# Remind the owner 30 days before a contract expires

A daily check that emails whoever owns a contract when its expiration date is within 30 days — a scheduled Content Query on a date field with a day offset, a message template, and a Send E-mail action — including the date math that makes reminders fire once instead of never or forever.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.8+ · Audience: catalog-administrator · Time: 25 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/workflow/remind-the-owner-before-a-contract-expires

**When you're done, Content Central checks every morning for contracts whose expiration date is within the next 30 days and emails the owner once about each one — then stays quiet until the next one comes due.**

```plan
scope: document-type
trigger: Content Query › Content in this Document Type | Query: by Field Value(s) · Field: Expiration Date · Field-Match Type: Less Than or Equal to (Current Date Plus Offset Days) · Offset Days: 30 · Process Interval: Every Day on Hour 6 · Reprocess Matching Records After: 60 Days
action: Send E-mail | Message Template: "Contract expiring soon" (Email, Workflow Access)
rule: "Contract expiring within 30 days → email owner", enabled
```

## The date math, in one paragraph

The trigger asks, on each run: *is the expiration date less than or equal to today plus 30 days?* A contract expiring on the 25th of next month starts matching 30 days before that and keeps matching every day afterward — including long after it has expired. Two settings tame that: **Reprocess Matching Records After** decides how long a document that already fired must wait before it can fire again (set it longer than your reminder window, so each contract gets one email), and the optional second trigger in Variations stops matching once the date has passed. Get the offset direction wrong (`Greater Than or Equal to` when you meant `Less Than or Equal to`) and the reminder can never fire for a future date — the most common reason "my reminder never sent."

## Build the message template

Create an **Email** template with **Visibility** `Workflow Access` whose **To** is the owner. If the owner varies per contract, put the owner-email field into **To** as an insert code; if it's one person, type the address. Use insert codes in the body for the contract name and the expiration date so the email says *which* contract and *when*. Details: [Customize notification message templates](/content-central/administration/customize-notification-message-templates).

## Build the trigger

1. Go to **Administration** > **Catalogs & Document Types**, pick the **Catalog** and the contract **Document Type**, click the **Workflow** tile, then **Triggers** > **New Trigger**.

2. **Type:** `Content Query` and `Content in this Document Type`. **Trigger Name:** `Contracts expiring within 30 days`.

3. **Query:** `by Field Value(s)`. **Return:** `All Matching Content (Multiple Records)` — every contract in the window, not just the newest.

4. **Field Evaluation:** `Selected Field Value(s)`. **Field:** your expiration date field.

5. **Field-Match Type:** `Less Than or Equal to (Current Date Plus Offset Days)`. **Offset Days (negative values allowed):** `30`.

6. **Process Interval:** `Every Day`, **on Hour** `6`, **on Minute** `0` — early enough to be in the morning's inbox. **Process Start:** `On First Interval`.

7. **Reprocess Matching Records After:** `60` `Days` — longer than the 30-day window, so a contract that already triggered isn't emailed again the next morning.

*[Screenshot: The date match type and Offset Days set the window; Process Interval sets the schedule; Reprocess Matching Records After is what keeps one contract from being reported every single day. Pick the "Content in this Document Type" sub-type so the query stays inside this type.]*

8. Click **Save**.

**What you should see:** a trigger with **Event** `Scheduled` in the Triggers list.

## Build the action

1. Click **Actions** > **New Action**. **Type:** `Send E-mail`. **Action Name:** `Email owner — contract expiring`.

2. **Scope Type:** where the template lives (`Document Type` or `Global`), then pick it under **Message Template:**. **Content Attachment:** `Do Not Attach` unless the owner needs the file. **Save**.

## Wire the rule

1. Click **Rules** > **New Rule**. **Rule Name:** `Contract expiring within 30 days → email owner`.

2. **Add Trigger:** `Contracts expiring within 30 days`. **Add Action:** `Email owner — contract expiring`. **Apply**.

## Test it — with one document, safely

1. Create one test contract with an expiration date **10 days from today**. Don't test on the live population: a wide window plus a fresh trigger would email about every contract that's already inside it on the first run.

2. Wait for the next scheduled run, or temporarily set **Process Interval** to `Every 5 Minutes` on the trigger, and set it back afterward.

**What you should see:** one email about the test contract, and the workflow rule in the document's **View History**. The next run should *not* email again about the same contract. If it never fires, walk through [A scheduled workflow didn't run](/content-central/workflow/scheduled-workflow-didnt-run) — it covers the server-date, interval, and offset mistakes in order.

## Variations

| Want this instead | Change this |
| --- | --- |
| Stop reminding once the contract has actually expired | Tick **Use Multiple Triggers**, **Combine Method:** `AND`, and add a second Content Query: same field, **Field-Match Type:** `Greater Than or Equal to Current Date` |
| A second reminder at 7 days | A second trigger with **Offset Days:** `7` and its own rule and template (subject "expires in one week") |
| Remind *after* a date has passed (overdue) | **Field-Match Type:** `Less Than or Equal to Current Date`, or `…Plus Offset Days` with a negative offset |
| Put it in a work queue instead of email | Action **Work Queue - Assign** to the owner ([recipe](/content-central/workflow/send-new-documents-to-a-teams-work-queue)) |
| Remind on the *document's* age, not a field | Trigger **Content Age** › **Age of Content in this Document Type** ([recipe](/content-central/workflow/delete-or-archive-documents-older-than-a-set-age)) |
| Weekly digest instead of daily | **Process Interval:** `Every Week` — and a report template ([Create a report that runs on a schedule](/content-central/reports-and-exports/create-a-report)) if you want one email listing them all |

## What's next

- [A scheduled workflow didn't run — or ran on everything](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/workflow/scheduled-workflow-didnt-run)
- [Delete or archive documents older than a set age](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/workflow/delete-or-archive-documents-older-than-a-set-age)
- [Customize notification message templates](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/customize-notification-message-templates)