Understanding task expiration

What it is

An expiration date marks the end of a completed task's validity. Until then, the task counts as done for every placement that needs the form. After it, the task's status changes from Completed to Expired, and Onboarded treats the form as not done.

It fits anything that's only good for a period — an annual acknowledgment, a certification, a refresher training.

If you remember nothing else: expiration ends a task. It doesn't start a new one.

Why it matters

Most surprises come from expecting expiration to do more than it does. This matters most when:

• A form has to be re-signed on a schedule and you expect Onboarded to send the new copy.

• Placements that were complete start showing as incomplete, and nothing obvious changed.

• You expect an open task to close if the employee misses its expiration date.

How it works

Where the expiration date comes from

Most accounts set expiration once, on the form. Open the form from Forms, select the Expiration Rules tab, and click Add Expiration Rule. Each rule uses one strategy:

For the I-9's work authorization date, see 📄 How do I notify someone before an employee's work authorization expires?. Reverification itself is covered in 📄 Reverification and rehires: when you need Supplement B.

Things to know:

• A rule belongs to the form, not a version, so it covers tasks from every version.

• Specific Time, Relative Time, and Form Field rules stamp the date when a task is completed, so tasks completed before the rule existed don't get one.

• If several rules apply, the earliest date wins.

You can also set the date on a single task: open the task, click Edit, and change Expire at; fill in Expiration Date when you create a task with Create Task; or send expired_at through the API. Setting a past date on a completed task from the dashboard expires it right away.

Only completed tasks expire

If an open task's expiration date passes before the employee finishes, the task stays open and can still be completed.

Onboarded checks for expired tasks every six hours, so the status can change a few hours after the date itself.

What expiration does to a task

• It's marked Expired. If the employee opens it, they can view it but not edit it.

• It's locked, not deleted. It can't be reopened with Request Change, and its expiration date can't be changed. Expiration is one-way.

• It stops counting. Every placement for that employee that requires the form treats it as missing. Progress drops, a completed placement goes back to incompleted, and the form shows under Missing Tasks on the placement with an Assign button.

How the employee gets a new copy

• At their next placement. When a policy requires the form on a new placement, Onboarded skips expired tasks when it looks for one to reuse, so the employee gets a fresh task. See 📄 Understanding task reuse criteria.

• Through an automation. Build a task automation that watches the task's status, continues when task.status is expired on this form, and runs Create Task for the same form. Creating a task doesn't notify anyone, so follow it with Create Onboarding Link — set Onboarding Link Type to Employee, because Task links the expired copy — and Send Email.

• By hand. Use Create Task on the employee's record. The expired copy doesn't count as a duplicate, so it won't block you.

Expiration isn't a due date

A due date is a target for open work — an overdue task stays open and completable. An expiration date ends completed work. For a deadline on open work, use a due date. See 📄 Understanding task due dates.

Example

Take a staffing account whose application disclosure must be re-acknowledged yearly. It adds an expiration rule to the disclosure form using Relative Time set to 365. An employee signs on March 3. About a year later the task moves to Expired — and nothing goes out.

For most employees that's fine: they cycle through short assignments, and at their next placement the policy assigns a fresh copy.

The gap is employees on one long assignment — no new placement, no new copy. So the account adds an automation that creates a new disclosure task when the old one expires and emails the employee a link.

That automation repeats indefinitely: each new copy gets its own one-year expiration, expires, and triggers it again. Unscoped, it keeps sending to people who left long ago. So the account adds a condition that lets only current employees through. A task automation doesn't see placement details, so the limit sits on the employee — for example, an attribute its integration keeps current, such as employee.custom_attributes.employment_status.

Read next

• 📄 How do I send a reminder before a task expires?

• 📄 How do I assign a single form to an employee outside a policy?

• 📄 Understanding task reuse criteria

• 📄 Understanding task due dates

• 📄 Understanding Create Task vs. Create Compliance Requirement

• 📄 Understanding automations

• 📄 Automation triggers and actions reference

• 📄 Understanding placement status