The startDate indeed gets a value if the task is started. What you can do is - make sure the tasks is not auto created (see api/xsd) - create an action on task-node enter event that puts a 'trigger' on a (message) queue somewhere with a delay to create the task. afaik, most jms implementations support delayed delivery, so maybe that can be used, or maybe even jbpm timers... View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4123893#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...