---
title: Configure a date trigger
description: Set when a date trigger fires relative to the employee's date, how often it repeats, and understand what the reference date will be.
sidebar:
  order: 2
area: flows
feature: automations
appPath: /flows/home
lastVerified: 2026-10-22
version: "2026-10-16"
audience: admin
related:
  - flows/automations/trigger-catalogue
  - flows/automations/scheduling-internals
  - flows/automations/tutorial-birthdays-and-anniversaries
  - flows/automations/prevent-repeat-enrollments
intercom:
  - id: "11987518"
    title: Select the Right Trigger for your Flow (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/11987518-select-the-right-trigger-for-your-flow-pyn-2
    note: draws on
  - id: "12651319"
    title: Using Triggers in Pyn (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/12651319-using-triggers-in-pyn-pyn-2
    note: draws on
  - id: "6024165"
    title: Enable the Birthday Moment Automation
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6024165-enable-the-birthday-moment-automation
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
---

Date triggers run off a date on the employee record: **Start Date** for the lifecycle and anniversary triggers, **Termination Date** for Off-boarding, **Birthday** for the birthday templates, and any other date property you choose under **Employee Properties**. You set two things on the **Configure** tab: when the flow starts relative to that date, and how often it repeats.

## Before you start

- The automation has a date trigger. The trigger card shows the trigger's emoji and a line such as **the day of** just once.
- Decide whether you want the flow to start early. Starting a week before the date does not move the reference date: steps are still scheduled around the date itself.

![Configure sets when a date trigger starts and how often it repeats.](https://support.pynhq.com/media/flows/automations/flows-automations-trigger-configure.png)

## Steps

1. In Pyn, open **Flows** in the left navigation, then **Automations**, and select the automation. Select the trigger card at the top of the canvas if the drawer is not already open on **Configure**.

2. Read the first line: "This flow runs based on the employee's **Start Date**" (or the field you chose). For Birthday it adds "This is the birthday on the Employee Record."

3. Under **This flow starts**, open the menu and pick an offset: **2 weeks before**, **1 week before**, **the day before**, **on the day of**, **the day after**, **1 week after**, **2 weeks after**, **1 month after**, **2 months after**, **3 months after** or **6 months after**. The menu also lets you type a custom number of days, weeks or months.

4. Under **the Employee's Start Date** (the label names the field), choose the recurrence: **just once**, **every year**, **every year after the first**, **every other year**, **every 2 years**, **every 5 years** or **every 10 years**. A Birthday trigger offers **every year** only.

5. Select **Publish**. Date triggers are evaluated on every HRIS refresh and on a background pass about every six hours, so the first enrollments appear within a few hours of publishing when someone's date matches today.

> **Note:** Recurring options count from the date's own year. **every year** fires on the first anniversary and each one after; the start date itself is year 0 and never fires. **every year after the first** skips year 1, so a joiner's welcome flow and an anniversary flow never land on the same day. **every other year** is years 1, 3, 5; **every 2 years** is years 2, 4, 6.

## What the reference date will be

The reference date is the employee's date itself (projected to the matching year for a recurring trigger), not the day the trigger fired. A flow set to start **1 week before** an anniversary has the anniversary as its reference date, so a step scheduled **on the day of** lands on the anniversary and a step **7 days before** lands on the day the flow started. [Scheduling internals](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/scheduling-internals/) explains the window and adjustment rules behind this.

## What you should see

The trigger card summarises your choices, for example **1 week before** every year after the first. Once published, employees whose date matches appear under [Enrollments](https://support.pynhq.com/activity/enrollments/) with the matched date as their **Reference Date**.

## Related

- [Trigger catalogue](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/trigger-catalogue/) for the default offset and recurrence of each date trigger.
- [Scheduling internals](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/scheduling-internals/) for windows, adjustments and the one-day minimum between re-enrollments.
- [Birthdays and anniversaries](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/tutorial-birthdays-and-anniversaries/) for a complete worked example.
- [Prevent repeat enrollments](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/prevent-repeat-enrollments/) for what happens when a date is corrected.

## Related Intercom articles

- [Select the Right Trigger for your Flow (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/11987518-select-the-right-trigger-for-your-flow-pyn-2) — draws on
- [Using Triggers in Pyn (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/12651319-using-triggers-in-pyn-pyn-2) — draws on
- [Enable the Birthday Moment Automation](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6024165-enable-the-birthday-moment-automation) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference