Flow Builder & Automation Templates

What it is

The Flow Builder is a drawing board for phone calls. You drag steps onto a canvas — play a greeting, offer a menu, ring your team, take a voicemail — and join them together with lines. When somebody rings the number you attach the flow to, Joby walks down those lines and does exactly what you drew.

You get to it from Settings›Channels›Visual Call Flows, then Create Flow for a new one or Edit on a flow you already have.

Automation templates are the shortcut. Nobody should start from an empty canvas, so Joby ships two separate libraries of finished setups you can open, rename and adjust:

The two libraries are separate on purpose. A call flow is about a live person on the phone right now. An automation is about what happens afterwards — the text an hour later, the reminder tomorrow, the alert to the office. They are built in different places and this guide covers both starting points.

When to use it

• You want a proper menu — "press 1 for sales, press 2 for support" — instead of every call ringing everybody.
• Calls at night should go somewhere sensible rather than ringing an empty office.
• You want an AI to answer, take the details and book the job when nobody can pick up.
• Missed calls should get an automatic text back instead of being lost.
• You want a voicemail with your own greeting, and the right people told about it.
• You are setting up a brand-new account and want a working phone setup in ten minutes.

Use Call Groups instead when all you need is "ring these people in this order" with no menu, no hours check and no AI. Use Automations when the thing you want has nothing to do with a live call — a reminder the day before an appointment, a follow-up three days after a lead goes quiet.

Before you start

• Your role needs the Visual Flows permission. An owner or admin switches it on under Settings›Team Roles, in the Admin & Settings group, where it is called Visual Flows. Without it, Visual Call Flows and Automations are both hidden.
• Automations need the Pro plan. On a Starter or free account the Automations pages show an upgrade screen headed Workflow Automations. Admins get an Upgrade to Pro — $129/mo button; everyone else is told to ask the account owner. Call flows are not behind that gate.
• You need at least one phone number. A flow does nothing until it is attached to a number. Buy or connect one under Settings›Channels›Phone Numbers first.
• Set up your teams if you want calls to ring people. The Wait for Office Agent step asks which teams should see the call. Create them under Settings›Teams. Leave the list empty and every office agent sees the call.
• Check your company hours and timezone. The Time Split step is labelled Company timezone on the canvas and reads the timezone from Settings›Company Settings. A wrong timezone sends daytime callers down the night-time path.
• Use a computer. The Flow Builder is a drag-and-drop canvas with a settings panel on the right. It is not built for a phone screen.
• Your company may use different words. "Office Agent" and "Field Worker" can be renamed for your account, so a step named Wait for Office Agent may read differently on your screen.

Step-by-step

Start a call flow from a template

1. Go to Settings›Channels›Visual Call Flows. (There is a Search settings… box at the top of the Settings page if you cannot spot it.)
2. Click Create Flow at the top right, or Browse templates next to it — both open the same window, Choose how calls should be handled.
3. Narrow the list with the buttons along the top — All, After hours, Press a number, AI answers, Route calls, Voicemail, Utility — or type into Search templates, triggers, actions....
4. Hover a card and the panel on the right fills in with its description, the trigger and a numbered list of the steps it contains.
5. Click the card, or Use this template in the right-hand panel. The Flow Builder opens with the whole thing already drawn and named.

If you would rather draw it yourself, press Start from scratch in that same window. You get a canvas with a single green Incoming Call step on it.

There is also a shortcut row on the Visual Call Flows page headed Start with AI, with five cards — 24/7 Booking, Live Transfer, After Hours, Emergency and Messages. Each one jumps straight into the matching AI template.

Change the flow on the canvas

1. Add a step. Drag one of the cards from the Add Step panel on the left onto the canvas. The panel tells you the rule: Drag a step into the canvas, then connect its output.
2. Join two steps. Every step has small dots on it. Drag from a dot on the step above to the top of the step below and a line appears.
3. Edit a step. Click it once. A panel opens on the right headed Step Settings with the step's name under it. Everything you type there saves into the step as you go. Close it with the X, or drag its left edge to make it wider.
4. Remove a step. Select it, then press Delete Node at the top of the screen. That button only appears when a step is selected, and the Incoming Call step at the top can never be deleted.
5. Tidy up. The Fit button on the canvas brings the whole drawing back into view. Next to it is a live count reading something like 7 steps · 8 connections.

Put the flow live on a number

1. At the top of the Flow Builder, give it a clear name in the Flow box — a colleague should be able to tell what it does from the name alone.
2. Open the Phone number picker next to it (it reads Select phone... until you choose). Search by name or number and pick one. Choose None to detach it again.
3. Make sure the switch beside it reads Active rather than Inactive.
4. Read the amber Check before saving box on the canvas if one appeared, and fix what it lists.
5. Press Save Flow. You get a Flow saved successfully message.
6. Ring the number from your own phone and listen to what happens.

Add a ready-made automation

1. Go to Settings›Pipeline›Automations.
2. Click New Automation. The Add new automation page opens with a grid of cards.
3. Read the one-line description on each card and press Add automation on the one you want. It opens in the automation builder with every step already in place.
4. Change the wording, the timings and the people it notifies, then save. See Automations for what each step does.

A card with a green On badge is already running on your account. Its button changes to Add another, which gives you a second copy rather than replacing the first. If nothing in the grid fits, press Create your own automation at the top right of that page.

Copy a flow before you change something big

1. On Settings›Channels›Visual Call Flows, find the flow in the Your flows list.
2. Press the copy button next to Edit. You get a Flow duplicated message and a new row named (your flow name) (Copy), switched off and attached to nothing.
3. Experiment on the copy. When you are happy, move the phone number across to it and switch the old one off.

How to check it worked

• Saved: a Flow saved successfully message appears. A brand-new flow also gets its own address in the browser bar, so refreshing no longer loses it.
• Nothing left unconnected: the amber Check before saving box on the canvas has disappeared.
• Attached to a number: back on Settings›Channels›Visual Call Flows, the row shows the phone number or call group name rather than the amber words Not assigned.
• Switched on: the badge on the row reads Active, not Inactive. Clicking that badge flips it without opening the flow.
• The right shape: each row lists the step count and a strip of coloured chips — Incoming call, IVR menu, Wait for office agent, Voicemail and so on — so you can sanity-check a flow without opening it. Rows also carry an Updated time so you can see your change landed.
• The real test: ring the number yourself. Press each menu option in turn and let one call run all the way to the timeout so you know the fallback path works.
• Automation added: back on Settings›Pipeline›Automations the new automation appears in the list, and its card in the template gallery now carries the green On badge.

Common mistakes

• Editing the live flow during business hours. Copy it first, change the copy, then move the phone number over. Callers are going through the original while you work on it.
• Expecting a template to know your business. Templates fill in your company name and your first phone number, and point the waiting step at your teams — but the greeting wording, the menu labels, the hours in Time Split and the AI's instructions are all generic until you edit them.
• Deleting instead of switching off. The bin on a flow row asks Delete Flow? and warns This action cannot be undone. If you only want it to stop answering calls, click the Active badge instead. (The flow named Main Inbound Flow has no bin at all.)
• Trying to edit a built-in automation. Some automations carry a Default label with a padlock. Those open in a view-only builder that says so along the top. You can turn them on and off from the Automations list, or use the copy button to make an editable version of your own.
• Assuming the timeout is generous. The default wait for an office agent is 30 seconds and an IVR Menu waits 5 seconds for a key press. Both are editable in Step Settings, but neither is long.
• Old flows using the legacy queue step. If the builder tells you Queue to Office Agents is legacy; use Wait for Office Agent for normal live office agent routing., swap that step for Wait for Office Agent.