If you've worked with Flow Designer long enough, you've probably run into the same challenge during testing:
You submit a request, trigger the flow, and then... wait.
Maybe the flow contains a 30-minute timer. Maybe it's waiting a few hours before moving to the next stage. Regardless of the duration, waiting for timers to expire can significantly slow development and testing efforts.
To solve this problem, I created a simple UI Action that allows administrators to instantly expire timers from the Flow Engine Context record, eliminating unnecessary wait time during sub-production testing.
The Challenge
Many flows contain timer activities used for:
- Escalations
- Reminders
- Delayed notifications
- Approval follow-ups
- Scheduled processing
- Waiting periods between activities
During development and testing, these timers create unnecessary delays.
Developers often resort to:
- Modifying timer values temporarily
- Creating test-specific versions of flows
- Waiting for timers to expire naturally
- Manually repeating tests after configuration updates
Not only does this slow validation, but it also introduces additional testing complexity.
The Solution
The solution is an Admin-only UI Action available directly on the Flow Engine Context record.
When the flow is paused in a waiting state, administrators can click Expire Timers to immediately complete active timer activities and move the flow to the next execution stage.
Example
In the screenshot below, the flow is currently in a Waiting state.
Once the Expire Timers button is selected, the active timer is completed and flow execution continues automatically.
How It Works
Step 1: Open Flow Engine Context
Navigate to the Flow Engine Context record associated with the running flow.
Step 2: Identify Waiting Flow
If the flow is currently paused by a Timer Flow Logic action, the context record displays:
Step 3: Click Expire Timers
Select the Expire Timers UI Action.
The UI Action locates active timer records associated with the flow context and immediately expires them.
Step 4: Continue Validation
The flow resumes processing without waiting for the configured timer duration.
Benefits
Faster Development
Developers can validate timer-based logic immediately rather than waiting minutes or hours.
Faster Testing Cycles
QA and testing teams can complete end-to-end validation much more quickly.
No Flow Changes Required
Timer values remain unchanged.
The production configuration remains intact while test environments can leverage the UI Action.
Reduced Rework
No need to:
- Clone flows
- Modify wait conditions
- Update timers for testing
- Revert timer values afterward
Improved Developer Experience
Simple tools like this remove friction from day-to-day development and make Flow Designer testing more efficient.
Recommended Usage
✅ Development environments
✅ Personal developer instances
✅ QA environments
✅ UAT testing
⚠️ Use caution in production environments and ensure appropriate administrative controls are in place.
Download
I've made the solution available as an update set for the ServiceNow community.
After committing the update set:
- Open a Flow Engine Context record.
- Locate a flow in a Waiting state.
- Click Expire Timers.
- The timer is completed.
- The flow advances to the next stage automatically.
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Happy automating!
Bharath Manne
