Due Dates and Expiry Dates in Tasks

Due Dates and Expiry Dates in Tasks

Due dates and expiry dates help you manage task deadlines and ensure time-sensitive work gets completed on time.

What's the difference between Due Date and Expiry Date?

Due Date when you want a task to be completed. Think of it as a target or recommended deadline. Tasks remain active even after the due date passes - you'll just see visual warnings and receive notifications to help you spot overdue work. Due dates are purely informational and don't change the task's status or trigger any automated actions.

Expiry Date is when a task automatically changes to "Expired" status and gets removed from your default task view. This is useful for time-sensitive tasks like event maintenance or verification where action is no longer relevant after a certain date. In workflows, setting an expiry date creates an escalation branch, allowing you to automate what happens when a task expires. Expired tasks can still be edited.

Setting Dates

Both due dates and expiry dates are set the same way. Both are optional fields you can leave blank if not needed.

When Creating or Editing Tasks

When creating or editing a task, scroll to the Due Date or Expiry Date field and click to set it. Select your date from the calendar picker.

From Workflows

When building automated workflows, you can set both dates directly in task creation actions:

1. Add a task creation action to your workflow (Create a task, Create an open task, etc.)
2. In the action configuration, set the Due Date and/or Expiry Date fields
3. Use specific dates or Magic Variables to calculate dates dynamically

To adjust dates from Magic Variables (like adding days to a form submission date), use the Calculate date and time block in your workflow before the task creation action. This allows your automated workflows to create tasks with appropriate deadlines based on your business processes.

How Due Dates Help You Stay on Track

Once you set a due date, you can easily track urgency with visual indicators and notifications.

Visual Indicators in Your Task List

Red (Overdue) — The task is past its due date and needs immediate attention.

Yellow (Due Soon) — The task is due within the next 3 days. Time to prioritize!

Normal — The task is due more than 3 days away.

Note: Completed tasks (Done, Approved, Rejected, or Expired) never show urgency colors, since the deadline no longer matters.

Task Date Notifications

If scheduled notifications are enabled for your organization, involved people will receive helpful reminders for both due dates and expiry dates:

Due Date Notifications:

1. Due Tomorrow - Sent the day before
2. Due Today - Sent on the due date
3. Overdue - Sent after the due date passes

Expiry Date Notifications:

1. Task will expire tomorrow - Sent the day before expiry.

All notifications are sent to relevant people (assignee and creator for regular tasks, approver for approval tasks, or group/location members for open tasks) and appear in your Notifications tab and as push notifications on mobile.

What Happens When a Task Expires?

When the expiry date is reached, the task automatically:

• Changes to "Expired" status
• Shows an "Expired" badge
• Disappears from the default task list view (but can be found using the Expired status filter)

Recovering an Expired Task

You can restore an expired task by editing it:

1. Open the expired task
2. Click "Edit Task" 
3. Change the expiry date to a future date, or remove it entirely
4. Save the task

The task will return to its previous state (To Do, In Progress, etc.) and become active again. If you set a new expiry date, the system will automatically schedule a new expiry for that date.

Using Expiry Dates in Workflows

If you're building automated workflows, you can design processes that respond intelligently when tasks expire. This is especially powerful for approval workflows where you need to handle situations when someone doesn't respond in time.

When you set an expiry date on task-related actions, a new branch appears in your workflow, allowing you to automate escalations and ensure time-sensitive requests don't get stuck waiting.