Help with a requirement - how to allow Human Task input any time but also send a reminder email every 20th of the month

[Berto2002]

We have a process in place that requires

1. an update on a request with structured information for custom fields/reporting on or by 20th of the month
2. an email reminder on that date to do it
3. the ability to provide that information at any intervening time also
4. we must be able to do this ad-infinitum until...
5. ...a certain type of update (declare closure) means no more updates are required

The only way to achieve 1 is to have a Human Task. The only way to achieve 3 is to have that Human Task available all the time. The only way to achieve 2 is to pass through an email node on the right date. 4 means we can't prescribe a sequence of Human Tasks but rather have to loop back onto one. So how do we escape from the Human Task to send a reminder?

The best solution I have so far is to have the Human Task expire every day, check if the day element of the date is "20"; and if so, to fire-off an email and then head back to the Human Task to wait another day.

The main issue with this is it's filling-up the timeline with "task x has just been added" daily entries 30 times a month (because you can't stop a system notification when creating a Human Task.

I thought about having a parallel processing monthly reminder but how do I escape from that when closure comes without waiting for up to 30 days for the 20th of the month?

What's a cleverer way to do this? Any ideas please?

I think what I need is a way, at any time, to find out the actual date of the next 20th of the month and to put that as the expiry; but how do we do that?

Thanks

[Steve Giller]

17 minutes ago, Berto2002 said:

an email reminder on that date to do it

Wouldn't it be better to fire an integration to a calendar to set a reminder?

[Peter Clough]

On the parallel track, you put a daily suspend for 24 hours, which leads into decisions to check the status of the human task and the date. Even though they're parallel, once the task is done, you should be able to get the output to check. If it's done, you close the parallel, if it isn't you loop round to the suspend again.

[Berto2002]

@Peter Clough yes I can see how that could help us with the daily reminder and then it would exit the loop; but we could have up to 24 hours after the update before that suspend expires and exits the parallel into closure.

@Steve Giller well, maybe, but then clearing up/removing the reminder or assigning to someone else. I'm trying to keep it all in my automation platform

How about this:

1. After an update, Get Local Time (which also has date)
2. Store that value as text in a custom field: dd-mm-yy 00:00:00
3. Use string utils to always replace "dd" with "20" so whatever date we are now (i.e. the date of the last update after which this gets triggered, the date becomes 20th
4. Then a choice:
   1. If the current date is on or after 20th then use string utils to replace "mm" with the next month - HOW? It needs to +1 each time. Can only think to have a sequence of decisions, one for each case like: If "09" then "10"
   2. If the current date is before 20th then no change to the "mm" since it's same month
5. Then re-add the Human Task with an expiry we constructed so it will next expire on the 20th of the correct month (and thus trigger this lot again)

[Berto2002]

@Peter Clough I have worked out how to 'find' the next 20th of the month date and set that as expiry date which then reminds and sets the next expiry to the following month. PM me if interested and I can share the flow.