Skip to main content

Delay Task: Pause a Workflow Until It's Time

· 4 min read

Some steps in a process shouldn't happen straight away. A purchase order might need a cooling-off period after approval. A welcome email should go out on the new hire's start date, not the day the form was approved. An automated call to an external system might need a window where someone can still stop it.

Until now, handling this meant someone had to remember to come back and move the submission along. The new Delay task does it for you: it pauses the submission, then continues the workflow automatically when the time comes.

What the Delay task does​

Drop a Delay task between any two tasks in the Workflow Builder. When a submission reaches it, the submission waits. When the wait is over, the workflow moves on to the next step by itself. Nobody needs to approve or click anything.

Approve -> Delay (14 days) -> Process (create purchase order)

There are two ways to set how long it waits:

  • Duration: wait a number of minutes, hours or days, counted from when the submission reaches the Delay. For example, "3 days" reached on Monday at 10:15 resumes on Thursday at 10:15
  • Fixed: wait until a specific date and time

Both can take their value from the submission itself. Pick a form field instead of typing a value, and each submission waits its own amount of time or until its own date:

Form -> Approve -> Delay (until [start_date]) -> Notification (welcome email)

Skip or cancel the wait​

Plans change. With Visible to roles, you choose who can step in while a submission is waiting. As with Approve tasks, these users must also share an authorization channel with the submission, unless Ignore authorization channel? is ticked.

  • Skip ends the wait now and moves on to the next step
  • Cancel stops the submission. Its status becomes Cancelled

This makes the Delay useful as a safety window, not just a timer:

Approve -> Delay (24 hours, Manager can skip or cancel) -> Hook (send to external system)

The manager has a day to cancel before anything is sent, or can skip the wait if it's urgent.

Selecting Applicant in Visible to roles lets the person who made the submission skip or cancel their own submission's wait. It doesn't apply to other users who hold the Applicant role.

What users see​

While a submission waits, its status stays Pending. The Delay step shows in the submission history as Waiting, with the date and time it's scheduled to resume. When the wait ends, the history entry records whether it elapsed, was skipped or was cancelled.

If you'd rather keep the waiting step out of view, tick Hide from submission history?. Only the people who can skip or cancel it will see it.

Good to know​

  • Durations use calendar time. Weekends and public holidays count like any other day
  • A delay usually resumes within about 5 minutes of its scheduled time
  • If a fixed date has already passed when a submission reaches the Delay, the workflow doesn't wait. It continues straight away and the history explains why
  • If the chosen form field is empty or doesn't hold a valid date or number, the Delay doesn't wait either. It continues straight away, and the history explains why. Make the field required if the wait matters
  • A date field with no time resumes at midnight at the start of that date. In the welcome email example, the email goes out as the start date begins, not during working hours
  • Putting a submission On-Hold stops it moving past the Delay, even if the scheduled time passes. When it's set back to Pending, it continues straight away if the time has passed, or at the original time if not. Time spent on hold isn't added to the wait

Documentation​