Adding delays and sending only during business hours
Use the Wait / Delay step to pause a workflow and only send outreach on the days and hours you choose.
A Wait / Delay step pauses a workflow between actions, so you can space out follow-ups instead of firing them all at once. It also controls when outreach lands — so a text never reaches a lead at 3 a.m.
Add a Wait / Delay step
Add this step anywhere you want a pause — for example, between a first text and a follow-up email. Open the workflow from Workflows, click the step in the builder, and configure it in the side panel.
Choose a delay mode
Set Delay mode to Delay for to pause every contact by the same amount of time. Choose Delay after queue when contacts should move through this step one at a time — they wait in line and continue in order, which is useful for spacing out a burst of enrollments.
Set the wait length
In the Delay field, enter a number and pick a unit — Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, or Months. The panel shows the total in minutes so you can sanity-check it. This field is required before you can publish.
Keep outreach during the day
Turn on Respect business hours (8 AM – 8 PM) so a delay that lands overnight is pushed to the next morning instead of waking a lead up.
Use a short Delay for of a few hours to give a new lead room to reply before your next automated message, rather than stacking texts back-to-back.
Limit outreach to specific days and times
The Advance window gives you finer control than the business-hours checkbox. When it's on, the workflow holds at the delay step until both the day and time you allow.
Enable the advance window
Toggle Advance window on inside the Wait / Delay step.
Pick allowed days
Under Resume on, select the weekdays outreach may go out — for example, Mon through Fri only. At least one day must stay selected.
Pick a resume time
Under Resume at, choose a time. Options run in 15-minute increments from 8:00 AM to 7:45 PM, keeping sends inside normal contact hours.
If a contact reaches this step on a Saturday at 11 p.m. with a Mon–Fri, 9:00 AM window, the workflow waits and resumes Monday at 9:00 AM. The window applies on top of the delay length — the delay runs first, then the next eligible day and time decides exactly when the step releases.
When the advance window is on, you must keep at least one allowed day and a valid time. Publishing fails with an invalid advance window if either is missing, so the builder won't let a misconfigured schedule go live.
How it fits the rest of the workflow
Delays pair naturally with the messaging steps that follow them. Place a Wait / Delay before a text or email so the message step only runs once the window opens, and review the timing of every enrolled contact alongside your other automations in Workflows. For sends that depend on a lead's reply or stage, combine delays with branching so each path waits on its own schedule.
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Last updated 2026-06-21