Not every workflow runs straight through. Two node types pause a run so it can continue later, and any node's settings can pull values out of the record it is working on.
Wait
Pauses until a set time, or for a number of minutes — "chase this in three days if nothing has happened".
SLA
Works out a due date and writes it to a field. Point it at a business hours calendar and the interval is measured in working time.
The difference is significant. Four hours from 4pm on a Friday is 8pm on Friday as plain elapsed time, and Monday morning against a normal business calendar. Without a calendar you get the first, which is almost never what a customer commitment means.
How a paused run continues
The task engine periodically picks up runs whose wait has expired. Two things follow:
- A one-minute wait does not resume in one minute unless the task engine runs that often. Waits are approximate — do not use one where precise timing matters.
- A large backlog clears over several passes rather than all at once.
Using field values in node settings
Anywhere you type text into a node's settings, you can include a field from the record by putting its name in double braces — for example {{record_number}}. {{now}} gives the current date and time.
Two things to watch
- The order of your nodes matters. When an Update node changes a field, later nodes see the new value. Moving a node changes what its placeholders produce.
- A misspelled field name produces nothing at all — no error, just an empty value. A node that appears to have written a blank is very often a typo. Field names are case-sensitive, and the friendly name shown on a form is frequently not the field name.