Delay

The Delay task pauses a submission for a set amount of time, or until a specific date and time, and then lets the workflow continue to the next step automatically. Nobody needs to act for the workflow to resume. Authorized users can also end the wait early or stop the submission while it waits.

Purpose

The Delay task is designed to:

• Hold a submission for a waiting period before the next step runs
• Resume a workflow on a specific date, such as a contract start date entered in the form
• Give people a window to step in before an automated action happens
• Space out steps in a process without asking anyone to remember to come back to it

Adding a Delay Task to Your Workflow

Basic Setup

1. In the Workflow Builder, drag the Delay task (hourglass icon) from the task palette onto the canvas
2. Connect it between the task that should come before the wait and the task that should run after it
3. Click on the Delay task to open its configuration panel
4. Choose a Delay type and fill in the settings for that type (see below)
5. Select the Visible to roles that are allowed to skip or cancel the wait

On the canvas, the Delay task shows a short summary of its setting, for example 3 days or Until 2026-12-01T09:00.

Settings

Setting	Description
Title for process	Optional. The title shown for this step in the submission history. If empty, the default title "Delay" is used
Label for status	Optional. Overrides the status label shown once the delay has finished, such as "Cooling-off Complete"
Delay type	Duration waits for an amount of time counted from when the submission reaches this step. Fixed waits until a specific date and time
Visible to roles	Required. The roles allowed to Skip or Cancel the wait. See Who Can Skip or Cancel
Ignore authorization channel?	When enabled, only the role is checked when deciding who can skip or cancel. The authorization channel is ignored
Hide from submission history?	When checked, the Delay step is hidden from the submission history for everyone except the users who can skip or cancel it

Duration Settings

Shown when Delay type is Duration.

Setting	Description
Duration value source	Enter a number to use a fixed value, or Use a form field value to take the number from the submission
Duration value	The number of minutes, hours or days to wait, as a whole number of 0 or more. Used with Enter a number
Duration value (form field)	A numeric field from an earlier form. Used with Use a form field value
Duration unit	Minutes, Hours or Days

Fixed Date Settings

Shown when Delay type is Fixed.

Setting	Description
Fixed datetime source	Enter a date & time to use one date for every submission, or Use a form field value to take the date from the submission
Fixed date and time	The date and time to resume. The date picker only offers future dates, but a date that has passed can still be saved. Used with Enter a date & time
Form field	A date or date/time field from an earlier form. Used with Use a form field value

Using a Form Field Value

Both delay types can read their value from the submission instead of a fixed setting. Pick the field with the smart-tag picker, or type a placeholder such as [notice_days]. Fields from supplementary forms use the [forms.N.field] format, or a Reference Key, which keeps working when steps are added or reordered.

The field is read at the moment the submission reaches the Delay task, so the field must be on a form that comes before the Delay in the workflow.

How the Wait Time Is Calculated

Duration

The wait starts when the submission reaches the Delay task. For example, a 3 Days delay reached on Monday at 10:15 resumes on Thursday at 10:15.

• Durations use calendar time. Weekends and public holidays are counted like any other day
• Durations are whole numbers. A decimal value from a form field is rounded down, so 1.5 days becomes 1 day
• If the duration comes from a form field and that field is empty, not a number, or negative, the duration is treated as 0 and the workflow resumes within a few minutes

Fixed Date

The workflow resumes at the date and time set on the task, or the date entered in the chosen form field.

• A form field that holds only a date, with no time, resumes at 00:00 (midnight) at the start of that date. A date of today has therefore already passed, and the workflow continues straight away
• If the date has already passed when the submission reaches the Delay task, the workflow does not wait. It continues straight away, and the history remark reads "Delay resumed immediately as its scheduled date (...) has already passed"
• If the date comes from a form field that is empty or not a valid date, the workflow also continues straight away, with the remark "Delay resumed immediately as the date field ... is empty or invalid"

Fixed dates on long-lived workflows

A date entered directly on the task applies to every submission. Once that date has passed, every new submission skips the wait. If each submission needs its own date, use Use a form field value instead.

Resume Timing

A delay resumes up to about 5 minutes after its scheduled time. This small spread stops many delays scheduled for the same moment from all resuming at once. The system also runs an hourly check that resumes any delay that should already have finished, so in rare cases a delay can resume up to about an hour late.

What Users See

In the Submission History

While the submission is waiting, the Delay step appears in the submission history with the status Waiting and a remark showing when it is scheduled to resume, for example "Delay scheduled to resume on Thu, Dec 3, 2026 10:15 AM".

The submission's own status stays Pending while it waits.

When the wait ends, the step's title shows how it ended:

Outcome	Title in history	What happens next
The scheduled time arrived	Delay Elapsed	The workflow continues to the next step
A user clicked Skip	Delay Skipped	The workflow continues to the next step
A user clicked Cancel	Delay Cancelled	The submission stops and its status becomes Cancelled
The delay could not run	Delay Failed	The submission's status becomes Failure. See Troubleshooting

If you set a Title for process, that title is shown instead. For a skipped, cancelled or failed delay, the outcome is added in brackets, for example "Cooling-off Period (Skipped)". A delay that elapsed normally shows just the title.

Who Can Skip or Cancel

Everyone who can view the submission sees the waiting Delay step and its scheduled date. The Skip and Cancel buttons only appear for users allowed by Visible to roles:

• Applicant means the person who made this submission, not every user who holds the Applicant role. With Applicant selected, the submitter can skip or cancel their own submission's wait
• Other roles must also share an authorization channel with the submission, the same as for Approve, Review and Process tasks, unless Ignore authorization channel? is enabled

The buttons appear on the submission page and in the mobile app (PWA). They do not appear on the public action page. They are only shown while the submission is Pending and the Delay is its current step.

Hiding the Delay Step

With Hide from submission history? checked, users who cannot skip or cancel the delay do not see the Delay step at all. Users who can skip or cancel still see it, both while it waits and after it has ended.

Skip and Cancel

Action	Confirmation message	Result
Skip	"Resolve this delay now?"	Ends the wait immediately and continues to the next step, as if the scheduled time had arrived
Cancel	"Cancel and stop this submission?"	Ends the wait and stops the submission. The submission's status becomes Cancelled and it does not continue

If the delay has already ended, for example because someone else skipped it or the scheduled time arrived first, the action is not applied and the message "This delay is no longer pending." is shown. Refresh the page to see the current status.

Cancelled submissions on the dashboard

Cancelled submissions are not counted as completed, and are left out of the dashboard's completed submission count and average processing time.

How Delay Interacts with Other Actions

Reverting a Submission

If a revert happens while a submission is waiting on a Delay, which mainly happens with chained submissions, the wait ends and the step is shown as Delay Reverted. If a custom title is set, the step shows just the title. When the submission later reaches the Delay task again, a new wait starts. A Duration delay counts again from that moment.

Changing the Status Manually

Administrators can change a waiting submission's status on the Change Submission Status Manually page:

New status	Effect on the waiting Delay
On-Hold	The submission does not move past the Delay, even if the scheduled time passes, and Skip and Cancel are not shown. When the status is set back to Pending, the workflow continues shortly afterwards if the scheduled time has passed, or at the original scheduled time if not. Time spent on hold is not added to the wait
Pending	The wait carries on as scheduled
Any other status	The wait is closed as Delay Cancelled and the submission takes the new status

Waiting is the status of the Delay step, not of the submission, so it cannot be chosen on this page.

Fix Stuck Submission

A submission that is waiting on a Delay is not stuck, so searching for it on the Fix Stuck Submission admin page does not find it while it is waiting. It is only found there once the delay is more than 2 hours past its scheduled time. Fixing it then ends the wait and continues the workflow. The wait is not started again.

Editing the Workflow

Like other submissions in progress, waiting submissions keep running on the workflow version they started with. See Workflow Versioning.

Version control disabled

If version control is disabled, any save of the workflow breaks every submission currently waiting on a Delay in that workflow, even if the Delay task itself was not changed. Those submissions fail when their scheduled time arrives. See Troubleshooting. Avoid saving such a workflow while submissions are waiting on it.

Use Cases

Grace Period Before an Automated Step

Give people time to stop a submission before something irreversible happens:

Approve → Delay (24 hours, visible to Manager) → Hook (send to external system)

The manager can Skip to send right away, or Cancel to stop the submission before anything is sent.

Compliance or Cooling-Off Period

Hold an approved request for a required period before it moves on:

Approve → Delay (14 days) → Process (create purchase order)

Resume on a Date from the Form

Start the next step on a date the applicant entered, such as a start date:

Form → Approve → Delay (Fixed, form field [start_date]) → Notification (welcome email)

Applicant-Controlled Wait

Let the submitter end the wait early or withdraw while waiting:

Form → Delay (3 days, visible to Applicant) → Process

Best Practices

1. Use descriptive titles: A title such as "Cooling-off Period" tells users why the submission is waiting
2. Choose roles deliberately: Only give Visible to roles to the people who should be able to end the wait or stop the submission
3. Prefer form fields for per-submission dates: A date entered directly on the task is the same for every submission and stops working once it has passed
4. Validate the source field: Make the form field required, and use a number or date component, so the Delay always gets a usable value
5. Allow for resume timing: Delays can resume a few minutes after the scheduled time. Leave some margin if the next step is time-sensitive
6. Test with short durations: Try the workflow with a few minutes before switching to the real duration

Troubleshooting

The Workflow Continued Immediately

Check the remark on the Delay step in the submission history. Remarks are shown in the user's language, so the wording may differ from the English text below.

• "...its scheduled date (...) has already passed": The fixed date was in the past when the submission reached the Delay. Update the date on the task, or use a form field for per-submission dates
• "...the date field ... is empty or invalid": The selected form field had no value or was not a valid date. Check that the field is filled in and is a date field
• "...already passed" with a date-only field set to today: A date with no time resumes at midnight at the start of that day, which has already passed. Use a date/time field, or a date in the future
• No special remark, with a duration from a form field: The field was empty, not a number or negative, so the duration was treated as 0

The Delay Has Not Resumed

• Confirm the scheduled date in the remark has passed. Allow for the timing described in Resume Timing
• Check the submission's status. A delay only resumes while the submission is Pending. If it is On-Hold, set it back to Pending
• If the delay is more than 2 hours past its scheduled time, use the Fix Stuck Submission admin page, or contact your system administrator

Skip or Cancel Buttons Are Missing

• Check that your role is selected in Visible to roles
• If you are the submitter, check that Applicant is selected. Otherwise, check that you share an authorization channel with the submission, or ask an administrator to enable Ignore authorization channel?
• The buttons only appear while the submission is Pending and the Delay is its current step
• The buttons are not available on the public action page. Open the submission from the main application or the mobile app

"Unable to schedule delay due to system error"

The Delay task could not work out when to resume because of an invalid setting, such as a negative Duration value. The submission's status becomes Failure.

Correcting the task settings fixes new submissions. Submissions that already failed keep running on their original workflow version, so running the step again through Fix Stuck Submission fails again. Ask an administrator to change their status manually instead.

Delay Failed Because the Task No Longer Exists

The remark "Unable to resume delay because its workflow task no longer exists" means the workflow was saved with version control disabled while submissions were waiting on a Delay. See Editing the Workflow. The submission's status becomes Failure.

Until its scheduled time, the step can still show as Waiting. Clicking Skip then shows "This delay could not resume because its workflow task no longer exists. The submission has been marked as failed."

An administrator can resolve it on the Fix Stuck Submission admin page. This runs the step again from the current workflow. If that step is a Delay, a new full wait starts.

Limitations

• Durations use calendar time. Business days and public holidays are not supported
• A Delay waits once. Repeating delays are not supported
• A Duration delay cannot be set to resume at a particular time of day. Use Fixed with a form field for that

Related Features

• Condition Task: Route a submission before or after a delay
• Hook Task: Run an automated action once the delay ends
• Notification Task: Send a message when the delay ends
• Workflow Versioning: How workflow edits affect submissions in progress

Summary

The Delay task pauses a workflow for a set time or until a specific date, then continues it automatically. Authorized users can skip the wait or cancel the submission from the submission page, and the submission history shows when the delay will resume and how it ended.