Combined visibility and deadline automations

Full-seat members

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.

Combine visibility and deadline automations in Tallyfy so steps only appear when they’re relevant, and arrive with the right due date already set.

When you’d use this

Section titled “When you’d use this”

• Shipping - International orders need customs checks with deadlines tied to arrival dates. Domestic orders skip the step entirely.
• Contract renewals - Enterprise contracts trigger legal review 30 days before expiration. Standard contracts skip it.
• Event planning - Catering requested? That task appears with a 14-day countdown to event day.
• Customer onboarding - Premium customers get expedited setup steps with 24-hour turnarounds.

How to set it up

Section titled “How to set it up”

1. Add a conditional step

   In your template, add a step that should only appear in certain situations - for example, “Check international shipment arrival.”

2. Create the visibility automation

   Add an automation to show the step only when needed:

   If

   • Shipment Type is International

   Then

   • Show step

     Apply to

     Check international shipment arrival

   Tallyfy automatically hides steps with “Show” actions until conditions are met.

3. Add a deadline automation for the same step

   Create another automation targeting the same step:

   If

   • Shipment Type is International

   Then

   • Shift deadline

     Apply to

     Check international shipment arrival

     Shift by

     7 days after Expected Arrival Date

4. Test it

   Launch a process and check:

   • Domestic shipment - the task stays hidden
   • International shipment - the task appears with a deadline 7 days after the expected arrival date

Examples

Section titled “Examples”

Contract renewal with type-specific deadlines

Section titled “Contract renewal with type-specific deadlines”

Step: “Legal review for special terms”

Visibility automation:

If

• Contract Type is Custom Enterprise

Then

• Show step

  Apply to

  Legal review for special terms

Deadline automation:

If

• Contract Type is Custom Enterprise

Then

• Shift deadline

  Apply to

  Legal review for special terms

  Shift by

  30 days before Contract End Date

Enterprise contracts trigger legal review 30 days before expiration. Standard contracts skip the step entirely.

Event planning with optional services

Section titled “Event planning with optional services”

Step: “Arrange catering service”

Visibility automation:

If

• Services Requested contains Catering

Then

• Show step

  Apply to

  Arrange catering service

Deadline automation:

If

• Services Requested contains Catering

Then

• Shift deadline

  Apply to

  Arrange catering service

  Shift by

  14 days before Event Date

No catering requested? No task. Catering needed? It’ll appear with a 14-day countdown.

Support escalation

Section titled “Support escalation”

Step: “Senior engineer review”

Visibility automation:

If

• Issue Priority is Critical
• AndInitial Resolution is Unsuccessful

Then

• Show step

  Apply to

  Senior engineer review

Deadline automation:

If

• Issue Priority is Critical

Then

• Shift deadline

  Apply to

  Senior engineer review

  Shift by

  2 hours after Escalation Time

Critical issues that first-line support can’t resolve escalate to senior engineers with a 2-hour SLA¹.

Advanced patterns

Section titled “Advanced patterns”

Multiple conditions on one step

Section titled “Multiple conditions on one step”

You can use AND/OR logic to combine conditions. Tallyfy supports both operators:

If

• Purchase Amount is greater than 10000
• AndRegion is International

Then

• Show step

  Apply to

  Export compliance check

If

• Shipping Method is Express

Then

• Shift deadline

  Apply to

  Export compliance check

  Shift by

  1 day before its own deadline

If

• Shipping Method is Standard

Then

• Shift deadline

  Apply to

  Export compliance check

  Shift by

  3 days after its own deadline

A deadline action can’t count from the process launch. The three starting points it offers are the target step’s own deadline, another step’s deadline, and a date form field, so the pair above nudges the step’s existing deadline in or out instead. To set a deadline against launch, do it on the step itself in the Timings row.

Cascading deadlines

Section titled “Cascading deadlines”

One task’s deadline can reference another task’s deadline:

If

• Requires Inspection is Yes

Then

• Show step

  Apply to

  Quality inspection

• Shift deadline

  Apply to

  Quality inspection

  Shift by

  3 days before Ship Date

If

• Requires Inspection is Yes

Then

• Show step

  Apply to

  Inspection report filing

• Shift deadline

  Apply to

  Inspection report filing

  Shift by

  1 day after Quality inspection

Chaining two automations like this is fragile, and it’s worth knowing why before you rely on it. Both fire from the same moment. The second one reads whatever deadline “Quality inspection” holds at the instant it runs, so the answer depends on which of the two ran first. Don’t build around that ordering.

The sturdy version counts both steps from the same date field: “3 days before Ship Date” and “2 days before Ship Date”. Then neither depends on the other, and the order they run in stops mattering.

What won’t rescue it is setting “Inspection report filing” to count from “Quality inspection” in the step’s Timings row. A step deadline follows its anchor when the anchor is completed or edited by hand, but not when an automation moves the anchor’s deadline. Since an automation is what moves “Quality inspection” here, the step counting from it would sit still.

Best practices

Section titled “Best practices”

• Match your conditions - If a step shows for “International” shipments, its deadline should trigger on the same condition.
• Set default deadlines - Hidden steps should still have reasonable defaults in case someone manually shows a step.
• Test edge cases - What happens if a date field’s empty? Or a condition changes mid-process? Find out before your users do.
• Name steps clearly - “Premium setup verification” beats “Step 3,” especially for conditional steps.

When these automations run, and how often

Tallyfy checks automations at two moments: when the process launches, for automations whose conditions all read kick-off form fields, and when a task is completed or reopened, for the rest. There’s no trigger that watches a form field and reacts when its value changes².

At launch, steps carrying a “Show” action start hidden, then the launch check decides which ones appear. A deadline automation can read the same form fields a visibility one does.

Each automation runs once per process. Both halves of a pair fire once, and if the field they read changes later, neither runs again. Full detail is in when an automation runs.

Related articles

Section titled “Related articles”

Actions > Automate hiding or showing tasks

Visibility actions show or hide workflow steps based on conditions like form field values or…

Automations > Conditional visibility

Tallyfy lets you show or hide entire workflow tasks based on form field values using automations…

Actions > Automate deadline shifts on tasks

Tallyfy’s deadline actions automatically shift task due dates forward or backward when a…

Automations > Actions

Automation actions are the Then half of an automation. They automatically assign people, adjust…

Footnotes

Section titled “Footnotes”

1. Service Level Agreement - a contractual commitment to respond within specified time ↩

2. At process launch, steps with “Show” actions are hidden first, then the kick-off conditions are evaluated. After launch, the trigger is a task being completed or reopened. ↩

Was this helpful?

YesNo