Deadline Management: Setting Due Dates, Reminders, Escalation, and Expiration

What it is

Deadline management in Workflows covers everything that happens when a task is not acted on promptly. On each Task node you can set:

• A due date (fixed, relative, or dynamic) that tells the assignee when the task must be completed.
• Reminder emails sent automatically at intervals you define before the due date, nudging the assignee to act.
• An escalation policy that reassigns or notifies a supervisor automatically after a configurable delay if the task is still pending.
• An expiration action that takes over if the task reaches a hard deadline without any action — for example, automatically rejecting the request or completing it to keep the workflow moving.

Together, these settings eliminate the need for manual follow-up emails and ensure every workflow progresses at the intended pace.

Why it's useful / Key benefits

• Nothing gets lost in a busy inbox — automated reminder emails are sent on your schedule, not on the assignee's initiative.
• Workflows do not stall indefinitely — escalation kicks in automatically when someone is unresponsive, routing the task to a supervisor without any manual intervention.
• Hard deadlines are enforced automatically — the expiration action can reject, escalate, complete, or hold the task when the deadline passes, so the business process continues even without human action.
• Full audit trail — every reminder sent, escalation triggered, and expiration action taken is logged in the workflow's history, so you can prove that the process followed the right steps.
• Flexible date formats — due dates can be a fixed date, a calculated offset from the workflow start (for example, "+5 days"), or a dynamic date drawn from a workflow variable, so one workflow design works across many use cases.

Before you start

• Open the relevant workflow in the Visual Designer (edit mode) and have a Task node already configured with its basic settings (title, assignee, actions). See Designing Task Steps.
• If you plan to use a dynamic due date from a variable, ensure the workflow captures that date in a Start node variable or an earlier step. See Using Workflow Variables and Merge Tags.
• Know who the escalation recipient will be — an email address, a role, or a variable.

How to use it — step by step

Step 1 — Open the Task node properties

1. Double-click the Task node on the canvas to open its Properties panel.
2. On the Basic tab, locate the Due Date field.

Step 2 — Set the due date

3. In the Due Date field, enter the due date in one of three ways:

   Format	Example	What it means
   Fixed date/time	2026-12-31T17:00:00	Absolute deadline regardless of when the workflow starts.
   Relative offset	+5d, +3h, +2w	Due date calculated from when this task is created. d = days, h = hours, w = weeks.
   Workflow variable	{{contract_expiry_date}}	Date pulled from a workflow variable (must be in ISO 8601 format).

   Leaving Due Date blank means the task has no enforced deadline. Reminders and escalation still work but may behave differently if no baseline date is set.

Step 3 — Configure reminder emails

4. Click the Notifications tab in the Task Properties panel.
5. Toggle Send Reminders on.
6. In the Reminder Intervals field, enter a comma-separated list of intervals measured back from the due date or forward from task creation. Examples:
   • 24h, 4h — send a reminder 24 hours before the due date and again 4 hours before.
   • 30m, 3h, 8h — send three escalating reminders.
7. Click Edit Reminder Email to open the drag-and-drop email builder and customize the reminder message. The default template already includes {{task_title}}, {{assignee_name}}, {{due_date}}, {{reminder_number}}, and {{total_reminders}} as merge tags.
8. Select the Sending Account (email configuration) to use for reminders.

Step 4 — Configure escalation

9. Scroll to the Escalation Policy section on the Completion tab.
10. Toggle Escalation Enabled on.
11. In Escalate After, enter the time period after task creation (or after due date) before escalation triggers. Use the same format as due dates: 48h, 3d, 1w.
12. In Escalate To, enter the email address or {{variable}} of the person or role who should receive the escalation notification (for example, the assignee's manager).
13. Click Edit Escalation Email to customize the email that the escalation recipient receives. The default template explains the situation and provides the original action links.

Step 5 — Configure expiration action

14. Find the Expiration section on the Completion tab.
15. Toggle Expiration Enabled on.
16. In Expiration Duration, enter how long after task creation (or the due date) the expiration should trigger. Example: 7d.
17. In Action on Expiry, choose what the workflow should do if no one has acted by the expiration point:

18. If you chose Escalate, enter the email address in the Escalate To (Expiration) field.
19. Click Edit Expiration Email to customize the notification sent when the expiration action fires.
20. Click Save Task to apply all deadline settings.

Options & settings explained

Due Date field (Basic tab)

Reminder intervals (Notifications tab)

Escalation policy (Notifications tab)

Expiration settings (Advanced tab)

Tips & best practices

• Set reminders at meaningful intervals. A single reminder 5 minutes before the deadline is rarely useful. Use 5d, 1d, 4h for a week-long task to give the assignee plenty of warning.
• Separate escalation from expiration. Escalation notifies a supervisor but keeps the task alive for human action. Expiration closes the task automatically. Use escalation first, then expiration as a hard backstop with a longer duration.
• Match expiration to your SLA. If your policy requires all requests to be processed within 10 business days, set expiration to 10d with Action on Expiry set to "Escalate" (to a manager who can investigate) rather than "Reject" (which may have business consequences).
• Test escalation in development. Set escalation to 2m (2 minutes) on a test workflow, run it, and verify the escalation email arrives. Then change the duration to the real value before going live.
• Use variables for due dates when the deadline is data-driven — for example, when a contract expires on a date submitted in the trigger form. This eliminates manual date updates across workflow versions.
• Do not set expiration to "Complete" unless auto-approval is acceptable. In most approval processes, an automatic completion bypasses human review. Use it only for administrative tasks where a non-response implicitly means approval is granted.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Can I set both a reminder and an escalation on the same task? Yes. Reminders notify the original assignee. Escalation notifies a different person (or the same person again at a higher urgency level). They operate independently.

Q: What if the due date variable is empty when the task is created? If the variable is empty, the due date is not set and reminder/escalation timers tied to the due date will not trigger. Timers that measure from task creation (not from due date) will still work. Always validate that required date variables are populated before the Task node is reached.

Q: Does escalation reassign the task away from the original assignee? Escalation sends a notification to the escalation recipient but does not automatically remove the original assignee. Both can still act on the task. If you want a hard reassignment, set Expiration Action to "Escalate" and the task will move to the new assignee.

Q: How many reminder intervals can I define? There is no hard limit. However, more than four or five reminders for a single task can feel excessive to recipients. Three is a common best practice.

Q: What happens to pending reminder emails if the task is completed before they fire? Reminders are cancelled as soon as the task is acted on. The assignee will not receive reminder emails after they have completed, rejected, or held the task.

Q: Can I use escalation at every level in a multi-level approval chain? Yes. Each Task node in a multi-level chain has its own independent deadline, reminder, escalation, and expiration settings. Configure them separately for each level based on the appropriate SLA for that stage.

Q: The workflow expired and auto-rejected a request that should have been approved. Can I undo this? No automated action is reversible through the UI. For compliance-sensitive processes, prefer "Escalate" as the expiration action so a manager can manually review before the final decision is taken. If a mistake occurs, the workflow may need to be re-triggered manually by an administrator.