Automations
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6023999-how-to-schedule-automations
    note: Pyn 1 article
---

An automation has a mode and a set of published versions. Each enrollment belongs to one version and holds one enrollment step per step in that version; each enrollment step holds one delivery per recipient. The tables below give every state and what moves it on.

## Automation modes

The mode is the **Status** column in the Automations table and the button beside **Publish** in the editor.

| Mode | Shown as | Trigger enrols people? | New enrollments start as | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Automated | **Automated** | Yes | Pending: steps scheduled at once | The normal running state. |
| Verification | **Verification** | Yes | Paused: nothing sends until unpaused | Review in **Activity** > **Needs Review**. |
| Manual | **Manual** | No | Set per manual enrollment | The default for a new automation. |
| Inactive | **Inactive** | No | None | Existing enrollments complete. The mode button reads **Use This**. |
| Archived | Not listed | No | None | Set to Inactive, then hidden. Changing the mode restores it. |

A never-published automation shows **Draft** on the mode button. The trigger is evaluated against the latest published version even for an automation in Manual or Inactive mode; the mode is what stops the enrollment being created.

## Versions

| Term | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Draft | The current editable trigger, audience and steps. Autosaved as you type; "Draft autosaved" confirms it. |
| Version | A published snapshot: "A published snapshot of an automation, capturing the steps that enrollments run against". **Publish** creates one; **Discard** throws the draft away. |
| Published version | The newest version. Triggers and manual enrollments use it. |
| Update Enrollments | After publishing, the offer to move enrollments still running on the previous version. Adds new steps, rewrites unsent steps, removes deleted steps; sent, sending and errored steps are untouched. |
| Restore | Returns the editor to an earlier version's content as a new draft. |

## Enrollment states

An enrollment is one employee's run through one version. **Activity** > **Enrollments** lists them.

| State | Meaning | Moves on when |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Paused | Created by a Verification-mode automation or with **Verify Mode** on. Steps exist as drafts and nothing sends. Listed under **Needs Review**. | **Verify** then **Unpause**, which schedules the selected steps; or scheduling any step, which also unpauses. |
| Pending | Running. Steps are scheduled and send at their times. | Every step has finished. |
| Complete | "Every step of the enrollment has finished sending". Also the end state after **Stop**. | Terminal. |

Other facts recorded on an enrollment: its **Reference Date**, whether it was enrolled by the trigger or by hand, whether it is a test enrollment (excluded from counts and the Dashboard), its custom tokens from a mail merge, and the time it was stopped.

**Stop** (admin or owner, from the enrollment's menu) cancels every delivery still in draft, paused or scheduled, including reminders and escalations, marks every unsent step complete and completes the enrollment. A delivery already sending finishes. **Archive** is offered for paused enrollments only; it stops the enrollment and hides it.

## Enrollment step states

| State | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Draft | Created but not scheduled. The state of every step in a paused enrollment. |
| Scheduled | Waiting for its send time. A step whose time has already passed is scheduled and sends on the next pass. |
| Sending | At least one delivery for the step is being sent. A step with recipients in several time zones is sending until the last one goes. |
| Complete | "All deliveries for the step have been sent". Also the state of a step skipped as overdue or completed by **Stop**. |
| Error | "The step failed and will not be sent", for example because its sender could not be attached. |

A step set to **Disabled** in the editor is never created on an enrollment at all.

## Delivery statuses

A delivery is one message to one recipient. The step pages in Activity show these labels.

| Status | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Draft | Created, waiting for the enrollment to be unpaused. |
| Scheduled | Will send at its time. |
| Sending | In flight. |
| Delivered | Sent. For email, accepted by the recipient's mail server; for Slack and Teams, posted. |
| Clicked | The recipient opened a link or button. |
| Actioned / Unactioned | Whether the recipient pressed the acknowledgement or completed the form. |
| Bounced | Email rejected by the receiving server. Resend from the delivery once the address is fixed. |
| Invalid | No deliverable recipient: no address, no channel, the calendar or Jira integration inactive, or the principal no longer in the lifecycle. |
| Skipped | Not sent, for example a step skipped as overdue or cancelled by **Stop**. |

## Related

- [Change the mode of an automation](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/change-the-mode/) to move between modes.
- [Publish an automation](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/publish-an-automation/) for versions and Update Enrollments.
- [Enrollments](https://support.pynhq.com/activity/enrollments/) to see these states for real people.

## Related Intercom articles

- [How to schedule Automations](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6023999-how-to-schedule-automations) — Pyn 1 article