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Assistance with workaround 30 day flow limit

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Posted on by alan_user

I have a SharePoint list that holds inspection data for equipment. The equipment items get inspected depending on their type every 6, 12 or 24 months.

When an inspection is completed details of the inspected date and the outcome of the inspection are added to the SharePoint list.

I set up a flow to activate when an item is created or modified in the SharePoint list and then check some conditions - for example, Frequency being one, then delay for 5 months and email a reminder of the 6 month inspection being due soon.

When I was initially testing this functionality I didn't have 6 months to wait to see did it work so I had to use a 5 day delay instead, an 11 day delay and a 23 day delay and as expected these all worked.

When testing on this completed I assigned the correct values I wanted to the flows and I didn't get an error; Flow allowed me to save the flow with the 5, 11, and 23 month values.

Only when it triggered did I get the error The provided 'Wait' action 'interval' value '23' 'Month' is not supported for the 'Consumption' SKU. The value must be between '5' seconds and '30' day(s).

Can I chain up delay after delay for even 29 days at a time to get around this? For instance chain up a delay of 29 days, then another 4 delays chained together to allow for a 5 month delay on emailing?

Or is there any other workaround that anybody could advise on? Even look at inspection date then calculate to send 5 months in the future from that?

Are there plans to extend the delay threshold on a flow to more than 30 days? I can't imagine I am the only person looking for something similar to this, the 30 day limit is very restrictive but surely there's a few workarounds?

Thanks

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Building flows

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Pstork1 68,697 Most Valuable Professional on at

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The key to overcoming this is to use a recurrence trigger. You setup the list to track the status of the item after it is created. Then have a recurrence flow that runs periodically, perhaps once a month. Inside the flow get the items filtered based on whether they need an inspection in the next 30 days. If they do send a reminder.

Using that pattern you don't have a flow sitting idle for months at a time, but can still send the reminders you need.

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eliotcole 4,363 Moderator on at

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Hi, @alan_user , there are a few ways to do this ... I don't like having flows delay for any longer than a few minutes, so I can't imagine having it wait for months XD!

Anyway ... for a simple way to do this that will work until you get something cool running:
Create two new columns in the list:
inspctSchdDt - a date column
inspctSchdYn - a number column (no decimals, no thousands separator)
Create a separate, scheduled, daily flow "Inspection Checker".
Have it retrieve all items (using an ODATA filter) from the list where:
inspctSchdDt - has a date
inspctSchdYn - is the number 6, 12, or 24
If today's date matches the date in the box, then send the 6, 12, 24 month chaser (or create a job to do it in the relevant place).
The reason for the number column and not a choice or yes/no is it will make your ODATA formula easier. 😉

Then, once you're satisfied that is working you can modify your original flow to both remove dates/numbers in these fields for items needing no inspection and add them accordingly for those that do need them.

As I say, this is basic as all heck, but it should satisfy you for now. Any data duplication (inspection dates, etc) from/to other fields can be ignored until this workaround is in place. Once this is working you can look at either fixing the original spec, or making something super cool!

PS - I seem to remember getting a bit more complicated with a very similar flow a few months back, so I'll see if I can find that for you, too, mate.

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alan_user 62 on at

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Hi @Pstork1
Thanks for your suggestion, that looks like it will resolve the issue I have.

Alan

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alan_user 62 on at

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Hi @eliotcole, thanks for your solution, I'll take a look at this, and it looks like something I can reuse a few times. I have accepted yours and the suggestion by PStork1, because both will do what I require.

Thanks

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eliotcole 4,363 Moderator on at

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Yeah, @alan_user , sorry I didn't come back to you ... but I lost this thread!

I did find the old one that I advised on that was similar.

Send Email to Specific Individuals Based on Mutiple Criteria

I think this could be quite helpful, all told, with what you're doing as a lot of it is very similar.

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alan_user 62 on at

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Hi @eliotcole thanks for the follow up with this, much appreciated. I'll be able to mimic your setup and tailor the variables to my lists.

I had initially set up a calculation field called in the list called Next Inspection Date to add 150 days for 5 month reminder if a 6 Month value was in Frequency field, similar for the others. Only when I tried to compare today using utcnow vs next inspection date did I realise that calculated dates won't work against utcnow.

I thought I could schedule a check every day to get items from the list and check next inspection date equals utcnow but it won't work on the calculation.

I'll try and copy your solution to suit my system and that should work.
Thanks again for all of your help

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eliotcole 4,363 Moderator on at

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Yeah, you can't use calculation fields, annoyingly enough.

Good luck!

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alan_user 62 on at

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Hi @eliotcole
thanks again, I have it all sorted now, my calculated date worked once I did a time zone convert on it. It now compares with today's date and the triggers all work.

It's a workaround but does the job for me!

thanks

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