Looking for advice on setting up Zapier Paths with time-based conditions

Other Questions Zapier
1

Hey everyone! I’m struggling to set up a Zapier workflow using Paths. My goal is to split tasks based on whether they happen during business hours or not. I’ve managed to get the current time using zap_meta_human_now, which gives me something like 2025-04-23 17:08:00 -0700. That part works fine.

The issue I’m facing is that the Path conditions aren’t triggering correctly when I try to set up time-based rules. I’ve tried different formats to represent 7 AM and 4 PM, but nothing seems to work.

// Example of what I've tried
if (current_time >= '07:00:00' && current_time <= '16:00:00') {
  // Business hours logic
} else {
  // Non-business hours logic
}

Does anyone know the right time format to use with Zapier Paths? Or am I missing something else in my setup? Any help would be awesome!

2

I’ve dealt with similar time-based conditions in Zapier, and it can be tricky. From my experience, the issue might be with how you’re comparing the times. Instead of using string comparisons, try converting the times to a numeric format.

Here’s what worked for me:

  1. Use the Formatter by Zapier to extract the hour from your timestamp.
  2. Convert the hour to a number.
  3. Use this number in your Path conditions.

For example:

  1. Extract hour: {{zap_meta_human_now | date_format('H')}}
  2. Convert to number: {{zap_meta_human_now | date_format('H') | plus: 0}}

Then in your Path, you can use conditions like:

{{step_result | plus: 0}} >= 7 && {{step_result | plus: 0}} < 16

This approach has been reliable for me in handling business hours logic. Hope this helps!

3

I encountered this issue before and found that standardizing the time format really helped. Instead of comparing time strings, I converted all times to Unix timestamps. This means you would convert your current time and your business start and end times using Formatter by Zapier. For example, you can format your current time as {{zap_meta_human_now | date_format(‘U’)}} and similarly convert your business hours. This numeric approach avoids potential timezone issues and makes the comparisons much more reliable. It ultimately simplified the logic in my Paths and improved the overall workflow.

4

hey mate, had the same prob before. try using the ‘format date’ action in zapier to change your timestamp to a 24-hour format. then you can compare it easier in the paths. something like {{formatted_time}} >= ‘07:00’ && {{formatted_time}} <= ‘16:00’. worked for me, hope it helps!