Automate deadline shifts on tasks

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Which app this page describes

This page describes Tallyfy at go.tallyfy.com, the app your team uses today. Screens and wording can differ in other versions of the Tallyfy interface.

Deadline actions

Section titled “Deadline actions”

Deadline actions adjust task due dates automatically when an automation’s conditions are met. You can:

• Shift a deadline forward or backward by a set amount (e.g. +3 days)
• Base a deadline on another step’s due date
• Set a deadline from a date entered in a form field

Use the Apply to dropdown in your automation to pick which step’s deadline changes.

Deadline is one of five action types you can add to an automation. The others toggle visibility, reopen steps, update assignments, and fire a webhook.

A deadline action runs once per process, and then it’s done

Tallyfy runs each automation at most once in a given process. Once a deadline action has fired, the date it set stays put. Change the form field it counted from afterwards and the deadline does not move, because the automation won’t run a second time.

That matters most when a date you’re counting from is the kind that slips, like a hire date or an event date. Read when an automation runs before you build a template around one, and adjust the deadlines by hand if the date moves mid-process.

Types of automations

Visibility

IF this THEN show/hide that step

Assignment

IF this THEN assign someone

Deadline

IF this THEN shift the deadline

Status

IF this THEN re-open a task

Examples of deadline actions

Section titled “Examples of deadline actions”

Example 1: Make deadline earlier for premium service

Make deadline earlier for premium service

If

• Package Purchased is Premium

Then

• Shift deadline

  Apply to

  Send First Draft

  Shift by

  3 days before its own deadline

Example 2: Set deadline from a form field date

Set deadline from a form field date

If

• Project Scope is Complex

Then

• Shift deadline

  Apply to

  Review Meeting

  Shift by

  5 days after Client Kick-off Date

The review meeting deadline lands 5 days¹ after whatever date the user entered in the “Client Kick-off Date” field.

Example 3: Link deadlines between tasks

Link deadlines between tasks

If

• Initial Review is completed

Then

• Shift deadline

  Apply to

  Final Approval

  Shift by

  2 days after Client Feedback

Final approval falls 2 days after the client feedback step was due.

Step 13’s deadline gets pushed 1 day later when the condition is met.

What a deadline action counts from

Section titled “What a deadline action counts from”

Every deadline action needs a starting point. There are exactly three, and you pick one when you build the action.

• Current deadline - add to or subtract from the target step’s existing due date
• Another step’s deadline - count from a different step’s due date
• Date field value - count from a date somebody entered in a form field

Want Step B due 2 days after Step A? Set it as “+2 days from Step A’s deadline.”

The form field has to be a Date field. Tallyfy won’t let you save a deadline action pointed at a text or number field, so if the date you need is being typed into a text box, change the field type first.

There’s no option to count from the process launch. If that’s what you want, set it on the step itself in the Timings row rather than in an automation.

Deadline actions ignore your work week

Your organization’s working days and hours are applied when a task is first created, when you change a deadline by hand, and when a deadline moves because the step it counts from moved. They are not applied to a deadline set by an automation.

So an automation can land a deadline on a Saturday, or at 3am, in an organization set to Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. The date is whatever the arithmetic produced. Bear that in mind when you pick a gap, and check the result near a weekend.

Tallyfy counts in calendar days throughout, and it doesn’t know about public holidays or individual time off anywhere. See customize work week for where the work week does apply.

Calendar-based vs relative deadlines

Tallyfy deadlines are relative to when the process starts, not calendar-based. If you need deadlines on specific days (like every Monday):

1. Weekly patterns - launch the process on a schedule through a middleware tool like Zapier or the API, then use relative deadlines
2. Monthly patterns - schedule the launch the same way, for a set date each month
3. Variable deadlines - use date form fields to capture dates, then set deadlines relative to them

Related articles

Section titled “Related articles”

Examples > Countdown deadline automation

Set up automated countdown deadlines that work backwards from important dates so preparation…

Automations > When an automation runs

Tallyfy automations fire only once per process and are evaluated at just two moments (process…

Edit Task > Set an exact date on a task

Tallyfy template steps carry relative deadlines like 3 days after launch, so a step never holds…

Edit Templates > How a step deadline is worked out

Step deadlines in Tallyfy are built from three parts: an anchor (process launch or another step)…

Footnotes

Section titled “Footnotes”

1. Calendar days, counted straight from the date in the field. A deadline set by an automation isn’t adjusted to your work week ↩

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