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How Does Salesforce Process Scheduled Actions?
Understand the expected behavior for processing scheduled actions based on which type of schedule they’re associated with, whether the field changed, and whether the process was deactivated.
Required Editions
| Available in: both Salesforce Classic (not available in all orgs) and Lightning Experience |
| Available in: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions |
After December 31, 2025, existing processes continue to run, and you can activate, deactivate, and edit them; however, we recommend using Flow Builder. To migrate existing processes, plan your switch to Flow Builder and use the Migrate to Flow tool. For new automations, create flows in Flow Builder.
Limits for Processing Scheduled Actions
- An org can process up to 1,000
groups of scheduled actions per hour.
Each group of scheduled actions is associated with a schedule, such as “3 days from now.” When a schedule is processed, the associated actions are executed. If an org exceeds this limit, Salesforce processes the remaining schedules in the next hour.
For example, an org has 1,200 groups of pending actions scheduled to be processed between 4:00 and 5:00 PM. Salesforce processes 1,000 groups between 4:00 and 5:00 PM, and it processes the remaining 200 groups between 5:00 and 6:00 PM.
Schedules Based on the Current Time
For example: 3 days from now.
The schedule is evaluated based on the time zone of the user who created the process.
Schedules Based on a Field Value
For example: 3 days after a case’s Created Date.
Field-based schedules behave differently for record-change processes than they do for event processes.
All Processes:
These considerations apply to both record-change processes and event processes.
- If a schedule evaluates to a time in the past, Salesforce executes the associated
actions as soon as possible. Depending on how many actions Salesforce is processing at the
time, actions are executed within 1 hour.
For example, a process emails an opportunity owner 7 days before the close date. The process starts for an opportunity with the close date set to today, so Salesforce executes the scheduled action as soon as possible.
- If you set a schedule to 0 Days After a date, Salesforce executes the associated actions as soon as possible after the time represented by the date field. Depending on how many actions Salesforce is processing at the time, actions are executed within 1 hour.
- If the field referenced by a schedule has a null value, Salesforce ignores the schedule and the associated actions aren’t executed.
- When a process schedules an action, Salesforce creates a flow interview record and pauses the interview until the scheduled time occurs. If the paused flow interview is deleted, Salesforce doesn’t resume the paused flow interview, and the scheduled action isn’t executed.
Record-Change Processes:
These considerations apply only to record-change processes.
When a record-change process executes a field-based schedule, Salesforce uses the field’s current value. If the value is a date/time field, Salesforce uses the time zone of the user who created the process. If the value is a date field, Salesforce uses the org’s time zone.
What Happens When the Field Value Changes?
- For processes that start when a record is created or edited:
- Actions remain scheduled only as long as the criteria for the actions are still valid. If a record no longer matches the criteria, Salesforce cancels the scheduled actions for the record.
- If the referenced field value changes, and the schedule hasn’t been processed,
Salesforce recalculates the scheduled time for the actions using the updated field
value.
For example, a process emails an opportunity owner 7 days before the opportunity close date. The close date is set to 2/20/20XX, and Salesforce schedules the email to be sent on 2/13/20XX. Before the email is sent, the close date is updated to 2/10/20XX. Salesforce recalculates the scheduled time and schedules the email to be sent on 2/3/20XX.
- For processes that start when a record is created, Salesforce never reevaluates the record associated with that process. The scheduled time for the actions stays the same, even if the record no longer meets the associated criteria when the scheduled actions are executed.
- If the record or object that the schedule is associated with is deleted, Salesforce cancels the scheduled actions for the record.
Limitations for Converted Leads:
- You can’t convert a lead when an unexecuted schedule is based on one of the lead’s fields.
- When Validation and Triggers from Lead Convert is enabled, scheduled actions on leads aren’t executed during lead conversion.
- If a lead is converted into a campaign member before the associated scheduled actions finish, Salesforce still executes the scheduled actions.
Event Processes:
These considerations apply only to event processes.
- When an event process executes a field-based schedule, Salesforce uses the field’s current value in the time zone of the user who created the process.
- The scheduled time for the actions stays the same, even if the field value changes, the associated record or object is deleted, or the record no longer meets the associated criteria.
- If the criteria are met when the process starts, Salesforce executes the scheduled actions.
What Happens When the Associated Process Is Deactivated?
After you deactivate a process, the scheduled time for pending scheduled actions stays the same. If a deactivated process has pending scheduled actions and the record whose field the schedule is based on is changed, Salesforce recalculates the schedule for those actions.
After a process is deactivated, Salesforce ignores all other changes to the associated records. Scheduled actions remain queued and continue to be processed on time unless the schedule is recalculated.
What Happens When Scheduled Actions Fail?
If a scheduled action fails—for example, because the user who caused the process to start is inactive—the admin who created the process receives an email with details about the failure. Salesforce makes additional attempts to execute a failed scheduled action before canceling it.
