How to create a 'Today's date' date property.

[OliviaB]

I recently discovered this smart way to create and maintain a 'Today's date' property using workflows. This can then be used in reporting, workflows and lists. 

To do this you can follow these steps: 
1) Create a custom date field property

2) Create a contact-based workflow with the enrollment triggers 'Today's date is known' OR 'Today's date in unknown'. 
3) Turn on re-enrollment for 'Today's date is known'. 
4) Add an if/then branch action with the trigger 'Today's date is known'. 
5) After the NO branch add the action 'set property value' and then set 'Today's date' to the 'date of step'. 
6) After the YES branch add the the action 'set property value' and then set 'Today's date' to the 'date of step'. 
7) The last steps after the YES branch will be a delay. To do this you will chose 'delay until a day or time' and then choose 00:15 or any other time after midnight. 

This workflow will then work in the backround to always make sure each contact has today's date saved as the value on their record. The same can be repeated for company and deal properties. 

[DColeman7 · Accepted solution]

I tried a few of the options in this post to get a reliablew "Today's Date" property on my deals. I didn't have luck for a long time!

However, I finally found a reliable solution which is to create a Scheduled Workflow, rather than adding in a delay. 

So before you create the workflow make sure you've chosen "Schedule" in the list. 

And then this workflow worked for me: 

Re-enrollment is on with all conditions. 

It updates daily and doesnt seem to slow my account. 

Hope it works for you! 

Thanks

Duncan

[stuartbalcombe]

[Updated from my previous reply] Steal this workflow to dynamically set a Today’s Date property without Ops Hub.

We’ll create 2 properties and 2 workflows to workaround a tricky HubSpot limitation so you can use Today’s date in reporting and calculated properties. Eg. Days until renewal.

🚨 Why are we creating 2 workflows?

To keep our Today’s Date property up to date, we need to run the workflow on the same object at least once a day…

But…

HubSpot now prevents us from enrolling a company in a workflow from within the same workflow.

Here’s how our solution works:

PRE-WORK: Create 2 properties:
→ Today’s Date - Date picker
→ Today’s Date Updated - Single Checkbox

1. Create our first workflow triggered when:
→ Today’s Date Updated is None
→ Today’s Date Updated is Unknown
*Turn on re-enrollment for the trigger

2. Set a delay for a set amount of time
→ This could be anything from 1 minute to 12 hours.

3. Set the property value of “Today’s Date” to the time of the workflow.

4. Set the property value of “Today’s Date Updated” to “YES”.
→ We’ll use this as the trigger in workflow 2.

5. Copy the newly updated “Today’s Date” value to all associated Deals, Tickets, or Quotes.
→ You’ll need to add a corresponding “Today’s Date” property to each object you want to copy to but this way you don’t need additional workflows.

6. Clone your new workflow and make a few tweaks
→ Update the 2nd workflow to be triggered when “Today’s Date Updated” is equal to “Yes”
→ Update step 4 above to set the value of “Today’s Date Updated” to “NO” in the 2nd workflow

And we’re all done. Our property will be updated at the interval we set with the current date in our accounts default timezone.

[CEW]

Who can clarify how to do this?  I swear I've tried every solution in here, except for Operations.  Is that the only way?

Please help.

[amandafann]

I was able to implement @CBader's workflow for Deals and it is working. I have not tried any of the Contact's solutions yet.  

[stuartbalcombe · Accepted solution]

It really is so crazy that “Today’s Date” isn’t a native value available globally in HubSpot. The workflow outlined in this post is a great workaround though. I recorded a quick video of setting it up, which hopefully is helpful to folks.

I find myself reaching for Today’s date a lot in reporting and other workflows. Here's are a quick example use case of building a custom report to get visibility into onboarding activity.

[stuartbalcombe]

[Updated Solution - January 2023] How to dynamically set a Today’s Date property without Ops Hub.

We’ll create 2 properties and 2 workflows to workaround a tricky HubSpot limitation so you can use Today’s date in reporting and calculated properties. Eg. Days until renewal.

🚨 Why are we creating 2 workflows?

To keep our Today’s Date property up to date, we need to run the workflow on the same object at least once a day…

But…

HubSpot now prevents us from enrolling a company in a workflow from within the same workflow.

Here’s how our solution works:

PRE-WORK: Create 2 properties:
→ Today’s Date - Date picker
→ Today’s Date Updated - Single Checkbox

1. Create our first workflow triggered when:
→ Today’s Date Updated is None
→ Today’s Date Updated is Unknown
*Turn on re-enrollment for the trigger

2. Set a delay for a set amount of time
→ This could be anything from 1 minute to 12 hours.

3. Set the property value of “Today’s Date” to the time of the workflow.

4. Set the property value of “Today’s Date Updated” to “YES”.
→ We’ll use this as the trigger in workflow 2.

5. Copy the newly updated “Today’s Date” value to all associated Deals, Tickets, or Quotes.
→ You’ll need to add a corresponding “Today’s Date” property to each object you want to copy to but this way you don’t need additional workflows.

6. Clone your new workflow and make a few tweaks
→ Update the 2nd workflow to be triggered when “Today’s Date Updated” is equal to “Yes”
→ Update step 4 above to set the value of “Today’s Date Updated” to “NO” in the 2nd workflow

And we’re all done. Our property will be updated at the interval we set with the current date in our accounts default timezone.

[boydjk88]

@stuartbalcombe thank you so much for this updated solution. So far it's working great for us. Here's a screenshot of each of our two workflows in case these are helpful for anyone else.

[RMietti]

@boydjk88 thank you for sharing these screenshots.

Could you share how did you setup the scheduling for this workflows?

Thank you!

[JOpie]

You could combine those into one: trigger would be known, unknown; then a if-then for yes and no/unknown. Why the 1 minute delay? 

[boydjk88]

@JOpie Re: the 1 minute delay -- We've run into issues with our workflows where too many fields are being updated at the exact same moment and Hubspot can't recognize the "new" data fast enough. In this example, the workflow is first setting the "Today's Date" field on the contact, then copying that field to other associated objects. Without a delay, Hubspot might not have processed the updated date fast enough and therefore wouldn't copy any new data over in steps 5-7. So I always add short delays like that into most of our workflows just to err on the side of caution and give Hubspot enough time to process the new data that's being relied upon for later steps in the workflow.

[JOpie]

Absolutely makes sense. I have a workflow when deals enter our confirmation stage that has a 1 hour delay: that allows the deal owner to finalise that deal stage (we often have very complex deals) without having the workflow immediately triggered and actions taken that the sales manager didn't want done until all the dots and crosses were taken care of.

[Amevian]

Yeah, I started with a 1 minute delay in these scenarios. After a long history and a lot of frustration, I'm now defaulting to a 3 minute delay (and that doesn't even get us to 100%).

[RMietti]

Hi @stuartbalcombe 

Thanks for colaboration!

Could you send a screenshot or video of this workflows? 

Thanks a lot!

[VRakitski]

Hi there,

I can't figure out why but it doesn't work for me with deals.
Enrollmentt happens once and 'Today's date' is no longer updated. What's wrong?

[Amevian]

From what I can tell, this method no longer works unless you have Operations. . .

[deanrenshaw]

That is mega @stuartbalcombe 

[kvonloesecke]

This is great! Thanks for sharing this video with us, @stuartbalcombe! 

[DColeman7 · Accepted solution]

I tried a few of the options in this post to get a reliablew "Today's Date" property on my deals. I didn't have luck for a long time!

However, I finally found a reliable solution which is to create a Scheduled Workflow, rather than adding in a delay. 

So before you create the workflow make sure you've chosen "Schedule" in the list. 

And then this workflow worked for me: 

Re-enrollment is on with all conditions. 

It updates daily and doesnt seem to slow my account. 

Hope it works for you! 

Thanks

Duncan

[Amevian]

Is this method still working for you? Mine is note. The workflow is not re-enrolling the contact into the workflow because the "Today's Date" property becoming known happens while it is still in the workflow. Therefore, it does not trigger re-enrollment. Did something change or have any of you found a workaround for this?

[boydjk88]

Thanks for providing this alternative solution @DColeman7. I just wanted to post for others reading this that I don't believe a scheduled workflow like this would be an option if you don't have Operations Hub Professional.

[DWoods]

Thanks @DColeman7. Any reason why the delay wasn't working?