Use delays in your workflows

When creating a workflow, use delays to space out workflow actions, time your email sends, and create a more personalized experience for your prospects and customers. 

Add delays to workflows

Add delays to your workflow depending on how you would like to pause your workflow actions. There are six types of delays:

• Calendar date: delays enrolled records until a specific date. Use this delay when you want an action to execute only on a specific date. 
• Date property: delays enrolled records until a specific date in a date property. Use this delay when you want an action to execute only on the date based on a specific date property. 
• Event occurrence: delays enrolled records until they complete an event, such as a form submission or website page visit. Use this delay when you want to pause enrolled records until a specific action is taken. You can also base this delay on internal events, such as task completions.
• Set amount of time: delays enrolled records for a specific amount of days, hours, and minutes. Use this delay when you want to pause all enrolled records for the same amount of time between workflow actions.
• Days of week: delays enrolled records until a specific day. Use this delay when you want an action to execute only on a certain day. 
• Time of day: delays enrolled records until a specific time. Use this delay when you want an action to execute only at certain times. 

Please note: the above delay types aren't available in Specific date and Contact date property workflows. Instead, delay actions are set relative to the central date or date property. Learn more about scheduling actions in date-based workflows.

Delay until a calendar date

Use the Delay until a calendar date action to pause records until a specific date. 

Please note: if a date has already passed when a record enters the delay, the record will immediately proceed to the next action which will execute immediately. After, the record will continue moving through the workflow.

To add a calendar date delay:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Automations > Workflows.
• Click the name of a workflow.
• In the workflow editor, click the + plus icon.
• In the left panel, click Delay.
• Click the Delay type dropdown menu and select Calendar date.
• Select the specific date and time of day.
• To execute different actions based on whether or not the set date has passed, select the Yes, add a branch checkbox.
  
  • The branch will contain two branches: On the date and After the date. For example, you can create a workflow that delays until August 31st at 10 AM. At which point, it sends an email containing a webinar link. After the date, you can direct any subsequent contacts who enroll in the workflow to receive a different email that informs them the original webinar is over and provides a list of upcoming webinars they can attend instead. 
  • If you did not select the checkbox, enrolled records will immediately proceed to the next action after your configured delay.
• Click Save.

Delay until a date property 

Use the Delay until a date property action to pause records until a date that is stored in a date property. The action can be performed on the date, before the date, or after the date that is stored in the date property. For example, you can use the On date option to delay the sending of an email based on the contact's birthday property. 

Please note: in this type of delay, if a date has already passed when a record enters the delay, the actions associated with the delay will be skipped. The object will then move to the actions after the delay and continue moving through the workflow. This is not true for Centered on a date workflows, the action after the delay will be skipped also.

To add a date delay:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Automations > Workflows.
• Click the name of a workflow.
• In the workflow editor, click the + plus icon.
• In the left panel, click Delay.
• Click the Delay type dropdown menu and select Date property.
• The next action will be delayed until a specific date property of the enrolled object meets the criteria you configure:
  
  • Click the Property dropdown menu and select a property.
  • Under Perform this action, select the On date, Before date, or After date circleFilled radio button. If you select Before date or After date, enter the number of days before or after the date property you selected.
  • Select the time of day that the delay will end.
• To execute different actions based on whether or not the set date has passed, select the Yes, add a branch checkbox.
  
  • The branch will contain three branches: On the date, After the date, and Date property unknown.
  • If you did not select the checkbox, enrolled records will immediately proceed to the next action after your configured delay.
• Click Save.

Delay until event occurrence

Use the Delay until event occurrence action to pause records until a specified event occurs. For example, delay a contact until they visit a page or fill out a form.

Please note: in this type of delay, if an event has already happened when a record enters the delay, it will not immediately exit the delay. Records will only exit the delay if the event occurs while the record is in the delay. 

To add an event occurrence delay to your workflow:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Automations > Workflows.
• Click the name of a workflow.
• In the workflow editor, click the + plus icon to add a workflow action.
• In the left panel, click Delay.
• Click the Delay type dropdown menu and select Event occurrence.
• To base the delay on an event that happens in relation to enrolled records in the workflow, such as a contact's form submission or email open: 
  • Click the Data source dropdown menu and select [Object] in this workflow.
  • Click the Event dropdown menu and select an event.
  • Scroll or type to search, then select a property to filter by.
  • Select an option, then set your criteria.
  • Once you've set your criteria, click Apply filter. Records that meet the criteria will exit the delay. 

• To base the delay on an event that happens in relation to an output from an earlier action in the workflow, such as until a previously created task is marked as complete: 
  • Click the Data source dropdown menu and select Output from earlier action in this workflow.
  • If you have more than one action, click Choose action and select a prior action from the workflow, such as a previous Create task or Create record action. Actions that cannot be used will be grayed out. 
  • Click the Event dropdown menu and select an event.
  • Scroll or type to search, then select a property to filter by.
  • Select an option, then set your criteria.
  • Once you've set your criteria, click Apply filter. When the associated output has met the criteria, the enrolled record will exit the delay. 

• After setting the delay event, set the maximum amount of time that a contact will wait until being released from the delay:
  • Enter the amount of time in the Days, Hours, and Minutes fields. If a contact doesn't meet the event criteria, they'll be released from the delay after the set amount of time.
  • To delay the contact for up to five years, select the Delay for the maximum of 5 years checkbox.
• Click Save.

Delay for a set amount of time

Use the Delay for a set amount of time action to pause records for a specific amount of days, hours, and minutes.

To add a set amount of time delay:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Automations > Workflows.
• Click the name of a workflow.
• In the workflow editor, click the + plus icon.
• In the left panel, click Delay.
• Click the Delay type dropdown menu and select Set amount of time.
• Set how long the delay will last by using the Days, Hours, and Minutes fields. 
• Click Save. 
  
  

Delay until a day or time

Use the Days of the week or Time of day delay to pause your workflow until specific days of the week and/or time of day. For example, if you're using a workflow to send a series of promotional emails, you can add this type of delay just before the email send action to pause delayed contacts until Tuesday at 11:00 AM.

When using this type of delay, please be aware of the below:

• If you add multiple days to the delay, records will exit the delay on the soonest available day. For example, if your delay includes Monday and Thursday, any contact who enters the delay on Tuesday will be released on Thursday.
• If you only add a time to the delay with no days selected, records will exit the delay at the next selected time. For example, if the delay is set to 2:00 PM and a contact enters the delay on Monday at 9:50 PM, they'll exit the delay on Tuesday at 2:00 PM.
• If you don't add a time of day to the delay, records will exit the delay on the selected day at the same time they entered it. For example, if your delay is set to Wednesday and a contact enters the delay on Monday at 9:50 PM, they will exit the delay on Wednesday at 9:50 PM.

To add this type of delay:

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Automations > Workflows.
• Click the name of a workflow.
• In the workflow editor, click the + plus icon.
• In the left panel, click Delay.
• Click the Delay type dropdown menu and select Days of week or Time of day. 
• To add which days of the week to the delay, select the checkbox next to the days you want to add. 
• To add a time of day to the delay, click the Time of day dropdown menu and select a time. 
• Select which timezone the delay should be based on:
  
  • To base the selected time on your HubSpot account timezone, select Use portal time zone.
  • To base the selected time on the contact's time zone, select Use contact's time zone. If the contact has a value in their IP time zone property, HubSpot will use that time zone. If the contact doesn't have a value for that property, the account's time zone will be used instead.
• Click Save.

View records waiting in a delay

• In the workflow editor, click Active [records] in this action in the delay action. 
  
  
• In the left panel, view the records that are waiting in the delay and how much time is remaining. 
  
  

Edit a delay

Editing a delay will affect any records that are currently waiting in the delay.

• When you delete a delay, records waiting in the delay will immediately proceed to the next action.
• When editing a Delay until a day or time delay, the delay will be recalculated to be in the future. Records waiting in the delay will continue to delay until that future day or time. However, if you edit the delay to be the current day with no specific time, delayed records will exit the delay immediately.

• When you edit a Delay for a set amount of time delay, the records waiting at the delay will immediately be rescheduled. Rescheduling will take into account the amount of time that has already passed in the original delay.
  • If you make a delay longer, delayed records will be rescheduled to complete the remainder of the new delay length. For example, if you adjust a delay from one hour to two hours, records that have already waited 30 minutes will wait for an additional hour and 30 minutes.
  • If you make a delay shorter, records will either be rescheduled to the new length, or exit the delay. For example, if you adjust a delay from two hours to one hour, a record that's waited for 30 minutes will wait for an additional 30 minutes. A record that's waited an hour and 30 minutes will exit the delay immediately.
• Editing the property value or set date associated with a Delay until a date delay will affect the delay for all records waiting in the delay:
  
  • If the property value or Calendar date is changed to a date further in the future, the delay will extend accordingly.
  • If the property value or Calendar date is changed to an earlier date, the delay will shorten accordingly.
  • If the property value or Calendar date is changed to a date in the past, the delay will end and the record will automatically move on to the next action.