Instead of creating a step as soon as a parent step is completed, a delay can be applied to postpone the step's creation. For example, use a delayed email step to send an email reminder two days after a prior step is created, or as "marketing automation lite" to send emails on a schedule you specify.

When you select the Delay Creation checkbox on the Step Edit screen, Conga Orchestrate delays creating the step until the day specified by the Delay Creation Date Adjustment fields.

To create a step with a delay, select the Delay Creation checkbox and populate the adjusted due date fields:

• Delay Creation Base Date: The date selected in this field is used to calculate when the delayed step is created.
• Parent Object: Creation date calculation uses the Due Date field on the object specified in the Object Name field for the definition.
• Current Date: Creation date calculation will be based on the current date. Current date is the date on which this step is created.
• Parent Event: Creation date calculation uses the event date as the base date for the calculation. This only applies if the current step is a child of an event placeholder step.
• Date Field: Creation date calculation uses any Date / DateTime field from the related account, contact, or process object you select.
• Delay Creation Date Adjustment: This number is added to the date specified in the Delay Creation Base Date field.
• Delay Creation Time: The time selected in this field determines the specific time the step is created on the designated Delay Creation base date.The Delay Creation fields do not control the step's due date; they only control when the step is created. Use the Due Date Adjustment Base Date and Due Date Adjustment fields to calculate the due date of the step.

Delayed Steps in a Process

It is recommended that you add the delayed steps related list to any process object page layouts for processes that use delayed steps. When a process gets to the delayed step, a delayed step is created as a placeholder. Conga Orchestrate monitors delayed steps and creates the step when the date matches the criteria specified in the step. The delayed steps will be visible on the process object record if you add the Delayed Steps related list to the page layout. We recommend adding the Name, Step, Status, Type, and Date to Create fields to this related list.

If a delayed step is set to create on an event date, and the event is created with an event date of today, the delayed step fires the task today because the batch job runs every hour. So, it will pick it up at most 60 minutes after the event queues it.

Failed Delayed Steps

We also recommend that you schedule the Failed Delayed Steps report, which emails a user in your org who can monitor any failed delayed steps, to run every day. This report only sends out if there are any failed delayed steps.