Configure Business Timing
Configure Business Timing to control when sequence actions become due based on the timing selected for each action and the action owner’s configured working schedule.
Guided Selling v13 and later
Before configuring Business Timing, review Configure Working Days and Business Hours to confirm the working-day and business-hours schedules that Guided Selling will use for action scheduling and Drip Sequences.
How Business Timing works
Business Timing is configured on each sequence action. There is no sequence-level timing mode that automatically applies one timing choice to every action.
The timing selected on the action determines how Guided Selling calculates the action’s due date and time. Working-day and business-hours configuration provide the schedule used by those calculations.
Choose a timing mode
Immediate
Use Immediate when an action should become due without a day-based delay.
This is a common choice for the first action in a sequence when you want work to begin as soon as the participant is associated with the sequence.
Working Days, same time of day
Use Working Days, same time of day when you want the action to keep the relevant time of day while skipping non-working days.
For actions after the first action, timing is based on the preceding action. For the first action, timing is based on the participant’s sequence association date and time.
Example: A participant is associated with a sequence at 2:30 PM on Monday. If the first action has a delay of 1 working day and uses Working Days, same time of day, the action is projected for 2:30 PM on Tuesday, assuming Tuesday is a working day.
This option helps preserve intentional pacing throughout the day instead of moving many actions to the beginning of the workday.
Working Days, start of day
Use Working Days, start of day when you want an action to become due at the beginning of the applicable working day.
For the first action, Guided Selling counts the configured working-day delay from the participant’s sequence association and then uses the action owner’s configured Start of Day.
Example: A participant is associated with a sequence at 2:30 PM on Monday. If the first action has a delay of 1 working day and uses Working Days, start of day, the action is projected for the owner’s start of day on Tuesday, such as 9:00 AM Pacific.
Note: If one action is due at the start of the day, that does not automatically make every following action due at the start of the day. Each action has its own timing configuration. A following action can use a different Working Days option or an hour-based delay that shifts the due time again.
Business Hours
Use Business Hours for shorter, hour-based delays that should advance only through configured business hours.
Example: If an action has a 4-hour delay and the remaining business hours for the current day are insufficient, the delay continues during the next applicable business-hours window.
For information about the working-day and business-hours schedule used for this calculation, see Configure Working Days and Business Hours.
Calendar Days
Calendar Days count literal days without applying working-day logic.
Existing actions created before the v13 upgrade retain their existing timing until you change them. Calendar Day timing can also be made available for new actions by enabling Calendar Day Timing Enabled in GS Public Settings.
Understand the first action in a sequence
The first action has no preceding sequence action, so its timing starts from the participant’s sequence association.
| First-action configuration | Result |
|---|---|
| Immediate | The first action becomes due without a day-based delay. |
1+ working days + Working Days, same time of day | The delay is counted from the association date, and the action keeps the association time of day on the applicable working day. |
1+ working days + Working Days, start of day | The delay is counted from the association date, and the action becomes due at the owner’s configured start of day on the applicable working day. |
| Hour-based Business Hours delay | The delay advances through valid business hours after association. |
If most of your sequences should begin immediately, continue using Immediate for the first action. Use a delayed Working Days option when the first outreach should intentionally wait one or more working days after association.
Use Deliver within business hours
Any Guided Selling sequence action may be configured to Deliver within business hours.
When this option is enabled, an action that would otherwise become due outside business hours is moved into an applicable business-hours window for the action owner.
For automatic email and SMS actions, this helps ensure messages are delivered during the owner’s working day. For manual actions, it helps ensure work becomes due while the rep is available to perform it.
Broad use of start-of-day scheduling can concentrate many due actions at the beginning of a shift.
For details about how working days, Start of Day, End of Day, and Time Zone determine the available window, see Configure Working Days and Business Hours.
Configure Business Timing feature settings
Org-level feature options for Business Timing are available in Setup > Custom Settings > GS Public Settings.
| Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Calendar Day Timing Enabled | Makes Calendar Days available as a timing option for new sequence actions. |
| BH For Manual Actions Enabled | Controls whether Deliver within business hours is available for manual actions. |
Working-day configuration is documented separately because it defines the schedule used by Business Timing rather than the timing mode selected on an action.
See Configure Working Days and Business Hours.
Migrate existing sequence actions
Business Timing is opt-in at the sequence-action level. Existing actions are not automatically converted to Working Days when you upgrade.
For options to update existing sequences manually or in bulk, see Migrate Sequence Actions to Business Timing.