Scheduled Trigger

What This Node Does The Scheduled Trigger node starts a workflow at defined time intervals using a cron expression. There is no external event or human action required — BizFirstAI's internal scheduler fires the workflow on time, every time, according to your configured schedule and timezone. When triggered, it provides the downstream nodes with timing metadata including the scheduled fire time, actual execution time, and execution ID. It is the foundation for all time-driven batch processing, reporting, reconciliation, and data synchronization workflows.

Key Capabilities

Full cron expression support: Schedule workflows using standard 5-field or 6-field cron syntax, supporting second-level precision for high-frequency automations.
Timezone awareness: Configure the schedule in any IANA timezone (e.g., America/New_York, Europe/London, Asia/Kolkata). Payroll runs at 6 AM New York time, not UTC.
Enable / disable without deleting: Toggle the enabled flag to pause a scheduled workflow during maintenance windows or holiday periods without removing the configuration.
Catch-up execution: When catch_up is enabled, if the platform was offline during a scheduled fire time, BizFirstAI runs the missed executions once it comes back online.
Retry on failure: Configure max_retries to automatically re-run the workflow if it fails, with configurable backoff intervals between attempts.
Rich timing metadata: Downstream nodes receive the exact scheduled time, the actual execution time, timezone offset, and execution ID — enabling precise audit trails and late-execution detection.
Human-readable schedule labels: The portal displays a plain-English description of your cron expression (e.g., "Every weekday at 6:00 AM EST") alongside the raw cron string for easy verification.

Business Benefits

Fully Automated Operations

Critical business processes — payroll, invoicing, reporting, reconciliation — run on time without manual initiation. Reduce operational overhead and eliminate missed runs caused by human oversight.

Timezone-Precise Scheduling

Schedule workflows to run at the right local business time for each region. End-of-day payroll in New York, daily data sync for Sydney, and nightly reports for London all run at their correct local times without timezone conversion errors.

Guaranteed Execution

The catch-up mechanism ensures no scheduled run is permanently missed due to downtime. Audit logs record both the scheduled time and actual execution time, providing a verifiable compliance trail.

Resilient with Automatic Retry

Transient failures — network timeouts, database locks, API rate limits — are automatically retried with configurable limits. Business processes recover without requiring manual intervention.

Use Cases

Daily Payroll Processing Run

A payroll workflow runs every weekday at 5:00 AM in the company's home timezone. It collects attendance data from the HRMS, calculates gross-to-net pay for each employee, generates payslips, posts salary transfer instructions to the bank, and records the run in the audit log — all before employees arrive at the office.

Monthly Invoice Generation

On the first business day of every month, BizFirstAI automatically generates invoices for all active subscription clients. The workflow queries the billing system, calculates usage-based charges, generates PDF invoices, emails them to client contacts, and creates accounts receivable entries in the ERP.

Weekly Performance Report Emails

Every Monday morning at 7:00 AM, a reporting workflow queries the analytics database for the prior week's KPIs, renders a formatted HTML email with charts and trend indicators, and sends personalized performance summaries to each department head and the executive team.

Nightly Data Synchronization

At 2:00 AM each night, a data sync workflow queries all connected source systems (Salesforce, SAP, Shopify), extracts changed records from the last 24 hours, transforms and validates the data, and loads it into the central data warehouse — ensuring the morning dashboards reflect up-to-date figures.

End-of-Day Financial Reconciliation

At 11:00 PM each business day, BizFirstAI runs the financial reconciliation workflow. It compares transaction records between the payment gateway, the banking API, and the accounting system, identifies discrepancies, creates exception reports, and emails the finance team with any items requiring review before the next business day.