# Schedule a workflow

Scheduled workflows run repeatedly without a person pressing Run. They are useful for refreshing data, checking for updates, or preparing results before a regular business activity.

## Set a schedule

1. Open the workflow editor and choose **Schedule**.
2. Select a preset such as Every 5 min, Every 15 min, Hourly, or Daily.
3. Choose **Custom…** when a preset is insufficient.
4. Review the generated expression and confirm its intended timing.
5. Save the workflow and verify that it is enabled.
6. Inspect the first scheduled run and its outputs.

Cron expressions describe timing, not an elapsed delay after the previous run. `0 * * * *` means the start of each hour. `0 0 * * *` means midnight in the schedule's effective timezone. A malformed expression must be corrected before the schedule can be saved.

## Confirm timezone

A schedule can carry a timezone, but the compact workflow schedule control may not expose a timezone selector. Confirm the effective timezone from the workflow's configured definition or workspace guidance before relying on a local wall-clock time. Do not assume the browser's timezone automatically changes a saved schedule.

For named timezones, daylight-saving changes can affect the relationship between local and UTC time. Prefer a clear timezone convention for shared workflows and document it in the workflow's name or team operating notes.

## Plan for duration and volume

A frequent schedule does not guarantee the previous run has finished. Use safe destinations, appropriate limits, and a cadence that matches source change frequency. Reprocessing the entire source every few minutes can be unnecessarily expensive; consider incremental mode when the source supports it.

Scheduled runs use the saved definition and available permissions. A broken connection or unavailable extension can prevent execution even when the cron expression is valid.

If runs are absent, check enabled state, trigger type, timezone, and recent run failures. If many runs are queued, inspect duration and resource limits before increasing frequency. See [run modes](/docs/workflows/run-modes) and [batching and concurrency](/docs/workflows/batching-and-concurrency).