With Genea Automations, you can build powerful, site-wide automation rules across your access control system, all from a single, streamlined interface. Automations replaces the legacy I/O rule engine with a faster, more flexible approach to managing triggers and actions across your locations.
Instead of writing separate rules for each controller, Automations lets you span multiple controllers within a location, combine multiple trigger sources into one rule, and configure actions with extended parameters, all with simplified terminology that replaces the legacy I/O rule engine jargon.
Here’s what you can do with Automations:
Cross-controller automation — Write rules across controllers within a location, powered by cloud-based execution.
Multiple sources per rule — Combine triggers like “MP 1 OR MP 2 is alarmed” in a single rule instead of creating duplicates.
Video triggers — Trigger rules from video events, so your automation can respond to what your cameras detect, not just access control events. Note: Video integration within Automations currently supports Genea Video only. You can write rules using the triggers above as long as you’re using Genea Video.
Automation schedules for video triggers — When a video trigger is used, the rule runs on a cloud-evaluated Automation schedule (no controller memory required), available directly from the Schedule dropdown.
Alert notifications — Send alerts over Email, Slack, and Microsoft Teams as rule actions, so the right people are notified the moment a rule fires.
Rule cloning — Duplicate existing rules in one click and modify as needed.
Enable / disable rules — Toggle rules on or off without deleting them.
Extended action parameters — Configure actions with time-based options like Quick Grant with preset or custom durations.
Last execution status — See when a rule last ran and whether it executed successfully.
Configuration error display — Errors during rule setup are surfaced directly in the UI.
Streamlined interface — A cleaner UI with simplified terminology throughout.
Accessing Automations
If your portal was created on or after May 11, 2026, Automations is available in your account by default. You’ll find it under the Automations menu on your dashboard.
For portals created before this date, a one-time migration is required to enable Automations. Contact your Genea account representative or reach out to acssupport@getgenea.com to schedule your migration. Existing rules will continue to function until the migration is complete.
Creating an Automation Rule
Automations can be accessed from both Global Overview and Location View.
If you have access to Automation Management, you can navigate to the Automations menu from either of these views.
To create a new rule, click on Automations in the left navigation, then click Add to begin setting up your automation.
Now start creating a rule:
Step 1 — Automation Details
Enter a Name for your automation rule (e.g., "Door Held Alarm Rule"). Optionally, add a description explaining what the rule does.
Under Automation Preferences, Enable Automation is selected by default. You can also choose whether to Use Variable (condition flags A, B, C, and D) to control when the automation runs.
Step 2 — Location This Automation Applies To
Select the Location where this automation will be applied. The rule will only apply to resources within the selected location.
Step 3 — Trigger Conditions
Configure the trigger that will fire this rule:
Trigger Type — Select the system you want to write a trigger for. Currently, Access Control and Video Surveillance are available options. In future releases, additional systems such as Intrusion and more will be supported.
Resource Type — Choose the resource type to monitor (e.g., Door, Monitor Point, Schedule, etc. ).
Resources — Click to select which specific resources this automation applies to. You can select multiple resources across controllers within the chosen location.
Trigger Event — Set the Event Type (e.g., Alarm Event) and the specific Event(s) to listen for (e.g., Held Open). You can add multiple trigger events by clicking Add Event. You can also combine multiple event types from the same resource type within a single rule. For example, you can write a rule that triggers if there is a Door Forced Open (DFO) on the selected door OR if access is denied — both leading to the same set of actions.
Note: Multiple event types and multiple resources within a rule operate on an OR condition. This means the rule will trigger if any of the configured conditions is satisfied on any of the selected resources.
Genea makes it easy to find the right event type — if you're unsure which category to select, simply search using common keywords. For example, search "denied" to find access denied events, or "forced" to find door forced alarm events, and the system will list the relevant category if available.
Step 4 — Schedule
Select a Schedule to define when this automation should be active. Choose from available schedules such as 24x7 – System Schedule for always-on monitoring, or select a custom schedule to restrict the rule to specific days and times.
The schedules available depend on your trigger. Access Control triggers use hardware schedules evaluated on the controller, while Video and other non-controller triggers use cloud-evaluated Automation schedules. For these, the Automation schedule appears in the Schedule dropdown.
About Automation Schedules
Automation Schedules are cloud-evaluated schedules that control when an automation rule is active. Unlike hardware schedules, which run on the access controller and consume controller memory, Automation Schedules are evaluated in the Genea cloud when a trigger fires. This makes them ideal for triggers that don’t involve a controller, such as Video triggers — which the access controller cannot evaluate on its own.
When you configure a rule with a Video or other non-controller trigger, the rule runs on an Automation Schedule, which you can select from the Schedule dropdown during rule setup. Access Control triggers continue to use hardware schedules evaluated on the controller.
Because they run in the cloud, Automation Schedules use no controller memory and can be applied across your locations without hardware constraints.
Creating an Automation Schedule
To create an Automation Schedule, navigate to the Location view > Automations > Automation Schedules.
Click Add Schedule to create a new one.
Fill in the schedule details as shown, then click Save.
Note: Automation Schedules can currently be used only within Automation rules. Support for cloud schedules in other areas of the application may come in future releases.
Step 5 — Actions
Define what happens when the automation is triggered. Each rule requires at least one action.
Action Type — Select the system the action should target (e.g., Trigger Access Control Devices).
Resource Type — Choose the type of resource to act on (e.g., Control Point).
Resources — Select which specific resources the action should apply to. You can select multiple resources across controllers within the location.
Category — Choose the action category (e.g., Controlling Actions).
Event — Select the specific action to perform (e.g., Activate Control Point).
Once the triggers and actions have been added, save and close the automation.
Action Type — Send Alert Notification
The Send Alert Notification action lets you notify the right people the moment an automation rule is triggered. Alerts can be delivered over multiple channels:
Email — Send to individual email addresses or User Groups.
Slack — Post to one or more Slack channels.
Microsoft Teams — Post to one or more Teams channels.
To configure an alert, add an action, set the Action Type to Send Alert Notification, choose a category (Email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams), and select the recipients or channels. For Slack and Microsoft Teams, the corresponding integration must be enabled for your portal and the channels authorized before they appear for selection. You can use the Send Test Alert button to send a sample notification and confirm your setup.
Important — Alerts are not affected by Time Delays
Contextual alerts are sent from the Genea cloud and are not subject to Time Delay actions, because delays are executed on the controller. If a rule is configured with a Time Delay followed by an access control action and then an alert — for example, Time Delay → Access Control action → Send Alert Notification — the access control action will wait for the delay to finish, but the alert will be sent as soon as the trigger is received. In other words, a Time Delay holds back controller-based actions placed after it, but it has no effect on when an alert is sent.Understanding the Automation Type
Once the automation is created, the system assigns the automation type based on the trigger and action resources used in the rule:
Offline:
This rule runs entirely on the local controller and will continue to function even if the controller loses internet connectivity.
Hybrid:
This rule spans multiple controllers. Actions on the local controller will always execute, while actions on remote controllers depend on network connectivity and may not trigger if those controllers are offline.
Enabling and Disabling the Automation
Enabled:
When the automation is enabled, it will run whenever the trigger conditions are met.
Disabled:
When the automation is disabled, it will not run even if the trigger conditions are met.
Last Execution DetailsIn the view mode, the Last Execution Time and Last Execution Status fields display the most recent execution details of the automation rule.
Last Execution Time shows when the automation was last triggered and executed.
Last Execution Status indicates whether the execution was successful or failed.
This information can be used to verify whether the automation is running as expected and to help troubleshoot any issues with rule execution.
Configuration Error States
Under certain conditions, an automation may enter a configuration error state. This can happen if the resources used in the trigger or action are deleted, or due to other configuration-related issues.
When such an issue occurs, the automation will display a configuration error message. Review the error details carefully, make the necessary corrections, and then re-save the automation.
Cloning an Automation Rule
The Clone option allows you to create a copy of an existing automation rule. This is useful when you want to create a similar automation without configuring the entire rule again from scratch.
To clone a rule:
Navigate to the Automations page.
Locate the automation rule you want to duplicate.
Click the Actions dropdown corresponding to the rule.
Select Clone.
A new automation rule will be created with the same trigger conditions, actions, schedules, and configurations as the original rule. You can then modify the cloned rule as needed and save it as a separate automation.
If you have any questions about this feature, please contact acsupport@getgenea.com.