Node: Scope

What does the Scope node do?

The Scope node narrows an automation so it only applies to certain employees.

The Scope node sits immediately after the trigger node in Automation Studio. The trigger decides what starts the automation. The Scope node decides who the automation runs for.

When should I use the Scope node?

Use the Scope node on every automation. Common examples:

• Different onboarding by department. Sales and Engineering onboard differently, so you build two automations and use a Scope node to limit each one to a single department.
• One country at a time. You scope a sick-leave follow-up automation to your Norwegian offices because the follow-up requirements differ elsewhere.
• Piloting safely. You scope a new automation to a single team, watch a few real runs, then widen the scope.

What settings does the Scope node have?

• Scope dimensions: Narrow the scope by the organisational structures you already maintain in Simployer One, such as department, office, or team.
• Combining dimensions: Selecting more than one dimension adds more employees into the scope. For example, department A and office B means every employee in department A and every employee in office B is included in the scope.

What happens when an automation with a Scope node runs?

When the trigger fires for an employee, the Scope node is evaluated against that employee’s current record.

• If the employee matches the scope, the run continues into the next node.
• If the employee does not match, the run stops at the Scope node. Nothing is created and nobody is notified.

Note: The Scope node is evaluated at the moment the run starts, using the employee’s record as it is at that moment.

What are common mistakes and limitations with the Scope node?

• Employees with empty fields do not match. An employee with no department set will not match a department scope. This is usually the reason an automation appears to have skipped a person.
• Reorganisations can break a scope silently. A scope pointing at a department that gets renamed or dissolved may stop matching anyone, and you will not be told. Recheck your automations after any structural change.
• Widening a scope is easy; narrowing it is expensive. Widening a scope simply means more people match from that point on. Narrowing a scope after a bad run means chasing down tasks and messages that have already gone out. Start narrow.
• The Scope node is not a permission control. It limits who an automation acts on, not who can see or edit the automation. Every Admin and Owner can see all automations regardless of scope.