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Stage Time-outs and the Complete Request Action

A stage time-out acts on a request that has waited at a stage for longer than you allow. It can decline the request, move it to another stage, or complete it where it stands. Complete Request is the newest of the three, and the only way to finish a request whose last stage nobody ever presses a button on.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Forms:

  • User Input Views — Manage Stages, then the stage's Stage Timeout setting
  • Process Inspector — If nobody acts in time, in each stage's Timing panel

Architect Panel → Automation:

  • Tasks — the stage time-out task, which must be enabled

Admin Panel → Processes:

  • Expiring Soon — what is about to time out, with a Pause button

What counts as waiting

Two kinds of wait count, and both use the same time-out:

  • Waiting on the approver: the request arrived at the stage and nobody has decided.
  • Waiting on the requester: the approver asked for more information and the requester has not answered.

The clock starts when the request arrived at the stage, or when the information was requested. A request whose time-out is paused, and one whose stage is still holding back a delayed approver e-mail, does not time out.

The three actions

  • Decline Request: ends the request with the status Timed Out, not Declined, so time-outs are reported separately from refusals. If the declined e-mail is switched on, the requester receives it; the automatically written version says the time limit was reached. The decline/cancellation notifications you set up are sent too.
  • Move to Stage: sends the request to the stage number you name, and e-mails that stage's approver and the requester. Use it to escalate to a deputy.
  • Complete Request: records the stage as approved, exactly as if the approver had pressed Approve, and sends nothing. On the view's last stage that completes the request.

Complete Request exists for last stages that are a page rather than a decision, such as a certificate to download or a receipt to read. Without it those requests never reach Completed and stay on the Active list for ever. It does not run the Process Complete Action. On a stage that is not the last, the request moves on to wait at the next stage, but nobody there is e-mailed, so use it on the last stage only.

Setting a time-out

  1. Open the stage from Manage Stages and switch Stage Timeout on.
  2. Choose the action. For Move to Stage, enter the stage number to move to.
  3. Choose the unit (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years) and the number of units.
  4. Save. The Process Inspector should now describe the time-out in words under If nobody acts in time; a setting switched on but not filled in shows in amber.
  5. Enable the stage time-out task on the Tasks screen. Until it runs, nothing ever times out.

Before you switch the task on

Preview mode on a task does not make it safe: a scheduled run always acts. To see what would happen, use Preview on the Tasks screen, or open Expiring Soon, which lists what will time out without doing anything. Its banner says whether the time-out task is missing, switched off or live. See Managing Requests.

What goes wrong

  • Nothing times out. The task is off, or the setting is switched on without a unit and number.
  • Move to Stage names a stage that does not exist. The request is not moved and the task reports an error.
  • A deadline quoted in an e-mail. If a template tells people they have six weeks, changing the time-out does not change the sentence. Change both together.
  • History pruned. Waiting time is measured from the audit trail; a request whose audit entry is missing is never timed out.

Worked example

On a work-experience form the last stage, Certificate, shows the student a page to download their certificate. Nobody approves it, so every finished placement sat in Active Requests. The architect sets the Certificate stage to Complete Request after 42 days. Six weeks after each student reaches the page, the request moves to Completed Requests and off the co-ordinator's working list. The certificate link keeps working afterwards, and the e-mail that promises six weeks is left matching the setting.

Recommendations

  • Use Complete Request only on a last stage.
  • Pair every time-out with a reminder set well before it.
  • Check Expiring Soon before enabling the task on a live system.
  • Keep units consistent across a view so nobody misreads them.