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SF-0109 · Scenario · Medium

How can we view or monitor pending time-based workflow action?

✓ Verified by Vikas Singhal · Last reviewed 5/17/2026 · Updated for Spring '26

Salesforce gives you a dedicated Time-Based Workflow queue page in Setup. Every time-dependent action that’s been triggered but hasn’t fired yet sits there — and you can inspect, filter, and remove entries.

Where to find it

Setup → Environments → Monitoring → Time-Based Workflow (in Lightning).

In Classic, it’s at Setup → Monitoring → Time-Based Workflow.

What you see

The queue shows each pending action as a row with:

ColumnMeaning
Workflow RuleWhich rule queued the action
ObjectThe triggering object
RecordLink to the record that triggered the rule
Created DateWhen the action was queued
Scheduled DateWhen the action will fire
UserThe user who triggered the rule (usually the record owner)
Created ByWho initially saved the record

You can filter by rule name, object, or scheduled date. This is the only way to see what’s coming, since time-based actions don’t appear in debug logs until they actually fire.

What you can do from this page

  • View the queued action
  • Select and delete entries to cancel them
  • Refresh the list (entries clear automatically as they fire)
  • Filter by criteria to narrow down

When entries disappear from the queue

A queued action leaves the queue when:

  1. It fires at the scheduled time (the platform re-checks criteria first; if the record no longer meets them, the action is silently discarded instead of firing)
  2. An admin deletes it from this page
  3. The triggering record is deleted
  4. The workflow rule is deactivated and the org’s bookkeeping reaps it (varies)

What this monitor cannot show

  • Actions from Process Builder scheduled actions — those have their own monitor (Setup → Paused Flow Interviews in modern releases — actually all Process Builder scheduled work is part of the Flow queue now since Process Builder maps onto Flow internally)
  • Actions from Schedule-Triggered Flows — those are in the Apex Jobs / Scheduled Jobs view
  • Future-dated approval steps — those have their own audit trail

So when you’re debugging “why didn’t my time-based thing fire?”, you need to know which queue to look in based on which tool queued it.

What interviewers want

  • The exact path: Setup → Time-Based Workflow
  • That you can both view and delete entries
  • That entries are re-checked against the rule criteria when they fire — they don’t always actually run
  • Can we delete pending time-based workflow actions?
  • What happens when criteria change while action is pending?

Verified against: Salesforce Help — Monitor Time-Based Workflow. Last reviewed 2026-05-17 for Spring ‘26 release.