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Scheduled

A Scheduled trigger starts a run at the times you configure, with no file activity or person involved. It is the trigger for processing that repeats: moving the day's files at close of business, importing a partner's feed every hour, converting the files uploaded overnight, or generating a report on the first of the month.

The run starts with the files that match the trigger's Folder Path and Incoming File Pattern at that moment. With no folder path, the run starts with one empty data item, and the nodes after the trigger always run. When the folder path and pattern match no files, the run ends as Skipped.

Interval Schedules

With an Interval, the Automation runs every day, week, month, quarter, or year. A daily interval needs no day. Weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly intervals take one or more Recurring Days, counted from the start of the interval:

  • Weekly days run 1 through 7, where day 1 is Sunday and day 7 is Saturday.
  • Monthly days are calendar dates, 1 through 31.
  • Quarterly days count from the first day of the quarter, so day 1 is January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1.
  • Yearly days count from January 1 through day 365, or 366 in a leap year.

A day the period does not contain is skipped, not moved to the nearest real date. A monthly Automation on day 31 does not run in February, April, June, September, or November. If the Automation exists to deliver a file before the month closes, schedule it at the end of the period instead. Weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly intervals each have an end-of-period choice in Interval that runs once, on the last day, so an end-of-month Automation runs on the 28th, 29th, 30th, or 31st, whichever the month has.

A semi-monthly run is one Automation on days 1 and 15 rather than two Automations.

An interval also takes one or more times under Time of Day. Without one, the Automation runs at midnight in its time zone.

Days of the Week and Times of Day

Instead of an interval, the trigger can run on chosen Days of the Week at the Time of Day you set, with more than one run in a day. Use it when runs follow business hours or shifts, for example an import at 6:00 AM and again at 3:00 PM on weekdays.

Time of Day takes individual times or ranges of times. During a range, the Automation runs once per hour, so a range from 1:00 AM through 5:00 AM replaces five separate times. Times apply to every scheduled day, so three days and two times produce six runs a week.

Time Zone and Holiday Region

Scheduled times are read in the trigger's Time Zone. Without one, they are read as UTC.

The Holiday Region setting takes one of Files.com's built-in regions, which contain the public holidays of a country or one of its regions, or a Holiday Calendar your Site Administrators define for closures that no public holiday list contains. The trigger skips the runs that fall on the days a region covers, and a Holiday Calendar rule that sets a start and end time skips only the runs inside that window, so files are not processed or delivered while your team is away.

Saved Schedules

When the same timing applies to other Automations, Syncs, Expectations, Scheduled Exports, or AI Tasks on your site, a Schedule defines the days, times, time zone, and Holiday Region once, and each of them runs on it. Selecting a saved Schedule on the trigger replaces the trigger's own timing settings, and one edit to the Schedule changes the timing of everything that runs on it. A Schedule holds days and times only, so an interval such as monthly or end of period stays on the trigger. Set the timing on the trigger itself when it belongs to this Automation alone.