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Combined visibility and deadline rules

You can combine visibility rules with deadline rules in Tallyfy to make workflows that adapt to different situations. Here’s the magic: steps appear only when you need them AND they automatically get the right deadlines based on what’s happening.

What is the use case for this automation?

Think about processes that change based on circumstances. You need this combination when:

  • Shipping processes: International shipments need customs checks - but domestic ones don’t. When that customs step appears, it needs a deadline tied to the arrival date.
  • Contract renewals: A custom enterprise contract needs legal review 30 days before expiration. Standard contracts? They skip it entirely.
  • Event planning: Ordered catering? The catering arrangement task shows up with a 2-week deadline before your event.
  • Customer onboarding: Premium customers get expedited setup steps with 24-hour turnarounds instead of the standard 5-day timeline.

See the pattern? Steps appear only when relevant, and when they do appear, they come with smart deadlines.

How do I combine visibility and deadline automations?

  1. Create the conditional step

    Add a step to your template that should only appear in certain situations. For example:

    • “Check international shipment arrival”
    • “Premium customer setup”
    • “Regulatory compliance review”

  2. Set up the visibility rule first

    Create an automation to show the step only when needed:

    IF (Shipment Type field) is "International"
    THEN Show task "Check international shipment arrival"

  3. Add the deadline rule for the same step

    Create another automation to set the appropriate deadline:

    IF (Shipment Type field) is "International"
    THEN Set deadline for "Check international shipment arrival"
         to 7 days after (Expected Arrival Date field)

  4. Test the combined behavior

    When launching a process:

    • If shipment is domestic: The task stays hidden
    • If shipment is international: The task appears with a deadline 7 days after the expected arrival date

Real-world examples

Example 1: Contract renewal with type-specific deadlines

Not all contracts are created equal. Custom enterprise deals need extra attention:

Step: “Legal review for special terms”

Visibility rule:

IF (Contract Type field) is "Custom Enterprise"
THEN Show "Legal review for special terms"

Deadline rule:

IF (Contract Type field) is "Custom Enterprise"
THEN Set deadline to 30 days before (Contract End Date field)

What happens? Custom enterprise contracts trigger a legal review 30 days before they expire. Standard contracts breeze right past this step. Simple.

Example 2: Event planning with optional services

Running an event? Only show tasks for services people actually want:

Step: “Arrange catering service”

Visibility rule:

IF (Services Requested field) contains "Catering"
THEN Show "Arrange catering service"

Deadline rule:

IF (Services Requested field) contains "Catering"
THEN Set deadline to 14 days before (Event Date field)

No catering requested? No task appears. Catering needed? The task shows up with a 14-day countdown to event day. Your team focuses only on what matters.

Example 3: Customer support escalation

When a critical issue hits and first-line support can’t fix it, you need rapid escalation:

Step: “Senior engineer review”

Visibility rule:

IF (Issue Priority field) is "Critical"
AND (Initial Resolution) is "Unsuccessful"
THEN Show "Senior engineer review"

Deadline rule:

IF (Issue Priority field) is "Critical"
THEN Set deadline to 2 hours after (Escalation Time field)

Here’s what happens: Regular issues follow normal flow. But a critical issue that stumps support? It instantly escalates to senior engineers with a 2-hour SLA. That’s how you keep customers happy.

Advanced patterns

Multiple conditions affecting the same step

Want to get fancy? Layer multiple rules to handle complex scenarios:

// Visibility depends on amount AND region
IF (Purchase Amount field) is greater than $10,000
AND (Region field) is "International"
THEN Show "Export compliance check"


// Express shipping? Tight deadline
IF (Shipping Method field) is "Express"
THEN Set deadline for "Export compliance check" to 1 day after process launch


// Standard shipping gets more time
IF (Shipping Method field) is "Standard"
THEN Set deadline for "Export compliance check" to 3 days after process launch

Cascading deadline adjustments

Sometimes one deadline depends on another. Here’s how you chain them together:

// First conditional step
IF (Requires Inspection field) is "Yes"
THEN Show "Quality inspection"
AND Set deadline to (Ship Date field) minus 3 days


// Second step depends on first
IF (Requires Inspection field) is "Yes"
THEN Show "Inspection report filing"
AND Set deadline to 1 day after "Quality inspection" deadline

Best practices

After helping hundreds of companies set up these automations, here’s what works:

  • Keep conditions aligned: Match your visibility and deadline triggers. If a step shows for “International” shipments, its deadline should trigger on the same condition.
  • Plan for surprises: Give hidden steps reasonable default deadlines. You never know when someone might manually show a step.
  • Document everything: Your future self (and your team) will thank you. Explain why steps appear and how deadlines work.
  • Test the weird stuff: What happens if someone leaves a date field empty? Or changes a condition mid-process? Find out before your users do.
  • Name steps clearly: “Premium setup verification” beats “Step 3” every time - especially when steps appear conditionally.

Automations > Conditional visibility

Tallyfy’s conditional visibility feature allows you to show or hide entire tasks based on form field selections creating dynamic workflows where only relevant tasks appear to users through IF-THEN automation rules.

Actions > Automate hiding or showing tasks

Visibility actions in Tallyfy automatically show or hide process steps based on specific conditions to ensure complete process integrity while displaying only relevant steps when needed preventing missed requirements and maintaining workflow efficiency.

Templates > Automations

Tallyfy automations enable intelligent workflow adaptation through conditional IF-THEN rules that automatically modify processes based on user input form responses task completions and other triggers to create dynamic workflows that route tasks assign responsibilities and show or hide steps without manual intervention.

Tutorials > Create an automation

Tallyfy automates processes through intelligent if-this-then-that conditional logic that dynamically adapts workflows based on specific conditions like form field values task completions and approval decisions eliminating manual adjustments and reducing administrative overhead.
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