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Escalating overdue tasks

Chasing a step that misses its deadline

Section titled “Chasing a step that misses its deadline”

Tallyfy has no account-wide escalation switch. You build escalation onto one specific step instead, using a pair of steps: the real one, plus a second step that expires a little later. When the second one expires, an automation fires and does whatever you told it to do to the real step.

Building it per step is the point. In a 40 step process you attach escalation to the two or three steps where being late actually costs you something, so nobody gets buried in alerts about the other 37.

Why an expiring step is the trick

Section titled “Why an expiring step is the trick”

Tallyfy automations react to a step changing state. Someone completes it, approves it, rejects it, acknowledges it. There’s no “when a deadline passes, do something” trigger sitting in the list for you to pick.

One step type gets around that. An Expiring step completes itself the moment its deadline arrives, with nobody touching it. That makes it the only clock in Tallyfy you can hang a rule on. Set one to expire shortly after the real work was due, and you’ve built yourself a deadline trigger.

The pattern, with a real example

Section titled “The pattern, with a real example”

Say your month-end close template has this step:

  • Post month-end journal entries, due 5 days after launch, assigned to Jelena.

You add a second step beside it:

  • Escalate journal entries, step type Expiring, due 6 days after launch. Nobody needs to be assigned to it.

Then one rule: IF “Escalate journal entries” is expired, THEN add Jelena’s manager as an assignee on “Post month-end journal entries”.

On day 6 the expiring step completes itself, the rule fires, and the manager lands on the task. If Jelena posted the entries on day 4, nothing happens at all.

The gap between day 5 and day 6 is your grace period. You set it purely by choosing the expiring step’s date. Want three days of slack instead of one? Date it day 8.

How to set it up

Section titled “How to set it up”

You’ll need rights to edit the template.

  1. Open your template in the template editor.

  2. Add a new step next to the one you want to watch. Name it so you’ll recognize it later, like “Escalate journal entries”.

  3. Set the new step’s type to Expiring.

  4. On the Basics tab, click the Timings row to expand it, then set its deadline relative to Process Launch, a little later than the real step’s deadline. This choice decides whether the whole thing works, so read the caution below before you pick anything else.

  5. Leave the expiring step unassigned. Nobody has to do anything with it.

  6. Go to the Automations tab and click Add Automation. Give the rule a plain name like “Escalate journal entries if late”.

  7. For the IF condition, pick your expiring step and choose is expired.

  8. For the THEN action, pick what should happen, then set Apply to to the real step. Not the expiring one.

  9. Save the template.

To check your work, launch a test process and deliberately leave the real step alone. Come back after the expiring step’s deadline and you should see the action land on the real task.

Set the expiring step’s deadline from the process launch

Section titled “Set the expiring step’s deadline from the process launch”

We ran two identical processes side by side and left the real work undone in both:

The expiring step was dated fromWhat actually happened
Process LaunchIt expired on time and the manager was added. Escalation worked.
Another StepIt never expired at all, even after a full extra cycle. No escalation.

If you build this pattern and nothing ever happens, this is almost always the reason.

Any automation action can hang off it

Section titled “Any automation action can hang off it”

Adding a manager is the most common choice, not the only one. “Is expired” is an ordinary condition, so every automation action is available to you:

  • Change who’s assigned. Add people to the step, replace everyone on it, or clear the assignees. See assignment actions.
  • Change a deadline. Push the due date out or pull it in. See deadline actions.
  • Show or hide a step. Reveal a normally hidden “Explain the delay” step only when something runs late. See visibility actions.
  • Reopen a completed step. Send work back for another pass. See status actions.
  • Fire a webhook. A webhook (an automatic message Tallyfy sends to another system the instant something happens) hands the event to a tool you already run. See webhooks.

It cancels itself when the work gets done

Section titled “It cancels itself when the work gets done”

There’s nothing to remember and nothing to switch off. Finish the real step before the expiring step’s deadline and no escalation happens.

Here’s why. Tallyfy won’t apply an automation action to a step that’s already complete. The expiring step still expires and the rule still fires, but the action has nothing left to do, because there’s nobody left to chase.

We tested that with two identical processes. One was left alone, one had the real work completed early. The one left alone got the manager added. The one where the work was done didn’t.

How quickly escalation happens

Section titled “How quickly escalation happens”

Tallyfy checks for expiring steps every 5 minutes, so escalation arrives within about five minutes of the deadline rather than on the exact second. For chasing a late journal entry that’s plenty. If you need something to react in seconds, this pattern isn’t the right tool.

A simpler condition is on the way

Section titled “A simpler condition is on the way”

A condition that reacts to a deadline passing, with no expiring step involved, has been built and is in review. It hasn’t shipped yet, and we’re not putting a date on it. Until it does ship, the expiring step pattern above is how escalation works in Tallyfy.

Catching late work in general

Section titled “Catching late work in general”

Escalation is for the few steps where lateness really hurts. For everything else, two things already help:

  • Digest emails list tasks that are due soon or overdue. They go out at 6 AM in each person’s local timezone, and everyone picks their own days in email notification settings.
  • Overdue filters narrow a list down to just the late work. In the Tasks view, filter on Task State and pick Overdue. The Tracker view does the same thing one level up, showing you which whole processes are behind.

You can also comment on any late task to ask for an update, or watch a process to get notified about every change to it. Watching won’t ping you at the moment a task turns overdue, though.

Following up when something is late

Section titled “Following up when something is late”

Research shows that threat-based reminders (“this task is overdue!”) backfire. They dent motivation and make performance worse. Asking what’s in the way works better.

  • Ask about blockers first. “What’s holding this up?” gets you further than “Why isn’t this done?”
  • Say why it matters. “The auditors need this by Friday” gives someone a reason, not just a date.
  • Offer rather than order. “You might want to try…” lands better than “You must…”.
  • Be consistent. Check for late work on a regular rhythm instead of at random.
  • Write it down. Use comments on the task so the conversation stays with the work.
  • Set a new date you believe in. If you’re extending a deadline, pick one that can genuinely be met.

Stopping the pile-up in the first place

Section titled “Stopping the pile-up in the first place”

Escalation is a repair job. These four habits stop the damage instead, and they beat chasing people every month.

  • Use expiring steps for FYI items. They complete themselves at the deadline, so announcements and optional reading never turn into overdue clutter.
  • Bundle small work into one step. One step with five form fields beats five separate steps that can each go late.
  • Set deadlines you’ve actually hit before. Base them on how long the work really takes, not on the best case.
  • Drop steps that are always late and never matter. If a step goes overdue every month and nothing bad follows, it isn’t really a step.

There’s more in the guide on how to avoid task debt.

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