š Note: The screenshots and settings shown in this article may not match what you see in your own platform, as Rosterfy is highly customisable. If you need guidance specific to your setup, please contact our support team.
Date-based Automation tasks watch for a specific date and time to be reached and the system evaluates the automation for all Users whose date field matches the condition. Dates can be a stored in a User's record, an Event or a Role Offer. Common use cases include sending document expiry reminders and volunteer birthday emails.The tasks include:
User - Date Reminder
Event - Date Reminder
Event User - Date Reminder
Role Offer - Date Reminder
š”Tip: The following section outlines details on Automation rules. See the following articles to learn more about Tasks and Actions:
IN THIS ARTICLE:
Schedule Triggers
There are three key schedule triggers that may need to be set for different use cases:
Mode: | What it does: | Best used for: |
Before | Trigger an action ahead of time using a set number of days or hours before your stored date (i.e., automatically sending a renewal reminder 7 days before a license expiry date).
| Document expiry reminders. |
At the time | Automation runs on the exact date stored in the field.
| Birthdays. |
After | Trigger a follow-up action using a set number of days or hours after your stored date (i.e., automatically sending a thank-you email 1 day after an Event's end date).
| Post-event feedback requests, follow-up communications. |
All date-based Automation tasks run once per day at midnight, according to your account's timezone. The hours and minutes you set in the schedule trigger are used to work out which day the automation should run. If you set a trigger for 23 hours and 50 minutes before a date, the system calculates that as roughly one day before and the Automation runs at midnight on that day.
Date-Based Automations Processing
Date-based automations only apply to future events and cannot be applied to past data. The system only runs an automation for a User if their trigger date and time occur after the automation is created and in an active (unarchived) state.
The system will not process a User if their trigger date has already passed, or if the automation was archived at the exact moment the trigger date was reached.
Keep the following rules in mind:
New Automations: If you create an automation today to run 1 year before document expiry, it only captures Users whose documents expire more than one year from today.
Settings Updates: Changing an automationās task settings after a target date has passed will not trigger the system to re-evaluate or update Users who were already missed.
Archiving & Restoring: If you archive an automation, any trigger windows that pass while it is inactive are permanently missed. Restoring the automation will not recover or rerun those missed triggers while it was inactive.
Example: Setting Up Police Check Expiry Reminders
A common way to use date-based automations is for Police Check expiry reminders. By using the Before schedule trigger, you can ensure volunteers receive advance notice to renew their Police Check before it expires.
See the following steps to configure a Police Check expiry reminder:
š”Tip: The Police Check option in this example is a custom field. See the Creating a Custom Field article for more information. Select the Date field > Ensure the Rosterfy Object is selected User.
Click Workflows > Automations.
Click the Create button.
Click the Create button. The Create Automation window appears:
Enter a Name to define the automation's purpose to make it easy to distinguish from similar workflows. This field is required.
Click to select the User - Date Reminder task option. This field is required.
Select the Police Check Expiry option in the User Field. This field is required.
Click the Schedule trigger dropdown to select the Before option. Set the schedule for 24 weeks.
Click the dropdown to select a Category. A category must be created in order to apply this field. See the Creating and Updating an Automation Category article for more information.
Click the Save button. The Rule and Actions options become available.
Click the Add button to add an Action. The Add Action window appears:
Enter a Name for the Action. This field is required.
Click the Action field dropdown to select the Email option.
Click the Options tab.
Click the Template field dropdown to select an email template.
Click the Submit button.
š”Tip: The Automation must be active and saved before the trigger window is reached. For example, if you want to send a reminder 30 days before expiry, the Automation must exist and be active at least 30 days before the earliest expiry date you wish to capture.