The Advanced Scheduling feature in Workflows lets you set field-aware timings, adjust to the right weekdays, and create true monthly or weekly recurrences. These options bring the same power as Journeys into Workflows, ensuring outreach happens exactly when it should. With Advanced Scheduling, you prevent poorly timed messages, avoid compliance risks, and capture every engagement opportunity.
How It Works
You can access scheduling options as shown below:
- At the Workflow Level: Defines when the first node executes after a trigger event.
- At the Node Level: Each communication node (Email, SMS, Voice, WhatsApp, Chatbot) has its own scheduling panel to define when that action should run.
Scheduling Options
- Trigger Now (Immediate)
- Sends the action as soon as the trigger condition is met.
- Common for urgent notifications (e.g., application received, first-day reminders).
- Nth Day/Weekday Recurrence:
Schedule with Recurrence
The schedule with recurrence has two approaches. They are:
- Specific days of week: Ranges from 1st till the last day of any week. Eg.“1st Friday,” or “Last Monday,” with an end-by date or number of occurrences.
- Specific day of month: It ranges from the 1st to the last calendar day of the month. For example, it could be the last day of the month with an end-by date or number of occurrences.
Eg.“1st Friday,” or “Last Monday,” with an end-by date or number of occurrences.
Date Field with Offset: Has two possible configurations: 👇
- Day-of-Week Adjustments on Date Fields
Schedules communications relative to a candidate/date field (e.g., placement date), then waits till the Nth weekday after or before that date.
- Offset + Adjustment Flexibility
Adds a days-offset to your date field and combines the application of Nth weekday rule (supports 1st/2nd/3rd/4th/Last/2nd Last with Mon–Sun; After/Before). E.g., “First Monday after 90 days from {{start_date}}”).
Test Scheduling: Is used to monitor timeline of upcoming scheduled dates on a calendar and test with sample field values for all the communication nodes; We can also get warnings for past/invalid dates. 👇
Intuitive Scheduling Summary: An on-screen explanation translates your configuration into human-readable timing logic for easy review and sharing.
Note: These advanced scheduling options currently apply only to the first communication node of a workflow.
Use Case Examples
- Field-Based Dynamic Scheduling
- A staffing agency wants to send “First Day Reminders” to candidates.
- They configure: Trigger = Placement created, Schedule = candidate.start_date - 1 day.
- Onboarding nudge: First Monday after {{placement_date}} → share welcome kit/checklist at the start of week.
- Exit prep: Last Friday before {{contract_end_date}} → send renewal/exit interview nudge.
- Offer follow-up: 2nd Tuesday after {{interview_date}} → follow up with non-responders.
- Probation review: First Monday after 90 days from {{start_date}}.
- A staffing agency wants to send “First Day Reminders” to candidates.
- Recurring Engagement
- Newsletters: Every end of the month based Newsletters
- Compliance: 10th day of every month.
- Company-Wide Meetings: 1st Friday of every month.
- Bi-weekly check-ins: Alternate Fridays.
Important Rules & Limitations
- Entity Restriction: Scheduling tied to date fields requires those fields to exist and be populated in the entity (e.g., candidate.start_date).
- Recurrence in Journeys vs. Workflows: Journeys supported batching recurrence; Workflows recurrence is date-driven but not batching.
- Node scope: Advanced Scheduling options apply only to the first communication node in a workflow.
- Where adjustments apply:
- Day-of-week adjustments are available only when scheduling by Date Field.
- They do not apply to Trigger Now or Static Date.
- Recurrence scope: Recurrence can be configured from Trigger Now, Static Date, or Date Field, but remains scoped to the first node.
- Past dates: If a calculated date is in the past, the system automatically moves to the next valid occurrence.