What are 'Intermediate Timers'?
Unlike interruptive timers and non-interruptive timers, an intermediate timer allows you to delay the execution of a certain step of your process.
Once the flow reaches an intermediate timer, it starts counting the time and the flow stops. Once the time interval is reached, the flow continues along its path.
The feature is only available to Premium accounts and you can set it up like this:
If you add more than one condition, the timer will wait until the total time has elapsed. Example: Conditions ‘1 year’ and ‘6 months’ will cause the flow to continue along the path after 1 year and 6 months have passed.
An intermediate timer can be used at any stage of the workflow, not necessarily before or after a user task.
When the timer is defined by business days, the Holidays and workdays settings will be considered
The intermediate timer is useful in all cases where it is required to delay the flow or wait a certain amount of time. Some examples are:
Waiting 3 days before following up on a potential client.
Waiting 45 days before checking if a payment has been received.
Filing a process instance that must be reviewed every 6 months (e.g.: the Marketing Plan).
When a process instance reaches an intermediate timer, there are no active tasks, so you won’t be able to find the information stored in the form. You can see the current intermediate events being executed from Metrics & Reports > Real Time. A clock icon and the elapsed time will be displayed.
You can also find all instances paused by an intermediate timer by creating a Custom Report and filtering instances by those ‘paused by timer’.
All General readers are readers of instances paused by intermediate timers. For this reason, those that have this permission will be able to access those instances.
The intermediate timer placed between task 1 and 2 has the following behavior: once task 1 is completed, the process will wait 1 hour before assigning task 2.
The interruptive timer associated with task 1 has the following behavior: if after 1 hour task 1 was not completed, the task will be canceled and the flow will continue to task 3.
The intermediate timer acts exactly as in the previous case.
The non-interruptive timer associated with task 1 has the following behavior: if after 1 hour task 1 was not completed, the flow is parallelized by assigning task 3. Note that task 1 will not be cancelled, hence its name ‘non-interruptive’.
Once the flow reaches an intermediate timer, it starts counting the time and the flow stops. Once the time interval is reached, the flow continues along its path.
The feature is only available to Premium accounts and you can set it up like this:
If you add more than one condition, the timer will wait until the total time has elapsed. Example: Conditions ‘1 year’ and ‘6 months’ will cause the flow to continue along the path after 1 year and 6 months have passed.
An intermediate timer can be used at any stage of the workflow, not necessarily before or after a user task.
When the timer is defined by business days, the Holidays and workdays settings will be considered
Useful applications
The intermediate timer is useful in all cases where it is required to delay the flow or wait a certain amount of time. Some examples are:
Waiting 3 days before following up on a potential client.
Waiting 45 days before checking if a payment has been received.
Filing a process instance that must be reviewed every 6 months (e.g.: the Marketing Plan).
When a process instance reaches an intermediate timer, there are no active tasks, so you won’t be able to find the information stored in the form. You can see the current intermediate events being executed from Metrics & Reports > Real Time. A clock icon and the elapsed time will be displayed.
You can also find all instances paused by an intermediate timer by creating a Custom Report and filtering instances by those ‘paused by timer’.
Who can view the instances paused by an intermediate timer?
All General readers are readers of instances paused by intermediate timers. For this reason, those that have this permission will be able to access those instances.
Difference between intermediate timers and interruptive timers:
The intermediate timer placed between task 1 and 2 has the following behavior: once task 1 is completed, the process will wait 1 hour before assigning task 2.
The interruptive timer associated with task 1 has the following behavior: if after 1 hour task 1 was not completed, the task will be canceled and the flow will continue to task 3.
Difference between intermediate timers and non-interruptive timers:
The intermediate timer acts exactly as in the previous case.
The non-interruptive timer associated with task 1 has the following behavior: if after 1 hour task 1 was not completed, the flow is parallelized by assigning task 3. Note that task 1 will not be cancelled, hence its name ‘non-interruptive’.
Updated on: 07/03/2022
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