Expectations let you define what correct file delivery looks like for your site, continuously evaluate whether it happened, and keep a record when it did not.

Most monitoring tools can only tell you when something happens. Expectations also tell you when nothing happens, so you can detect a missing vendor feed or a late compliance package without waiting for a downstream failure to surface the problem.

With Expectations, you specify which files must arrive, where, and when. Files.com evaluates each delivery window against the criteria you define and records the outcome. An evaluation captures whether files arrived on time and in the right shape, arrived late, failed validation, or never came at all. When a scheduled delivery fails, an Incident is opened so your team can investigate and respond.

Expectations are most valuable for critical, recurring file flows where a missed or malformed delivery causes real downstream damage. Common examples include vendor feeds, order ingestion, finance batches, compliance packages, and partner integrations. You get an explicit definition of what correct delivery looks like, a record of every window's outcome for audits and investigation, and a clear signal that data is ready (or is not) before downstream processing begins.

Incidents keep active problems visible and distinct from historical records, so your team always knows what still needs attention.

How Expectations Work

An Expectation monitors a defined scope of files within a recurring time window and evaluates whether those files meet your success criteria. Each Expectation has three components: success criteria that specify what a valid delivery looks like, a time window that says when files are expected to arrive, and a scope that defines the folder path and file pattern to monitor.

When a window closes, Files.com evaluates the matching files against your criteria and records the result as an Evaluation. If a scheduled window fails, an Incident is opened to track the outstanding problem until it is resolved.

Incident notifications are not yet available. When an Incident opens, your team monitors the Incidents list from the Expectation's detail page. Email and webhook notifications are planned for a future release.

Expectations are a monitoring layer. They do not move or modify files. Think of them as sensors that determine whether expected data is present and acceptable.

Expectation Results

Each closed window produces one of four results.

RESULT	MEANING
Success	Files arrived and all criteria were satisfied.
Late	Files arrived after the deadline but within the late acceptance window, and all criteria were satisfied. The SLA was missed, but the data is valid.
Missing	No matching files arrived by the time the window closed.
Invalid	Files arrived, but one or more criteria were not satisfied.

Missing and Invalid are distinct: a Missing result means nothing arrived, while an Invalid result means something arrived but did not meet your criteria.

Manual and upload-triggered windows do not produce Late results, since those triggers have no schedule-defined deadline.

Use Cases

Customers use Expectations to monitor vendor feeds, validate finance and compliance batches, track partner uploads that arrive on irregular schedules, and confirm that internal systems are still writing the telemetry they're supposed to. See Expectations Use Cases for examples of each.