Delegate Workflow Task

Delegates outstanding workflow tasks to a specific user.

For example, an approval task is assigned to a user. After a specified delay, if the user has not responded, the task is delegated to another user.

Options within this action

Action ID

Select a workflow variable that contains the ID of the Request action that is to be delegated. Only variables of type "Action ID" are listed.

To store the Action ID in the variable, configure the Store action ID in field in one of the following actions:  

Delegate after 

Specifies how long to wait before the task is delegated.

If the task is completed in this period, the delegate action will not take effect.

The total time is calculated by summing all fields, regardless of the Time calculation option selected. For example, 4 days and 4 minutes will be calculated as 96 (24x4) hours and 4 minutes. 

Time calculation

Specifies whether or not hours outside the work week should be included when counting down the Delegate after value.  

During business days only 

The During business days only option will specify that weekends or holidays are not included in the count down, but after hours on a business day are.

Example:

  • The delegate task action starts counting down Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day. (the work week is defined as Monday to Friday)
  • The task will delegate on Monday morning, weekends are not included in the count down.  

To manage holidays for your site or site collection, see Manage holidays (sites and site collections).

During business hours only 

The During business hours only option specifies that only business hours are used in the count down.

Example:

  • The delegate task action starts counting down Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours (the work day is defined as Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm)
  • The task will delegate at 11am on Thursday, after business hours are not included in the count down.   

Neither option

If neither option is selected, all hours will be included in the count down.

Examples:

  • The delegate task action starts counting down Friday morning and is configured to wait 1 day.
  • task delegation will be sent Saturday morning, weekends are included in the count down.
  • The delegate task action starts counting down Wednesday at 4pm and is configured to wait 4 hours.
  • task delegation will be sent at 8pm on Wednesday, after business hours are included in the count down.

Delegate to

The user or group to delegate to. To search for users or groups, click (Browse) on the right of the text box to access the Select People and Groups dialog box. For more information on this dialog box, see Select People and Group dialog box.

Comments

Comments to be recorded when performing the delegation. These comments will appear on the workflow history page.

Enter the comments manually, or use Insert Reference to build the string dynamically at run time.

Apply to

  • All pending tasks: reassign all tasks that have not already been actioned to the delegate

  • First pending task: only reassign the first non-actioned task to the delegate, and all other pending tasks will be set to not required.

Related information

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