Fusion People Hub

In Oracle Fusion HCM, a Flow Schedule formula is a Fast Formula with the formula type set to Flow Schedule. It is used when the standard scheduling options, such as once, daily, weekly, or monthly, are not flexible enough for the business requirement. Instead of selecting a fixed frequency, the formula calculates and returns the exact next date and time when the flow should be submitted again.

This is useful for integrations, extracts, and automation flows that need to run on a custom frequency. For example, a flow can be scheduled every five minutes, every two hours, only on weekdays, or based on a payroll period rule. The formula gives administrators more control over recurring execution than the delivered scheduling options.

The key input used by this formula type is SCHEDULED_DATE, which represents the date and time used to schedule the current or previous flow run. Some examples also include SUBMISSION_DATE, which represents the original date and time when the flow was submitted. The formula must return NEXT_SCHEDULED_DATE, which tells Fusion HCM when to submit the next instance of the flow.

For this blog’s automation, the flow schedule formula adds a small decimal value to the scheduled date to calculate a five-minute interval. Since the ADD_DAYS function works in days, five minutes is represented as approximately 0.0034722 days. This means the next scheduled run is calculated as the previous scheduled date plus five minutes.

Formula Example –

/*****************************************************************************
FORMULA NAME: 5-Minute Flow Schedule
FORMULA TYPE: Flow Schedule
DESCRIPTION: Formula to return the next date/time every 5 minutes.
*******************************************************************************/
/* Inputs */
INPUTS ARE SUBMISSION_DATE(DATE), SCHEDULED_DATE(DATE)
/* Calculations 5 Minutes */
NEXT_SCHEDULED_DATE = ADD_DAYS(SCHEDULED_DATE, 0.0034722)
/* Returns */
RETURN NEXT_SCHEDULED_DATE
/* End Formula Text */