Node: Delay

What does the Delay node do?

The Delay node pauses the automation for a while before continuing to the next step.

Most HR processes are not a single burst of activity — they are spread over days, weeks, or months. A Delay node is how you build that spacing into one automation instead of splitting it into several.

When should I use the Delay node?

• New joiner check-in. Wait seven days after the start date, then send the employee a short check-in and prompt the manager to book a one-to-one.
• Parental leave. Handover tasks are created before the leave begins, then the automation waits until the return date approaches and prompts the return-to-work conversation.
• Offboarding follow-up. Thirty days after the last working day, create a task to confirm that equipment came back and access was revoked.

Tip: The signal to reach for a Delay node: you are about to build a second automation whose only job is to do the later half of a process you have already started. A Delay node keeps it as one automation, so the whole process is visible in a single view.

What settings does the Delay node have?

Label: The name of the step on the canvas. Describe what you are waiting for, not just how long, for example “Wait until start date” reads better on a canvas than “Delay 1”.

Wait: Choose one of two ways to wait:

• For a duration - (a fixed length of time from the moment the automation reaches this step; set an Amount and a Unit, for example 7 days)
• Until a date - (wait until a specific date is reached, rather than for a fixed period).

Beneath the settings, the step tells you in plain language what it will do, for example “Waits 1 day”, so you can check your configuration reads the way you intended.

What happens when a Delay node runs?

When a run reaches the Delay node, that run stops and waits. Nothing else happens on it until the wait is over, at which point it continues to the next step automatically.

The wait applies to that run only. Other runs of the same automation carry on independently — if five people are being onboarded, each one waits on its own schedule, according to when their run reached the step.

While a run is waiting, the run history shows it as in progress with the Delay step pending, so you can see who is waiting and what they are waiting for.

Important: A waiting run is still a live run, with two consequences worth knowing:

• Pausing the automation does not stop it. Pausing prevents new runs being created; it does not touch runs already underway. A run sitting in a Delay node will finish its wait and carry on, even while the automation is paused.
• Archiving the automation cancels it. Archiving cancels every run in progress, including those waiting in a Delay node. The remaining steps never execute, and the run moves to the History tab.

What are common mistakes and limitations with the Delay node?

• Long waits go stale. The longer the delay, the more likely the employee’s situation has changed by the time it ends — new manager, new department, or gone altogether. Steps after a long delay are resolved against the record as it is then, so a task assigned to “the employee’s manager” goes to whoever holds that role at the end of the wait, not at the start.
• The employee may have left. A delay measured in months can outlive the employment it relates to. Consider whether the steps after the wait still make sense for someone who is no longer there, and use a Condition node to check before acting if it matters.
• Editing a delay does not affect people already waiting. Changing 7 days to 14 creates a new version. Runs already waiting continue on the version they started on and finish their original wait. Only new runs get the new timing.
• You cannot shorten or skip a wait in progress. There is no way to push a waiting run forward. If a run must not continue, archiving the automation is the only lever — and it cancels every other run too.
• “Until a date” cannot reach backwards. If the date has already passed by the time the run arrives at the step, the wait cannot happen as intended.
• A delay is not a schedule. If you want something to happen every month, use a date-based trigger, not a long chain of Delay nodes.
• A Delay node is not the same as a Task node waiting for completion. A Delay node waits for time to pass. A Task node set to wait for completion waits for a person to act, and will wait indefinitely if they never do. Use a Delay node when you know how long to wait; use a waiting Task node when you need confirmation that something was done.