Can I conditionally send emails based on the time the form was sent?

2) We would like to tailor the auto-reply email message based on the time a user sends the form (i.e. outside of business hours).
Is it possible to place a condition on the email auto-reply based on the actual (server) time the form was sent?

This should be achievable 😊 Here are all the things you need:

1. A Time Field added to your form, setup like this:

TIME FORMAT = 24 HOUR

DEFAULT = CURRENT

READ ONLY = ON

2. Have 2 separate Autoresponders - one for WITHIN BUSINESS HOURS and another for OUTSIDE BUSINESS HOURS.

Related guide: Creating-a-Form-Autoresponder

3. Then finally, the conditions needed. In my example, business hours is 8AM (8:00) to 5PM (17:00).

The logic is that:

IF Time is BEFORE 8:00 AND AFTER 17:00 THEN send the OUTSIDE BUSINESS HOURS email template

IF Time is AFTER 8:00 AND BEFORE 17:00 THEN send the WITHIN BUSINESS HOURS email template

Complete guide: How-to-Send-Email-Based-on-User-s-Answer 

Thank you for that!
However, please note one error in that logic.

Since the 24 hour (720 minute) day spans 2 calendar dates, while, to us, 22:00 is after 17:00 and before 8:00 (tomorrow), within the 1 day, it is both after 8:00 AND after 17:00.
So the day needs to be broken into 3 time slots: before hours, business hours, and after hours.
The day starts at 0:00 and finishes at 24:00.

So the conditional for Business hours uses AND.
The conditional for outside hours uses ANY.

Also for anyone using this, note that the business hours should use:
After 7:59
Before 17:01

Otherwise mails at exactly 8:00 and 17:00 fill fail.

Thanks again!

Hello WSIguy,

Thank you for pointing it out. I did check you form and found that you have already added this condition and changed the time accordingly. Please check the screenshot below:

 

Do get back to us if the conditions works as expected or you need some other changes.

We will wait for your response.

Thank you!

Correct. I added the appropriate conditions to the form.
I have tested it on both sides of the threshold, and it seems to be working fine.

Thanks for the help.

Bruce

Hello Bruce,

I am glad to know that you form is working as expected.

Do get back to us if you have any questions.

Thank you!