Using the Delay Step in workflows
Sometimes it's beneficial to add a delay between workflow steps. This helps stagger actions and creates a more natural experience for recipients—especially when sending communications or triggering follow-up steps.
The Delay Step allows you to define when the next step in the workflow will execute. This can be based on a set interval, a specific date and time, or a relative point in time (like "tomorrow").
Delay Step requirements
Keep the following rules in mind when using a Delay Step:
- A Delay Step cannot be placed before a Survey Listener or Share Link initiator.
- A Delay Step cannot be the last step in a workflow.
- You cannot place two Delay Steps back-to-back.
- Units of time must be positive whole integers (e.g., 1, 2, 3). No decimals are allowed.
- Minimum delay is 1 minute; maximum delay is 1 year.
How to add and configure a Delay Step
1. Drag a Delay Step from the step list (on the right side of the screen) onto your workflow timeline.
2. Click the pencil icon to edit the Delay Step.
3. Choose how you'd like to define the delay:
- Interval (e.g., 3 days, 1 week)
- Absolute timestamp (e.g., December 10, 2025 at 8:00 AM)
- Relative time (e.g., “tomorrow” or “now”)
4. You can also use merge codes to dynamically set the delay time based on previous responses or system values.
5. When using relative time, the system accepts inputs like “now”, “tomorrow”, or specific timestamps.
Note: Workflow steps set to send "X days after" the last step are not guaranteed to send at the exact time of the previous step. After the delay period ends, the next step will be added to a processing queue.
Testing workflows with Delay Steps
When running a test, you have control over whether the Delay Step is applied:
- In the Test tab, toggle Yes or No to include or skip the delay.
- If set to Yes, the test run uses a default delay of 1 minute.
- If set to No, the Delay Step is skipped entirely during the test run.
