How to set a start date for a rule in automation?

[Cameron]

Hi,

When creating a new rule and specifying the number of days to run, can you create a start date of when the rule will run?

Thanks!

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Cameron,

I think you just have to leave the rule disabled until you are ready for it to run. Maybe set yourself a calendar notification or something like that. 

[Cameron]

This is a great suggestion, this will do the job.  Thanks for your help!

[John Funk]

Great! Glad I could help a little.  :-)

[Danko Pranjic]

I would like to bump up this old thread.

It would be very handy to be able to set a start date for a automation rule. Couldn't believe this is still (nearly 3 years later) not available, since most of software titles already offer this "simple preference".

In some cases it makes sense to create a automation rule to run every 12 months but at a specific start date. A calendar notification shouldn't be "solution" for this process.

Any chance this will be implemented in the near future or is there a possibility to create a feature request for this?

Best,

D.

[Mike Ottiano]

I agree I want this feature.

[Folake Olatoye-Ojo]

Likewise! @Danko Pranjic @Mike Ottiano I wonder who would be best to direct this feature request to. It's quite frustrating.

[Dylan Moore]

Not exactly the same but being able to specify a start date would be amazing. I am trying to set up a fortnightly execution schedule, starting next tuesday. But when i put in for it to run every 2 weeks, the first tuesday it runs is 2 tuesdays from now (not next tuesday as required) 

Work-around - scheduling it to run every week starting from tuesday, then after the first execution tuesday i will change it back to every 2 weeks. 

[jeremyn]

We just discovered that if you export the rule the rule start date is in the JSON output.

You can manually modify that data and import the rule again, effectively moving the start date from today to any time in the past.

We wanted to use automations for yearly license renewal reminders, doing it this way means we can create all of the automations at once and set each automation to the renewal time frame we want.

We also discovered that enabling/disabling it doesn't change the modified start date, however changing the scheduling does reset it to today.

[Laura Christie]

Have you tried a cron expression in the advanced tab?