# Control when messages and forms expire
URL: https://docs.awellhealth.com/docs/design-care-flows/message-and-form-expiration

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.awellhealth.com/llms.txt).





In a care flow that runs for months, patients don't always answer on time. A "month 1 follow-up"
completed in month 3 can write its data into the wrong place, which is worse than not collecting it.

**Action expiration** skips a message or form automatically once a period has passed.

## Turn expiration on and set a timeframe [#turn-expiration-on-and-set-a-timeframe]

1. Open a **Message** or **Form** action in the care flow.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the action configuration.
3. Toggle on **Enable action expiration**.
4. Set the timeframe: a value and a unit (minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years).

<img alt="Action expiration switched on, set either as a delay or relative to a reference date" src="__img0" />

Expiry can count from the activity's start time or from a reference date held in a data point, which has
to be available when the activity starts.

## Don't expire a form the flow's logic depends on [#dont-expire-a-form-the-flows-logic-depends-on]

> Where a form collects a data point used in conditional logic or as a timing reference later, expiring
> it leaves that data point empty, and the logic that reads it fails.

The flow doesn't error; it takes the wrong branch or waits forever. Before expiring a form, check
whether anything downstream reads what it collects.

Expiration suits reminders, optional check-ins, and anything time-sensitive enough to be pointless
late, but not intake forms.

## Expired actions show as expired in the activity feed [#expired-actions-show-as-expired-in-the-activity-feed]

Awell handles expiration itself, so a care team can tell "the patient didn't respond" apart from "still
waiting".

## Next steps [#next-steps]

Collecting the data in the first place is covered in the forms pages of this section.