Stage Automations in Dapple are actions that fire automatically whenever a submission enters a specific stage — sending email notifications to applicants, assigning submissions to team members, adding or removing tags, updating scores, triggering webhooks, assigning a review round, or moving a submission on to the next stage. Set them up from Workflow & Reviews: click + Add automation in the stage column where you want the action to fire. Stage Automations are available on Growth plans and above.
What can a Stage Automation do?
There are nine action types. Each fires the moment a submission enters the stage it's attached to.
Action type | What it does |
Send Email Notification | Sends an email notification to the applicant when their submission enters this stage. Uses your message templates. The main tool for communicating shortlist decisions, rejections, and confirmations. |
Assign to User | Auto-assigns the submission to a specific team member or rotates across your team so no submission sits unowned. |
Add Tag | Adds a Submission Tag to the submission — useful for marking everything that enters a stage (e.g. "Longlist 2026"). |
Remove Tag | Removes a Submission Tag — clean-up for tags that should only exist in earlier stages. |
Update Score | Sets, adds to, or subtracts from the submission's overall score automatically. |
Trigger Webhook | Pushes submission data to an external endpoint — CRM, Slack, Zapier, Google Sheets. Pro plan only. |
Assign Review Round | Automatically assigns the submission to a review round and notifies the review group so reviewers can score it immediately. |
Run an Agent | Hands the submission to an AI agent, which can tag it, leave a note, or set its score without manual input. |
Move to Stage | Automatically moves the submission to another stage — useful for skipping stages conditionally or for routing logic. |
Each action type has its own configuration options. See the dedicated articles in Where to go next for step-by-step setup on each one.
How do I add an automation to a stage in Dapple?
Open your project → Workflow & Reviews.
Find the stage column where you want the automation to fire.
Click + Add automation in the Automations section of the column.
Select an action type from the Select Action Type modal.
Configure the action — options vary by type (see the dedicated article for each).
Save.
The automation fires for every submission that enters that stage from this point forward. Submissions already sitting in the stage are not affected retroactively.
Can I add multiple automations to one stage?
Yes — a stage can have as many automations as you need. They all fire simultaneously when a submission enters the stage, not sequentially. A common pattern for a shortlist stage is Send Email Notification + Add Tag + Assign Review Round together, so the applicant is informed, the submission is tagged, and the review group is notified in one step.
How do I see which stages have automations configured?
Each stage column in Workflow & Reviews shows its configured automations listed in the Automations section. If a stage has no automations, the section shows only the + Add automation button. Click an existing automation to edit or remove it.
How do I edit or remove an automation?
Open Workflow & Reviews and find the stage column. Click the automation you want to change — this opens its configuration panel where you can update settings or delete it. Changes take effect immediately for any submissions that enter the stage after you save.
Best practices for Stage Automations
Start with one automation per stage — usually Send Email Notification — and add more as you find friction points in the process.
Test every automation using a test submission before opening to applicants. Check the applicant receives the right email and the right team member is assigned.
Pair Assign Review Round with Send Email Notification on shortlist stages — applicants know their submission is being reviewed, and reviewers are notified at the same time.
Don't stack automations that contradict each other — for example, Add Tag and Remove Tag on the same tag in the same stage.
Use Move to Stage carefully on early stages — an automation that moves every submission forward can skip important manual review steps.
Document your automations for your team. When an unexpected email fires or a submission jumps stages, this is the first place to check.
Where to go next