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I'm creating an automation workflow for new onboarding employees and have encountered a challenge regarding delays and thread replies in Slack.

Here’s my current general workflow:

1. A Google Form response is filled out with new employee details.
2. The Zap calculates the starting day based on when the form was submitted.
3. Conditions are applied (e.g., the contract type and whether it's within 30 days).
4. Python code is used to clean whitespace and translate names to English.
5. AI verifier to check if the transliterated name is correct.

6. The information is sent to Slack as a precautionary message (including:

  • Original full name
  • Translated name
  • AI-verified full name
  • Account ready to be created with email build from the previous steps (AI-verifiedfullname@domain.com).

7. Once the message is posted in Slack channel, we respond with a ✅ or ❌ emoji to approve or reject the data:

✅ : Zap continues down the account creation path.

❌ : We manually verify the email and provide an updated email address in the thread by writing: UPDATED EMAIL: example@domain.com

8. After posting the message, the Zap is set to wait for 24 hours for our Slack thread reply. This delay is problematic for two reasons:

  • If the form is filled out on Friday, and we only check on Monday, the weekend delay causes issues.
  • If the onboarding needs to be quick (e.g., today for tomorrow), the 24-hour delay will halt the process.

In this thread reply the “UPDATED EMAIL: example@domain.com” will be extracted and used in further steps for account creation.

The issue:

I need a way to delay the Zap for some time and immediately after a reply is received, automatically continue as soon as we reply to the Slack thread, whether it’s 5 minutes or 5 days after the message is posted. I want the Zap to be flexible enough to adapt to varying reply times without interrupting the process.

Q:
How can I simulate a dynamic delay in a Zap that automatically continues after a reply is posted in the Slack thread, even if the delay is longer or shorter than the initial 24-hour wait?

Are there any alternative approaches to managing thread replies and delays in this type of workflow without creating an over complex and not efficient series of paths or steps?

Thanks in advance :)

Hi ​@noel167,

It looks like you’ve reached out to our Support Team about this and they replied with a suggestion. I’ll share details of the suggestion here in case it’s helpful:

rom what you've described, it seems you're trying to create a dynamic delay in your Zap that resumes as soon as a reply is posted in the Slack thread, regardless of whether the delay is longer or shorter than the initial 24-hour wait.
 
The best approach would be to split the workflow into two Zaps:

  1. The first Zap triggers when a Google Form response is submitted and posts a message in the Slack channel.
  2. The second Zap starts when a reply is posted in the Slack thread (using Slack's "New Message Posted to Channel" trigger with a filter for thread replies).

 
This setup removes the need for a delay, as the second Zap runs immediately when the reply is received, regardless of timing.
 
It would be great if you can give this a shot and let me know if you have any other questions!

If you’ve got any questions regarding their suggestion it would be best to continue the conversation with them over email. If you can’t locate their reply I’d recommend searching your spam/junk folder or searching your inbox for any emails from zapier.com in case. Sometimes their emails can end up in the spam/junk folder by accident.

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