Skip to content
Tallyfy

How a step deadline is worked out

Full-seat members

Three things decide every deadline

Section titled “Three things decide every deadline”

A deadline on a template step is always three things put together:

  • What it counts from. This is the anchor. Today it’s either the moment the process launches, or another step in the same template.
  • How far away it is. A number and a unit: minutes, hours, days, weeks or months.
  • Which direction it goes. After the anchor, or before it.

“Due 2 days after the process launches” is an anchor of launch, a gap of 2 days, and a direction of after. That’s the whole model. Everything else on this page follows from it.

What a step deadline can count fromAnchorProcess launchAnother stepThis step is due Gap, afterGap, after or before

Where you set it

Section titled “Where you set it”
  1. Open the template in edit mode and click the step.
  2. On the Basics tab, click the Timings row to expand it.
  3. Set the number and the unit.
  4. Choose after or before.
  5. Choose what it counts from: Process Launch, or another step.

Timings here is a row inside one step’s settings. It isn’t a separate screen, and it only ever sets the deadline of the step you have open.

A template never holds a real date

Section titled “A template never holds a real date”

The same onboarding template runs in March and in November, so no calendar date would be right for both. Template steps hold a rule instead.

Real dates arrive when you launch a process. Tallyfy reads every rule, does the arithmetic, and gives each task an actual date. From then on that date belongs to that one process, and you can change it by hand without touching the template.

What “another step” actually counts from

Section titled “What “another step” actually counts from”

This is the part that surprises people, because it changes partway through a process.

While the other step is still open, your step counts from that step’s due date. Not from the day someone will finish it, because nobody knows that yet.

Once the other step is completed, Tallyfy works your step out again, this time from the moment it was actually completed. So a step set to “2 days after Step A” is due 2 days after Step A’s due date until Step A is done, then 2 days after Step A was done.

Finish Step A early and everything behind it pulls forward. Finish it late and everything behind it pushes back. Only tasks that aren’t finished yet get moved.

The same recalculation happens when somebody edits a deadline by hand. It doesn’t happen when an automation sets a deadline, which is covered in when an automation runs.

Your work week is applied in some places and not others

Section titled “Your work week is applied in some places and not others”

Tallyfy can shift a deadline off a non-working day, using the work week you set in Settings > Organization. It doesn’t do that everywhere, and the gaps matter when you’re debugging a date that looks wrong.

How the deadline was setWork week applied
Worked out when the task was createdYes
Recalculated because the step it counts from movedYes
Changed by hand on a running taskYes
Set by an automation’s deadline actionNo

When it is applied, Tallyfy only ever moves a deadline later, never earlier. A Saturday deadline moves forward into Monday, including when the rule said “before”. If you set no working days at all, nothing is adjusted and the date stands as calculated.

Full detail is in customize work week.

What a step deadline can’t do yet

Section titled “What a step deadline can’t do yet”
  • It can’t be zero. The gap has to be at least 1, so “due the moment the process launches” isn’t something a step deadline can say. Use 1 minute after launch if you need the closest thing to it.
  • It can’t count from a date somebody types in. A step deadline anchors to launch or to another step, and that’s the whole list. To make a deadline follow a date field, use a deadline automation instead.
  • It can’t be left empty. Every step gets a deadline, so there’s no way to say this step has no due date. The usual workaround is a deliberately distant one, like 500 weeks after launch.
  • It can’t go further out than 1000 weeks from whatever it counts from.

Start time is a suggestion, not a deadline

Section titled “Start time is a suggestion, not a deadline”

A step can also carry a start time, which is a hint about when work should begin. It’s guidance only. Nothing enforces it, and it never decides whether a task counts as overdue. Only the deadline does that.

Section titled “Related articles”
Get in touch
About Tallyfy