Can a rule watch two dates at once?

No. One rule, one trigger. Build two rules if you want birthdays and anniversaries — they can point at the same list and use different messages and designs, which is usually what you want anyway.

Can I trigger on a condition rather than a date, like a deal value over $50,000?

Not inside Scribble. Do the filtering in the system that knows about the deal, and only POST to an inbound hook when the condition is true.

Can I trigger on a date column and also merge that date into the message?

Yes. Any custom column is available as a merge field, so a rule watching renewal_date can also write {{renewal_date}} into the message.

What can a Scribble automation be triggered by?

Four things. Birthday and work anniversary watch the corresponding field on each contact. A date you imported watches any date column from your own spreadsheet, either every year or once. An event from your own system fires when something POSTs to your inbound hook.

On this page

#Birthday

Watches the birthday on each contact and fires on the month and the day, every year. Only contacts with a birthday on file can ever match — the rule builder tells you how many that is before you save.

Scribble stores the month and day only, never a year, whatever you import.
A 29 February birthday is celebrated on 28 February in non-leap years.
Full guide: set up automated birthday cards.

#Work anniversary

Watches the work anniversary date and fires on its month and day every year. Unlike a birthday, the full date including the year is stored, which is what makes the {{years}} merge field possible.

{{years}} is the anniversary year minus the start year. Somebody who joined in 2021 gets 5 in 2026.
{{years}} is only substituted when the count is above zero, so a message using it will skip somebody in their first year rather than write 0 years today.
Full guide: work anniversary cards.

#A date you imported

Watches any date column that came in with your spreadsheet — a renewal date, a policy anniversary, the date of a first order, a lease end. The rule asks for the field name, which is the column header converted to snake_case: a column called Renewal date becomes renewal_date.

Recurring or not
Setting	Matches on	Use for
Recurring (default)	The month and the day, every year	Renewal anniversaries, policy dates, the anniversary of a first order
Not recurring	The exact full date, once	A start date, a closing date, a one-off milestone

#An event from your own system

This trigger type does not run on the daily sweep. It fires when something POSTs to an inbound hook you set up under Integrations. Use it for anything that is not a date: a deal closing, a signup, a support ticket resolved, a subscription renewed.

In practice, most people configure the hook directly rather than through an automation, because the hook already carries a design, a handwriting and a message template. See sending cards from Zapier.

#Common questions

Can a rule watch two dates at once?: No. One rule, one trigger. Build two rules if you want birthdays and anniversaries — they can point at the same list and use different messages and designs, which is usually what you want anyway.
Can I trigger on a condition rather than a date, like a deal value over $50,000?: Not inside Scribble. Do the filtering in the system that knows about the deal, and only POST to an inbound hook when the condition is true.
Can I trigger on a date column and also merge that date into the message?: Yes. Any custom column is available as a merge field, so a rule watching renewal_date can also write {{renewal_date}} into the message.

Last checked against the product on 2026-08-05. Something wrong or missing? Tell us.