# Schedule

**Schedule** starts a workflow on a timer. It is useful for unattended work that should run hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, once, or on a custom cron schedule.

## When to use it

Use it for recurring digests, periodic syncs, expiry checks, and scheduled batch processing.

## Settings

![Schedule configured to run daily at 9 AM in site time](/documentation/flowcrafter/screenshots/node-schedule-settings.png)

![Schedule's interval mode configured for every 15 minutes](/documentation/flowcrafter/screenshots/node-schedule-interval.png)

Choose a **Schedule** type. The builder then shows only the settings that type needs.

| Type | Important settings |
|---|---|
| Every N minutes | Interval of at least one minute. |
| Hourly | Minute of the hour, from 0 to 59. |
| Daily, Weekdays, Weekends | Time of day. |
| Weekly | Weekday and time. |
| Monthly | Day of month and time. |
| Once | Date and time. |
| Custom (cron) | Standard five-field cron expression. |

Clock-based schedules use the WordPress site timezone and stay aligned through daylight-saving changes.

New nodes default to **Daily** at `09:00`.

## Output and branch

The single default branch receives when this run, and the last completed run, started.

| Output | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `run_started_at`, `run_started_timestamp` | When this run started, in site time and as a Unix timestamp. |
| `last_completed_run_started_at`, `last_completed_run_started_timestamp` | When the last run that completed successfully started. Empty until a run has completed. |

Every trigger carries the two run-start values. To fetch only what's new since the last run, put **Last completed run started** in [Get Entries](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/get-entries/)' **Created after** and **This run started** in its **Created before**.

## Good-to-knows

- Only active, valid workflows are scheduled.
- The trigger has no entry. Use **Get Entries** or another query step to fetch data, then **[For Each](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/flow/for-each/)** to process the returned items.
- Monthly days 29–31 are skipped in months without that date.
- A one-time date in the past and a cron expression that can never run are flagged in the builder.

## Example

For a weekday reminder batch:

1. Set **Schedule** to **Weekdays** at `09:00`.
2. Add **Get Entries** to fetch entries that still need a reminder.
3. Add **For Each** and connect **[Send Email](/documentation/flowcrafter/nodes/actions/send-email/)** to its **Each item** branch. Connect **Done** if another step should run after the batch; otherwise the workflow finishes there.

![A weekday schedule fetching pending requests and sending each one a reminder](/documentation/flowcrafter/screenshots/schedule-weekday-reminders-example.png)