Wait Until Available
Wait Until Available pauses a workflow until someone meets your chosen availability conditions or the maximum wait is reached. It checks immediately, then checks again roughly every five minutes while the record waits.
Use it to hold a ticket handoff until its owner starts work, or to wait for someone in a support team to be available. If you only need a current result for a branch, use Check Availability.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”Install Smart Lead & Ticket Routing using the Setup Guide. Decide who the workflow should wait for, what available means for this workflow, and what should happen if the wait times out.
The selected people need their availability, working hours, and out-of-office schedule maintained in HubSpot. If you choose an owner property, the app must be able to read the enrolled record and that property, and its value must identify an active HubSpot user.
Set up the action
Section titled “Set up the action”- Add Wait Until Available from Smart Lead & Ticket Routing to your workflow.
- Set Who should this action wait for? and select the users, teams, or owner property described below.
- Under Consider a person available when they…, select at least one condition.
- Set Availability matching to Match all conditions or Match any condition.
- Enter Maximum wait in minutes as a whole number from 5 to 43200. For example,
60is one hour,1440is one day, and43200is 30 days. These are elapsed minutes, including time outside working hours. - Save the action and add a branch on its Outcome output. Create paths for
available,timed_out, andfailed, plus a fallback for unexpected or missing outputs.
Choose who to wait for
Section titled “Choose who to wait for”| Who should this action wait for? | Field to configure | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| Selected users | Users | Select one or more people. The wait completes when any one of them meets the availability conditions. |
| Selected teams | Teams | Select one or more teams. The wait completes when any one eligible member across those teams meets the conditions. Team membership is refreshed on each check. |
| Owner property on the enrolled record | Owner property | Select a readable owner property, such as Ticket owner. The action reads the property again on every check and follows the current owner. |
Match all conditions applies to one person’s availability conditions. It does not mean every selected user or every team member must be available.
For owner-property mode, select the property to watch. If Ticket owner changes from Alex to Sam while the record is waiting, the next check evaluates Sam. If the property is empty or no longer identifies an active user, the wait returns failed.
Choose the availability conditions
Section titled “Choose the availability conditions”| Condition | What the action checks |
|---|---|
| Is accepting work | The person’s HubSpot availability status is Available. |
| Is not out of office | The current time is outside the person’s scheduled HubSpot out-of-office periods. |
| Is inside working hours | HubSpot reports that the person is currently in working hours. |
With Match all conditions, one person must satisfy every selected condition. For example, select all three to wait for a person who is accepting work, is not on leave, and is inside working hours.
With Match any condition, one matching condition is enough. For example, selecting Is accepting work and Is inside working hours allows the wait to complete for someone marked Away if they are inside working hours.
When the workflow resumes
Section titled “When the workflow resumes”The action checks as soon as the record reaches it. If someone already qualifies, the workflow continues immediately with available.
Otherwise, the record stays at this action while availability is checked roughly every five minutes. Checks have a small scheduling offset, so a status change is picked up at the next check rather than instantly. Temporary connection errors are retried and can extend the time between checks.
At the deadline, the action completes with timed_out when the timeout is processed. The workflow can resume shortly after the configured deadline; temporary service or connection problems can delay completion further. Use Wait completed at to see when the wait actually ended.
The action returns a matching owner as an output. It does not assign the record, reserve that person’s capacity, or distribute records through a round robin. If fair distribution is needed after the wait, add a Round Robin Action with the appropriate pool and availability rules.
Action outputs and branches
Section titled “Action outputs and branches”Select outputs from this Wait Until Available step when configuring later workflow actions. Branch on Outcome, rather than the free-text Outcome reason.
| Outcome | Meaning | Suggested next step |
|---|---|---|
available | A person met the configured conditions. | Continue the handoff. Use Available owner ID if a later action needs the matched owner. |
timed_out | The maximum wait was reached without completing an available match. | Follow your escalation or fallback route. |
failed | The target or configuration could not be used. | Inspect Outcome reason and route the record for review. |
| Output | Meaning |
|---|---|
Outcome (outcome) | available, timed_out, or failed. |
Outcome reason (reason) | A readable explanation, such as the matched person’s name, maximum wait reached, or an empty owner property. |
Available owner ID (matched_owner_id) | The matched person’s HubSpot owner ID. Only populated when someone matched; treat it as absent on timeout or failure. |
Available user name (matched_user_name) | The matched person’s name. Empty when there is no match. |
Wait started at (started_at) | When this execution began waiting. |
Wait completed at (completed_at) | When the wait ended. |
Wait deadline (deadline_at) | The deadline calculated from the start time and maximum wait. |
A configuration rejected before a wait can start may not have a start time or deadline. Only use the matched owner on the available branch; timeout and failure paths need their own next step.
Example: wait for a ticket’s owner to start work
Section titled “Example: wait for a ticket’s owner to start work”Configure a ticket workflow with these settings:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Who should this action wait for? | Owner property on the enrolled record |
| Owner property | Ticket owner |
| Consider a person available when they… | Is accepting work; Is not out of office; Is inside working hours |
| Availability matching | Match all conditions |
| Maximum wait in minutes | 1440 |
On available, continue to the owner handoff or notification. On timed_out, escalate to the team’s fallback process. On failed, check the reason and route for review. Assign an owner before this step if the ticket might enter the workflow unassigned.
To wait for a support pool instead, choose Selected teams and select the support team. The wait can end as soon as one member meets all three conditions; it does not wait for the whole team.
Monitor active and completed waits
Section titled “Monitor active and completed waits”Open Smart Lead & Ticket Routing’s app settings in HubSpot and select the Waits tab. Use Refresh to load the latest view of active and recently completed waits.
Each entry shows the target, workflow and record, current status, start time, deadline, latest check, and any matched person, outcome reason, or latest check error. ACTIVE and CHECKING mean the wait is still being processed; RETRY indicates a check or completion is being retried. AVAILABLE, TIMED_OUT, and FAILED are completed states.
The tab is read-only and has no cancel or force-release controls.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”The person changed to Available but the record is still waiting. Allow for the next check, then review all selected conditions. With Match all conditions, an Available status alone is not enough if the person is out of office or outside working hours. Check the Waits tab for the latest check and any errors.
The wait completed sooner than expected. Check whether Match any condition is selected. With multiple users or teams, only one person needs to qualify. An immediate match completes without an initial delay.
The action reports an empty or invalid owner property. Make sure the property is populated and refers to an active HubSpot user. The property is read again during the wait, so clearing it or changing it to an inactive owner can also cause a failure.
There are no eligible people. If none of the explicitly selected users can be resolved as active users, the action fails. A selected team with no current candidates continues waiting until someone qualifies or the deadline is reached.
The owner-property list will not load, or the wait shows connection errors. Check the app connection and granted access to the enrolled record type. Owner-property mode requires read access. Inspect the workflow history and the latest error in the Waits tab for the specific problem.
Related guides
Section titled “Related guides”- Check Availability - get the current result without waiting.
- Round Robin Action - distribute records across eligible owners.
- All routing action guides - choose the action for your workflow.