Serverside or subsequent user action

I need to check if an item is empty after a certain period or the next day, is there any way to do this in bubble without the user doing the action in the application? maybe create a trigger with action timing?

create a backend workflow that will check and then do what you need based on result of check. Once that is setup then all you need to do is schedule it to run after a certain period or the next day.

I see, does this scheduling need a user trigger to run the backend workflow? what would be the best performing practice?

What is it that you need to check, and what is it that happens prior to your need to check…whether it is a user interacting with your app or a webhook notification, something is going to trigger your need to check

Not necessarily, can be based on you doing it, or a webhook, or a database trigger change…lots of possible things.