--- title: Choose a trigger description: Open the Select Trigger dialog, pick the family that matches the moment and swap the trigger on an existing automation. sidebar: order: 2 area: flows feature: automations appPath: /flows/home lastVerified: 2026-10-22 version: "2026-10-16" audience: admin related: - flows/automations/trigger-catalogue - flows/automations/configure-a-date-trigger - flows/automations/configure-a-team-change-trigger - flows/automations/trigger-a-flow-from-a-form-submission intercom: - id: "11987518" title: Select the Right Trigger for your Flow (Pyn 2) url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/11987518-select-the-right-trigger-for-your-flow-pyn-2 note: replaces - id: "12651319" title: Using Triggers in Pyn (Pyn 2) url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/12651319-using-triggers-in-pyn-pyn-2 note: replaces --- The trigger decides when an automation runs, who it runs for and what date the steps are scheduled against. Pick it by the moment you are designing for: a date in the employee record, a change in the org chart, a form someone submits, a property value or a timetable. ## Before you start - Decide what the reference date should be. Steps are scheduled relative to it, so "3 days after" means 3 days after the start date for a start-date trigger, but 3 days after the day the trigger fired for a Buddy Assigned or Group Change trigger. - If the automation already has enrollments, changing the trigger does not touch them. They keep their reference date and version. ## Which family to pick | You want the flow to start when... | Family | Trigger | | --- | --- | --- | | Someone appears in the HRIS with a future start date | Employee Lifecycle | **Will be joining** | | The start date is approaching | Employee Lifecycle | **Pre-onboarding** (fires any day in the week before, through the start date) | | Someone starts | Employee Lifecycle | **Start of Onboarding** | | A termination date is set and approaching | Employee Lifecycle | **Off-boarding** (the day before) | | A work anniversary comes round | Dates and Schedules | **Upcoming Anniversary**, **Upcoming Milestone Anniversary** | | A birthday comes round | Template catalogue | **Birthday celebration** or **Birthday opt-in** (see the note below) | | The same day each week, month or year | Dates and Schedules | **Recurring Trigger** | | A buddy is nominated | Team and Org Changes | **Buddy Assigned** | | Someone gets their first direct report | Team and Org Changes | **Promoted to Manager** | | Someone's manager changes | Team and Org Changes | **Change of Manager** | | Someone joins or leaves a group you choose | Team and Org Changes | **Group Change** | | Someone's country changes | Team and Org Changes | **Change of Location** | | Someone is matched to their Slack account | Team and Org Changes | **Connected to Slack** | | A published form is submitted | Form Submission | the form | | A date property such as Probation End Date is reached, or a text or yes/no property matches a value | Employee Properties | the property | | You will enrol people yourself | Other | **No trigger** | | An external system enrols people | Other | **Custom trigger** | ## Steps 1. In Pyn, open **Flows** in the left navigation, then **Automations**, and select the automation. For a new automation, select **Create New**; the picker opens straight away. 2. On an existing automation, select the trigger card at the top of the canvas to open the trigger drawer, then open the **...** menu in the drawer header and select **Change Trigger**. ![Select Trigger lists the categories on the left and each category's triggers with a one-line description.](https://support.pynhq.com/media/flows/automations/flows-automations-select-trigger.png) 3. Select a category on the left of **Select Trigger**. Each row shows the trigger's name and a one-line description. A greyed row cannot be selected: the **Leave Based**, **Sales Enablement** and **Support Enablement** categories carry the banner "Some triggers are only available with the associated integration and plan", and every trigger in them is inactive. 4. Select the trigger. For **Form Submission**, choose the form from the list that reads **No selection**, then select **Done**. For **Employee Properties**, choose the property, type the value to match for a text property, and select **Done**. 5. The drawer's **Configure** tab now shows the trigger's settings. Follow the guide for its family: [date trigger](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/configure-a-date-trigger/), [recurring trigger](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/configure-a-recurring-trigger/), [group change](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/configure-a-group-change-trigger/), [team change](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/configure-a-team-change-trigger/), [form submission](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/trigger-a-flow-from-a-form-submission/), [employee property](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/configure-an-employee-property-trigger/) or [no trigger](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/use-a-flow-without-a-trigger/). 6. Select **Publish** so the new trigger is the one Pyn evaluates. > **Note:** The picker has no Birthday row. Choosing **Birthday** under **Employee Properties** creates a text-match trigger, because the birthday is stored as `MM-DD` text rather than a date. To run a flow on each birthday, add **Birthday celebration** or **Birthday opt-in** from the template catalogue; its trigger is the birthday date trigger with the recurrence **every year**. ## What you should see The trigger card at the top of the canvas shows the trigger's emoji and name. For a date trigger it also shows the offset and recurrence, for example **the day of** just once, or **1 week before** every year. ## Related - [Trigger catalogue](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/trigger-catalogue/) for every trigger with its defaults. - [Configure a date trigger](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/configure-a-date-trigger/) for offsets and recurrence. - [Configure a team change trigger](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/configure-a-team-change-trigger/) for buddy, manager, location and Slack triggers. - [Trigger a flow from a form submission](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/trigger-a-flow-from-a-form-submission/) for forms. ## Related Intercom articles - [Select the Right Trigger for your Flow (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/11987518-select-the-right-trigger-for-your-flow-pyn-2) — replaces - [Using Triggers in Pyn (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/12651319-using-triggers-in-pyn-pyn-2) — replaces