Scheduled Trigger

Run workflows automatically on a recurring schedule with flexible timing options.

Overview

The Scheduled Trigger runs your workflow automatically at specified times or intervals. Whether you need daily reports, hourly data syncs, or monthly cleanup tasks, scheduled workflows handle recurring automations reliably.

When to Use Scheduled Trigger

Perfect for:

• Daily, weekly, or monthly reports
• Periodic data synchronization between systems
• Scheduled data analysis and insights
• Recurring maintenance or cleanup tasks
• Time-based monitoring and alerts

Not ideal for:

• Event-driven workflows (use Webhook or Integration Trigger)
• User-initiated processes (use Manual or Form Trigger)
• Real-time data processing

Configuration

Schedule Options

Quick Schedules (Visual Builder)

• Every few minutes
• Every hour
• Every day at specific time
• Every week on specific days
• Every month on specific date
• Prompt custom time interval

Cron Expression

Under the hood, all schedules are stored as cron expressions - a standard format for defining recurring schedules. The UI provides quick schedule options for convenience, but the underlying data is a 5-field cron string.

Cron format: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

Example cron expressions:

Timezone

Set the timezone for your schedule:

• Defaults to your account timezone
• Supports all standard timezones
• Critical for globally distributed teams

Example Use Cases

Daily Sales Report

Scheduled Trigger (Daily at 9 AM)
→ HTTP Request: Fetch yesterday's sales data
→ Code: Calculate metrics (total, growth, top products)
→ Agent: Generate executive summary
→ Notification: Email report to sales team

Hourly Data Sync

Scheduled Trigger (Every hour)
→ HTTP Request: Fetch new records from API
→ Loop: For each record
  → Code: Transform data format
  → HTTP Request: POST to destination system
→ Notification: Summary of records synced

Weekly Cleanup Task

Scheduled Trigger (Weekly on sunday)
→ HTTP Request: Fetch records older than 90 days
→ Loop: For each old record
  → HTTP Request: Archive to cold storage
  → HTTP Request: Delete from active database
→ Notification: Cleanup summary

Monthly Billing

Scheduled Trigger (1st of the month)
→ HTTP Request: Get all active subscriptions
→ Loop: For each subscription
  → Code: Calculate billing amount
  → HTTP Request: Create invoice
  → Action: Send invoice email
→ Notification: Billing run complete

Testing Scheduled Workflows

Manual Test Runs

1. Click on the Scheduled Trigger node
2. Click "Test" to trigger a one-time run
3. Review execution with current timestamp
4. Verify time-based logic works correctly

Best Practices

Schedule resource-intensive workflows during off-peak hours (nights, weekends) to minimize impact on systems.

Always include error notifications for scheduled workflows. You won't be watching when they run.

If your system is down during a scheduled run, decide if you need to catch up or skip the missed execution.

Test your workflow with different timestamps to ensure time-based logic works correctly (e.g., end of month, leap years).

Don't schedule more frequently than needed. Every 5 minutes might be excessive - consider if hourly would work.

Track how long your scheduled workflows take. If execution time is close to the interval, you risk overlaps.

Troubleshooting

Check:

• Workflow is deployed (not draft)
• Workflow is active
• Schedule is correctly configured
• Monthly limit has not been reached

Check:

• Timezone setting matches expectation
• Cron expression is correct
• Daylight saving time changes (use UTC to avoid)

Solutions:

• Break into smaller workflows
• Increase schedule interval
• Optimize slow nodes (batch AI calls, parallel requests)

Next Steps

• Integration Trigger — Trigger from native integration events
• Code Node — Calculate time-based logic and date ranges
• Cost Management — Control and optimize workflow costs
• Getting Started — Build your first workflow