Waiting, time limits and reminders

Which journey steps wait, how their time limits and reminders work, what happens at the limit, and the clinic defaults that apply.

Many journey steps wait: for a time, for an event, for a staff member, for a patient's answer or for a signature. This page explains how waiting works across all of them, how to set time limits and reminders, and what the journey does when time runs out. It is for the administrators and implementation staff who build journeys.

Why time limits matter

A step that waits for a person can wait for ever if nobody acts. A time limit guarantees the journey moves on. When the limit passes, the step finishes with a fixed outcome (for example Nobody answered in time on an Engage step). You then decide on the canvas what happens next by connecting that outcome to another step: a task for someone else, a reminder message, or a Close step.

Connect the path taken at the limit

If nothing on the canvas handles the time-limit outcome, and the step has no default connection, the patient's track ends at that step with no outcome. Always connect the limit path, or give the step a default connection. See The builder canvas and how connections work.

Steps that wait, at a glance

Step	What it waits for	Time limit counted from	Path at the limit
Pause	A time, one or more events, or both. The first to happen wins.	The anchor you choose (see below)	The branch that woke it (Time branch or Event n)
Gather	The incoming tracks, per its Policy	The first arrival	timeout (also used for impossible when nothing handles that)
Engage, when set to Wait here	A staff member to finish the task and give an answer	The moment the task is raised	Nobody answered in time (the outcome fallback)
Capture, when set to Wait here	The answers to the forms listed on the step. The first decisive answer wins.	The moment the step starts, or the time in Count from (optional)	The path you name in Path taken at the limit
Sign, when set to Wait here	Every signer to sign	Your choice in Time limit counted from	Expired unsigned (the outcome expired)
Produce (always waits)	The AI flow to produce the document	The moment the flow starts	Timed out (the outcome timed_out)

Reach, Appointment, Connect, Involve and Tell do not wait. Routine has its own schedule and outcomes: see Routine node.

The Waiting section on a step

Engage, Capture, Sign and Produce share a Waiting section in their settings. It has the same fields everywhere, though some are fixed on some steps.

Field	What it does
Waits for	A plain description of what the step waits for. You cannot change it.
Wait here or move on	Wait here holds the patient at this step until it finishes or the limit passes. Move on at once continues the journey straight away: "The journey goes on at once. Nothing is waited for on this step." Produce always waits.
Time limit	An Amount and a Unit (minutes, hours or days). Required when the step waits, except on Sign: "A step that waits needs a time limit. Without one it could wait for ever." Produce uses Time limit (seconds).
Time limit counted from	Sign only: The moment the step starts, The moment the link goes out, or Clinic default.
Reminder before the limit	How long before the limit to send a reminder. It must be shorter than the limit: "The reminder must come before the time limit." Leave it empty to use the clinic default.
At the limit	The path the journey takes when time runs out. Fixed on Engage, Sign and Produce. On Capture you type it in Path taken at the limit.
Open work when the journey moves on	What happens to a task of this step that is still open when the journey moves past it. See "Open tasks when a step moves on" below.

On the canvas, the step's card summarises its waiting: Moves on at once, Waits, no time limit set, or Waits up to 2 days, then takes fallback.

If a limit was saved in seconds that do not make whole minutes, the field shows Saved as N seconds. Enter an amount to replace it.

Engage

Wait here makes the task blocking: the journey waits for the staff member's answer. The answers they can give are listed under Answers staff can give, and each one becomes an outcome you can route on. At the limit the step takes Nobody answered in time.

The reminder notifies the assignee or role about the task again, on top of the task escalation policies set on the Organisation tab of SettingsPlatform ConfigurationSystem Settings. When the step is run by a recurring schedule it cannot wait: "A step run by a scheduler never waits."

See Engage node.

Capture

Wait here awaits the forms listed on the step and routes on the answers. Move on at once lets you choose What this step does: Send the form now or Only watch for a form sent elsewhere.

You name the limit path yourself in Path taken at the limit. The same path is taken when an answer matches none of the answer routes. Leave Count from (optional) empty to count from the start of the step, or enter an expression for another moment to count from, such as a time an earlier step recorded.

The reminder sends a form that went to the patient again, or brings a form task up again for staff.

See Capture node.

Sign

Wait here holds the journey until everyone has signed. Move on at once continues as soon as the links are out: "The document keeps its time limit and follow-up; a Pause later can wait for the document signed from this step."

The time limit is optional on Sign. Without one, the clinic's default signing time applies: the card shows Waits for the clinic default time, then takes expired. Counting from The moment the link goes out moves the limit when a link is held back for quiet hours.

The reminder sends the link again to every signer who has it and has not signed. Separately, the follow-up time gives the signing coordinator a task for every signer who has not signed. The follow-up must be shorter than the time limit.

See Sign node.

Produce

Produce always waits for the AI flow, so the limit is required. No reminder is sent, and the step raises no tasks. At the limit the step takes Timed out.

See Produce node.

Reminders

A reminder fires at the time limit minus the reminder time. For example, a 48-hour limit with a 6-hour reminder sends the reminder 42 hours after the limit started counting.

Engage: the task is notified again.
Capture: a form sent to the patient is sent again, or a form task is brought up again.
Sign: the signing link is sent again to every unsigned signer who has it.

If the reminder time is equal to or longer than the limit, no reminder is sent. Because a reminder resends the same form or signing link, the patient may receive it twice; this is expected.

Open tasks when a step moves on

A step can move on while its task is still open: its time limit passes, staff skip it, or an interrupt ends it. Open work when the journey moves on decides what happens to that task:

Choice	Effect
Clinic default	Uses the setting in System Settings (see below). Out of the box this is Keep it open.
Keep it open	The task stays on the worklist.
Cancel it	The task is cancelled.
Hand it to operations	The task moves, unassigned, to the operations role named in System Settings under Staff & signing (Escalate closed journeys' open tasks to). If no role is named there, the task stays as it is.

On Sign, the signing request itself is always cancelled when the step ends; the choice applies to its signing tasks. Open tasks left when the whole journey ends follow the journey's close policy instead (see Schedulers and journey settings).

Clinic defaults

Clinic-wide defaults for waiting live in SettingsPlatform ConfigurationSystem Settings, on the Journeys tab, in the Waiting section. Under While a step waits ("Applies to every Engage, Capture and Sign step that sets nothing of its own"):

Setting	Values
Remind before the limit	A number of hours. Blank means no reminder.
Open task when the step moves on	Keep it open, Cancel it or Hand it to operations. Platform default keeps it open.
Signing limit counted from	When a Sign step's limit starts counting. Platform default is the moment the step starts.

A value set on the step always wins over the clinic default. For every journey setting, see Notification, reminder and journey settings reference.

Pause: waiting for a time or an event

A Pause holds the patient until a time, an event, or whichever comes first. It needs at least one: "Wait for an event, until a time, or both — at least one."

Time branch

Field	Choices
Anchor	Now (when the pause starts), An appointment's time, A patient attribute, An upstream node field, or A date on the patient's record
Offset direction	After anchor (+) or Before anchor (−)
Amount and Unit	How far from the anchor
Outcome	The outcome the Pause finishes with when the time branch wins
Missing-anchor policy	Fall back to activation moment (the default) or Wait silently for events (skip time branch). Only applies when an anchor is set.

For an appointment anchor, choose Which appointment and the Time field: Slot start, Slot end, Check-in time or Completed time. "Wait until 2 days before the appointment" is an anchor of the appointment's slot start, Before anchor (−), 2 days.

Waits follow changes to their anchor:

A wait anchored on A date on the patient's record moves when that date changes: "Armed timers follow the record: when this date changes, the wait re-anchors."
A wait anchored on an appointment re-reads the appointment when the time comes. If the appointment has moved later, the wait moves to the new time.

If the anchor is missing when the Pause starts (for example, the patient has no appointment yet), Fall back to activation moment counts from the moment the Pause started. Wait silently for events ignores the time branch and waits only for events. A Pause set to wait silently must have an event branch, or nothing can wake it.

Event branches

Select Add event branch to wait for an event from the Event catalog. Each branch has an Event type, an Outcome, and optionally an Only when… filter over the event's details and a From step to match only the event produced by a particular earlier step (for example, a task of that step being completed). A Pause cannot wait for its own journey's lifecycle events: "A journey cannot wait on its own lifecycle." Events from linked journeys are allowed.

Both branch types can add routes under Routing when the event arrives: the first route whose condition holds sets the outcome, otherwise the branch's Outcome is used.

On the canvas, use the Pause branch field on each connection leaving the Pause to say which branch it follows. See Pause node.

Gather: waiting for parallel tracks

A Gather waits for the tracks that lead into it. Its Timeout ("How long to wait for the other tracks, counted from the first arrival. When it runs out the timeout edge fires.") stops it waiting for ever. Without one the builder warns that the Gather "may wait forever". See Gather node.

When a step is already in the past

If a patient enters a journey late, some timed steps may fall in the past. For example, "remind 3 days before the appointment" when the appointment is tomorrow. The journey's Timing setting, If a step is already in the past when a patient enters, decides what happens:

Choice	Effect
Skip it (default)	The timed wait is skipped.
Move it to now	The wait starts again from now. A wait set after its anchor waits that long from now; a wait set before its anchor fires now.
Run it anyway	The wait fires straight away, as if it were on time.

A Pause that only has a time branch completes straight away along the time path when it is skipped. A Pause with event branches keeps waiting for its events.

Individual steps can override the journey setting under If this step is already in the past: Follow the journey (the card shows Follows the journey: and the current choice), Skip it, Move it to now or Run it anyway. This appears on Pause, Gather, Routine, Reach, Capture, Engage, Appointment, Connect, Produce and Sign.

journeyswaitingtime limittimeoutreminderpausegatheropen tasksbackdating