Speed up Flows with Timers – Skip/Trigger a Wait Timer Action in ServiceNow Flow (For Testing)

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⏱ Flows with Timers – How to Skip/Trigger a Wait Timer Action in ServiceNow Flow (For Testing)

Last Updated: April 8, 2025

When testing flows that include wait timers, it's often necessary to bypass the wait condition to continue flow execution. This guide walks you through the process to manually trigger a flow's timer using the sys_trigger table.

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🔧 Steps to Manually Trigger (or Skip) a Timer in a Flow:

1️⃣ Navigate to the Scheduled Jobs

• Go to: sys_trigger.list in your instance.

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2️⃣ Locate the Timer Job

Use the following filters to find the correct job:

• Name = flow.fire

• Document_key = <flow engine context sys_id>

  🔍 You can find the flow engine context sys_id by opening the flow context record. Click on the "Open context record" UI action from the Flow execution screen.

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3️⃣ Update the Timer to Trigger the Flow

• Open the matching flow.fire record.

• Change the Next action field to a date/time in the past or when you want it to execute.

• Hit Update to save.

📝 Note: Make sure the script field also has the correct timestamp. If not updated properly, a new event may be created and delay execution again.

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⚠️ Forgot to Update the Script?

If the script timestamp remains unchanged, a new Event record will be generated and the process will wait again.
You’ll need to find the new flow.fire event and repeat step 3.

Check the Event table for entries where:

• Name = flow.fire

• Parm1 = <flow engine context sys_id>

• Process on = upcoming future time → Change this to a past time if needed.