New: Pause an automation with the Wait step

You can now add a Wait step anywhere in an automation to pause a run for minutes, hours, or days, and then continue where it left off. The Wait step is available now.

What is new

• A new Wait step. Find Wait under Utilities when you add a step. Set Wait for and a Unit (Minutes, Hours, or Days). A wait can last from 10 minutes up to 30 days.
• Use a value from an earlier step. The duration can be a fixed number or a value picked from an earlier step.
• Visible in the Monitor. A paused run shows as Waiting in the Monitor and resumes within a few minutes of the set time.
• Test without waiting. Test runs skip the wait, so you can check the rest of the automation right away.

Why it matters

Some work cannot be done the moment an email arrives. The data a step needs may only land in another system later, or a follow-up only makes sense after a few days. With a Wait step, follow-ups run on their own, for example wait two days, flag the email, and send a reminder. Lookups can also wait until the data is there, so fewer cases end up with a person. One customer matches incoming invoices to an invoice that a partner files later through a PO number. A Wait step before the lookup gives the partner time to add that number, so the invoice gets matched automatically.

Good to know

• Steps after the wait use the data from before it. A reply that came in during the wait is not picked up unless a later step looks it up.
• Taking an automation offline does not stop runs that are already waiting.

Getting started

Open an automation, add a step, and choose Wait under Utilities. New to automations? Start with What are automations?.