Time Based Workflow - how to make it work?

Question

Hello,
Has anyone successfully built a Time Based Workflow? Could you share your examples?
For me it does not work properly.
I have tried to set up 2 workflows: on Opportunity Close Date and Account Contract Expiration Date.
- Account Contract Expiration Date: I want an Account Owner to get an email notification exactly 6 months before the contract with his client expires. However - the email is triggered each time the record is modified - so I have seen in the workflow monitor that users on the date of contract expiration - 180 days will receive as many emails as many times they modified the record! Is there a way to avoid this situation?
- Opportunity Close Date - I want to send an email to Opportunity Owner's Manager - 10 days after the opportunity was closed. However - there will be the same issue as above + the wait action is not working with a PRE function.
Please let me know what you think and if you have already built a Time Based Workflow that works correctly.
Edited by: MagdaR on May 18, 2010 1:57 AM

Answer 1

Let's start with the workflow for Opty Close Date.
There are a lot of ways to do this, so you'll need to evaluate which way is best for your case, but the basics are to check to ensure that the opty is closed for the first time, then set the flag. In order to accomodate for the opty being closed when it is created, you will have to consider a post default for the flag in addition to the workflow.
In this case, you could create a workflow on Opty using the before modified record saved trigger event. In the Rule Condition, have the workflow check for a closed opty and if the status changed to closed during this modification. There are a number of options to validate this, including sales stage = Closed/Won or Lost, Closed Date is populated for the first time, Status is closed. In any case, just validate that the opty was closed for the first time using the PRE Function (i.e., PRE(Closed Date) is null and PRE(Closed Date)<>Closed Date). When your condition is met, set a flag that will trigger the event. You could also add a date that the wf conditions were met the first time, to ensure that you track when the rule was originally triggered.
The next step is to have a workflow that unsets the flag if the conditions are not met. Set the order on this one to follow the rule above.
The last rule is the wait/email rule and it uses the when modified record saved event. This rule triggers on the flag being checked, then waits to send the email.
Test this and validate that it will work for your purposes. Based on this workflow, you should be able to create the other one, and I can help if you have any issues.
Good Luck,
Thom