Set Schedule

The Set Schedule feature in akaBot Center allows you to configure a process to start automatically at specific times or on a recurring basis without manual intervention. Scheduling is particularly useful for batch processes, end-of-day reconciliations, periodic report generation, or any workflow that needs to run at consistent intervals aligned with business cycles.

Schedules are defined using either a simple time-picker interface for common patterns (daily, weekly, monthly) or a cron expression for advanced scheduling requirements. Multiple schedules can be attached to a single process, enabling complex trigger patterns such as running a process every weekday at 8:00 AM and additionally on the last day of each month. Each scheduled run creates an independent process instance, so concurrent executions are fully supported.

The scheduling engine respects time zones, allowing global organizations to trigger processes in the correct local business hours for each region. Schedule status can be enabled or disabled at any time without modifying the process itself, making it easy to temporarily suspend automated runs during maintenance windows or holidays.

Schedule Configuration Options

Option	Description
Schedule Name	A descriptive name for this schedule trigger
Process	The published process to be triggered
Frequency	One-time, minutely, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or custom cron
Start Date	The date from which the schedule becomes active
End Date	Optional date after which the schedule stops triggering
Time Zone	The time zone used to interpret the schedule time
Max Concurrent Runs	Maximum number of simultaneous instances allowed from this schedule
Input Variables	Default values for process input variables passed at start

Setting Up a Schedule

1. Open Human-Bot Collaboration > Process Design and navigate to the Schedules tab.
2. Click + New Schedule.
3. Enter a Schedule Name and select the target Process from the dropdown.
4. Choose a Frequency option:
   • For simple patterns, use the Visual Picker (e.g., Every day at 09:00).
   • For advanced patterns, toggle Use Cron Expression and enter a valid cron string (e.g., 0 9 * * 1-5 for weekdays at 9 AM).
5. Set the Start Date and, if needed, the End Date.
6. Select the appropriate Time Zone.
7. Optionally provide Input Variables that the process will receive on each scheduled run.
8. Toggle the schedule to Enabled.
9. Click Save.

Common Cron Expression Examples

# Every day at 8:00 AM
0 8 * * *

# Every Monday at 9:00 AM
0 9 * * 1

# Every weekday (Mon-Fri) at 6:00 PM
0 18 * * 1-5

# First day of every month at midnight
0 0 1 * *

# Every 30 minutes
*/30 * * * *