Wait for a duration flow logic

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Wait for a duration flow logic

    The "Wait for a duration" flow logic in ServiceNow allows you to pause automated processes to give users time to act or to wait for specific dates and times before proceeding with actions. This functionality is essential for workflows that require timed delays, scheduling, or waiting periods within business processes.

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    Key Features

    • Duration Types:
      • Explicit Duration: Wait for a fixed time period (e.g., 5 minutes).
      • Relative Duration: Wait for a time period based on a selected date/time or data pill (e.g., 5 minutes after flow start).
      • Percentage Duration: Wait for a percentage of the time between the start and a specified end time (percentage must be between 0 and 100).
    • Set Wait Duration: You can manually enter a duration or select a duration data pill from the data pill picker, allowing dynamic wait times based on record data such as SLA duration.
    • Schedule Integration: Optionally, select a schedule to calculate wait times in business hours (e.g., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays), so wait durations align with working periods.
    • Handling Past Dates: For Relative Duration, past dates do not extend wait times; durations end immediately if the date/time is in the past.
    • Output Data Pills: Provides the total flow run time in milliseconds and the date/time when the wait completes, which can be used in subsequent flow actions.

    Practical Use Cases

    • Automatically close an incident 10 days after it enters the resolved state.
    • Wait 10 days after the last update on a record before executing further actions.
    • Send notifications at a specific percentage of time elapsed between a record’s creation and its due date, such as notifying a manager halfway through the problem resolution period.

    Relative Duration Behavior

    The flow logic evaluates relative date/time, schedule, and duration in sequence:

    • If the duration is zero or the relative date/time is in the past without a schedule, the wait ends immediately.
    • If the relative date/time is future and a schedule is defined, the flow waits for the next scheduled time before starting the countdown.
    • The timer respects scheduled working hours, delaying wait start until the schedule window begins (e.g., waits until Monday 8 a.m. if started on a weekend).

    Execution Details

    The execution header shows the flow logic state, start time, and runtime (excluding the wait duration). Configuration details display variable types, configurations, and runtime values used within the flow.

    Why This Matters for ServiceNow Customers

    This flow logic enables precise control over timing in automated workflows, improving process accuracy and user experience. It helps ensure that actions occur at appropriate times, respecting business hours and allowing for user response windows. By leveraging schedules and dynamic durations, customers can align automation with operational policies and SLAs effectively.

    Use this flow logic to give your users time to act during automated processes or to wait for a specific date and time to complete actions.

    Inputs

    Input Description
    Duration Type
    • 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 flow start.
    • Percentage Duration: Type to specify a certain percentage of time duration between the start of the flow logic and specified end time.
      Note:
      The percentage value must be from 0 through 100 only.
    Wait for Set this value manually or select a Duration data pill from the data pill picker (Data pill picker). For example, use a Look Up Record action to select an SLA Definition record and return the value of the Duration field.
    • 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 flow 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 Wait duration as a percentage of the time period between the start of flow logic and specified end time. If you select a past date for the end time, the wait duration is set to 0. This field appears when Percentage Duration is selected from the Duration Type list.
    During the following schedule Select the schedule used to calculate the Scheduled End date/time value from the selected wait duration. For example, waiting for a 10-hour duration as part of an 8-5 weekdays schedule causes the flow to wait for one or more business days. If you leave this field blank, the timer runs without a schedule. For information on creating schedules, see Define a schedule.

    Outputs

    Output Description
    Duration Total time that the flow ran in milliseconds. You can drag this data pill into the duration fields.
    Date/time Date/time that the flow completed. You can drag this data pill into the date/time fields.

    Close an incident if it has been in the resolved state for 10 days

    In this example, a flow starts when the incident state changes to Resolved.

    Figure 1. Flow trigger
    Flow trigger.

    Wait 10 days after the last update to a record

    In this example, the flows waits for 10 days after the incident record has been resolved.

    Figure 2. Wait for Duration flow logic
    Wait for Duration flow logic.

    Update a record after 10 days

    In this example, the flows closes the incident record 10 days after it was resolved.

    Figure 3. Action used to close the incident
    Action used to close the incident.

    Wait for a duration of 50% of the time between the start of the flow logic and the due date

    In this example, the flows send a notification email to the relevant manager when a critical problem is created and 50% of the time between the problem record creation and the problem due date has lapsed.

    Figure 4. Wait for percentage time duration flow logic
    Wait for percentage time duration flow logic.

    Relative Duration type

    When the duration type is Relative Duration, the flow logic first evaluates the relative date and time, the schedule, and finally, the duration. Schedules, dates, and times set in the past don't affect the wait duration. This table provides examples of how the flow processes the wait duration in these scenarios.

    Duration Setting Relative Date/Time Schedule Effect
    Set to 0. None None Duration ends immediately.
    Greater than 0. Past date None Duration ends immediately.
    Greater than 0. Future date None Flow waits for the date/time, and then waits for the duration.
    Greater than 0. Past date Future date Flow waits for schedule, and then waits for the duration.
    Greater than 0. Future date Past date Flow waits for the date/time, and then waits for the duration.
    Greater than 0. Future date Future date Flow waits for the future date, then for the schedule, and then for the duration.

    The timer waits for the next instance of a selected schedule. For example, if you set a schedule for Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the timer is initiated on Saturday, the timer waits until Monday at 8 a.m. before starting.

    Execution details

    Figure 5. Execution details for Wait for a duration flow logic
    Example execution details for a wait for a duration flow.
    1. The header shows the state, start time, and runtime for the flow logic.
      Note:
      The runtime value in the header only includes the time that it takes to execute the flow logic and doesn't include the wait duration that is specified in the flow.
    2. The Configuration Details section shows details about the variables that are used by the flow, including the type, configuration, and runtime values for each variable.