Start with delay input properties

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
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    Summary of Start with delay input properties

    The "Start with delay" input property in ServiceNow playbooks allows you to specify a waiting period before executing an activity or stage once its start conditions are met. This feature is designed to give users time to take necessary actions or wait until a specific date and time before proceeding, enhancing the control and timing of automated playbooks.

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    Roles and Availability

    This input is available for all stages and common activities except for the Placeholder activity. Configuration access is granted to users with the admin, playbook.admin, pdauthor, or pdcontentauthor roles.

    Key Features

    • Enablement: Activate "Start with delay" from the activity or stage properties panel under additional options.
    • Duration Type Options:
      • Explicit Duration: Wait for a fixed time period (e.g., 5 minutes).
      • Relative Duration: Wait relative to a specific data pill or date/time value (e.g., 5 minutes after playbook starts).
      • Percentage Duration: Wait for a percentage of the time between the start and a specified end date/time (0-100%).
    • Wait for Template Value: Set the duration manually or select a Duration data pill. For explicit and relative durations, specify hours, minutes, and seconds. Relative duration can be set before or after a specific time. Note that past dates do not affect wait duration, and maximum wait time can be up to 999 hours.
    • Wait for Percentage: When using percentage duration, specify an end date manually or via a data pill. If the end date is in the past, the wait duration defaults to zero.
    • Schedule Consideration: You can associate a schedule (Reference.Schedule [cmnschedule]) to align the end date calculation with business hours (e.g., 8-5 weekdays). Leaving this blank calculates the end date without schedule constraints.

    Practical Impact for ServiceNow Customers

    By configuring the "Start with delay" input, you gain precise control over when activities or stages begin within automated playbooks. This ensures users have adequate time to respond or that processes align with business calendars and operational hours. Understanding how to set explicit, relative, or percentage-based delays enables you to tailor workflow timing to complex operational requirements, improving automation reliability and user experience.

    Specify a duration of time to wait before running an activity or a stage whose start rule and conditions have been met. Give users time to act during automated playbooks. Give users time to wait for a specific date and time to complete actions.

    Roles and availability

    This input is available for all stages and common activities, except for the Placeholder activity. Users with the admin, playbook.admin, pd_author, or pd_content_author can configure the properties of this input.

    Input properties

    Open the activity or stage properties panel, show additional options, and enable the Start with delay option to configure the following input properties.
    Input Type Description
    Duration Type Choice Option to specify how long of duration to wait. Options include
    • Explicit Duration: Wait for a specific time period, such as 5 minutes.
    • Relative Duration: Wait for a specific time period from a selected Duration data pill or date/time value, such as 5 minutes after the playbook starts.
    • Percentage Duration: Wait for a specific percentage of a time period between the start of the activity or stage and a specified end time, such as 50%.
      Note:
      The percentage value must be from 0 through 100 only.
    Wait for Template Value Option to set a duration value manually or to select a Duration data pill from the data pill picker Data pill picker.
    • Explicit Duration: Wait duration in hours, minutes, and seconds.
    • Relative Duration: Wait duration in hours, minutes, and seconds before or after a specific time. Select Relative Duration to specify a wait duration from a specific date.
      Note:
      Past dates don't affect the wait duration.
    You can enter a wait value of up to 999 hours.
    Note:
    The actual wait duration can vary due to the instance processing time. The playbook always waits for the time that you specify for this field, but other work in the queue may add to the wait time.
    Wait for Percentage Integer Percentage of time to wait from a specified end date before running an activity or stage. You can manually enter an end date or select a date/time data pill from the data pill picker Data pill picker. If you select an end date in the past, the wait duration is set to 0. This field is only available when you set the Duration Type to Percentage Duration.
    During the following schedule Reference.Schedule [cmn_schedule] Schedule used to calculate an end date that occurs during your hours of operation. For example, the calculated end date for a 10-hour duration that occurs during a 8-5 weekdays schedule will always be one or more business days in the future. If you leave this field blank, the calculated end date does not follow a schedule. For information on creating schedules, see Define a schedule.