Time-Dependent Triggers

Time-Dependent Triggers activate an action at a specific predetermined time. For instance, you may want to send a notification to a client’s email address three days before a payment’s Due Date if an invoice remains unpaid. In this scenario, a Time-Dependent Trigger coupled with an E-mail Alert workflow action can be configured.

To create a new Time-Dependent Trigger, select the New button and define the General and Matching properties.

General Properties

Name

Assign a name to the trigger.

Notes

Add an optional trigger description or explanatory text in the Notes field.

Active

Enable the Active checkbox to activate the trigger. If unchecked, the trigger is stored in the system but will not initiate any actions, even if all predefined conditions are met.

Matching

Filter

Define a condition to filter the records that the time trigger will process. The linked actions will be executed for each record that matches the filter condition.

Date

Select a relevant date (or timestamp) from the dropdown list among the available date/timestamp columns in the table. If you choose a date column, the system will assume a midnight time. You can construct a specific time for trigger execution using a Formula-Timestamp column. If you’re using a Formula-Date or Formula-Timestamp column, please make sure the formula is deterministic — this means it cannot use the Today() or Now() functions.

Offset

Define a numeric offset in days before or after the chosen date when the trigger should activate a workflow action. If you need the trigger to execute as soon as possible after a specific date/timestamp, use the "0 days after/before" option. A typical delay will be 5 minutes or more, depending on the current server load.

Once the setup is complete, click Save to save the trigger.

Next, you should associate Workflow Actions with the trigger.

Please be aware that the Navigate action does NOT work with Time-Dependent triggers.

To quickly check the filter conditions specified in the trigger and review records that could be affected, go to the workflow triggers list, click directly on the trigger name, and use the View Records button displayed on the trigger form.

The button offers a dropdown with two options:

Matching filter criteria

Choose this option if you want to review the records that match the filter criteria specified in the trigger.

Matching filter criteria and current timeframe

Click on this option if you need to review the records that match the filter criteria and the current timeframe.

The Current Timeframe section displays two timestamp values: From and To. This is the nearest future range for which the trigger will be executed. If a value of a column chosen in the Date field falls within the Current Timeframe range, the trigger will be executed for those records.

The calculation of the Current Timeframe range can be described by this formula:
Between([Date]+Nd, [Current Timeframe From], Now()).

If the trigger settings are modified, the From field will display the timestamp of the modification until the moment of the next trigger execution.

A time-dependent trigger with only an email alert action that is not used elsewhere is viewed and edited as a reminder on a single screen. However, these trigger and action are also listed under workflow triggers and actions to allow fine-tuning.

The limit of records that the system can process at once by each Time-Dependent trigger depends on the number of users invited into the database. More details are provided in the Record Processing Limits section.

At the bottom of the time-dependent trigger form, you can see the Log, which displays when the trigger was executed and which records were processed.

To review the list of processed records, click on the corresponding View Records link shown in the log.