Having a dynamic 'today' field in the 'Time between' feature

[Achagnon1]

I'm in the process of setting up calculated properties to use the new "time between" feature in reporting, and realized that, in the 'time between' calculations for properties, I'd like to have access to the option 'today,' which would be a dynamic date set as the value of today's date.

That would allow me to track dynamically how long has it been since a deal has been created ('today' minus 'create date' = how far along we are in the sales cycle up till now). 

[Achagnon1]

Hi @Ruben_tB, appreciate the context. If you are creating properties to use in lists, you can replace it with the filters approach I detail in the video.

In the criteria for each list, you would create a filter like:

`First Order Date` more than `365` days ago AND `First Order Date` less than `730` days ago (for Year 1)

`First Order Date` more than `730` days ago AND `First Order Date` less than `1095` days ago (for Year 2)

etc

Hope that helps - let me know if I am missing something.

[Achagnon1]

Hey everyone! Jeff from the HubSpot product team. Thanks for the upvotes, comments, and survey submissions on this post. It's on me that we haven't responded as much as you would have liked. The Community means a lot, and (believe it or not) we read every comment.

I've been looking into this "dynamic time" challenge for a bit, and I think the solution most of you are looking for already exists - it might just be too hidden. I recorded a quick video walking through what I'm thinking (apologies it's not as "quick" as I'd like). Directions written out below. I welcome your response in the comments on this post - what did I miss? What use cases do you have that I might not be considering? Appreciate your insight.

When I've spoken to customers on this, the common needs are something like: "Fire a workflow when the 'renewal date' is in the next 30 days" or "Show me a report of everyone with a 'birthday' in the next 30 days", where renewal date and birthday are just examples.

To do that, try the following:

- Create a workflow on your object (in my example, Company is where "renewal date" is)

- Set the workflow to trigger "when criteria is met"

- Choose your date property (mine was "renewal date") and then look for the filter option "is less than" (maybe 2/3 down the list).

- In the "less than" filter settings, you can enter "days from now" or "days ago" - which both work off Today's date!

- Then add your other criteria and your action

I'm including a screenshot of the workflow and filter I used below. It's super simplistic - but it should give you an idea.

I hope (for some of you at least) this avoids the need for an intricate set of workflows to set a "Today's Date" property. Let me know in the comments if it helps, or if your use case would require something different. Really keen to learn more. We're interested in solving this problem, but its not at all easy to solve in Time Between properties (I so wish it was!) and I think this Filters solution gets at what a lot of you have been looking for.

Thanks for watching/reading and for your feedback.

Jeff

[Achagnon1]

Hi all!

It's Shay again from the Product Manager on the CRM product team.

Again, thanks to everyone for taking the time to submit, upvote, and comment on this Idea. We’re still reviewing this idea and trying to determine the best way to implement this in HubSpot. Turns out it’s a fairly complex engineering problem. To better understand all of the use cases for this type of field, we've created this survey and would very much appreciate it if you all could take a couple of minutes to fill it out.

Thanks,

Shay

[Achagnon1]

Hi folks,

I’m Shay Jones, the Product Manager on the CRM product team.

Thank you all for taking the time to submit, upvote, and comment on this Idea. We hear you loud and clear, and we agree that this functionality is important. We are currently evaluating if this Idea is feasible and, if so, how our team will implement it. 

Any news about this feature request will be relayed on this thread, so stay tuned!

-Shay

[Bausbrooks]

This would be such a game-changing feature. 

Currently trying to calculate the time left on a trial/subscription for each user and this is impossible without the bloated and mistake-ridden workarounds.

[slvale2]

Yes, please add this!

[LMcFarlane]

This field is essential, please add

[mitch8]

Hi all,

This is way more confusing that it should be!

It's baffling how we cannot report based on a date field matching the date of 'Today'.

I'm trying to build a workflow that will trigger when a customer returns a vehicle. 'Return date' is the property. Is anyone able to simplify how i can use the 'Return date' to kick start my workflow? I'd massively appreciate it!

I'd even be happy for it to trigger based on it being 1 day out as I'd be able to put a delay in to compensate this.

All the best 👍

[MValleskey]

You can do this, to get you by, but yes this needs to be added: https://community.hubspot.com/t5/CRM/How-to-create-a-Today-s-date-date-property/td-p/389836

[skhristich]

Is there any arrival date when this will be implemented?

[JoeGlenn]

Our company uses HubSpot and we like it. Their customer service on the
phone has always been excellent. But they seem to have just ignored all of
us on this topic. I've not even seen one response or update from HubSpot.
Maybe I missed it?

[RandyPeterson]

Please add this.

[DimitriAntoniou]

YES THIS! This would unlock so much value in viewing how long someone has been in their current stage!

[LYu]

Please add this.

[BJansen11]

Please, add this. It can't take too long to implement TODAY feature. It's essential to our analysis.

[DReyes815]

Echoing this idea - it's sorely needed for reporting and making use of the "Time Between" equation. Doesn't make it possible to create our own Days since _________ kind of properties

[MGan]

I've seen this requested by several customers. A today's date property is sorely needed. There is a workaround https://community.hubspot.com/t5/CRM/How-to-create-a-Today-s-date-date-property/td-p/389836 but it's added friction for our customer's exeprience!

[SGross27]

Upvoted!

Thanks for the workaround, too

[TmurphyParspec]

Any update on this? 

[CMcLaird]

We are considering an option with custom code, which appears to be an action available to us in workflows. Using javascript, our intent is to create timestamp fields populated by our first custom javascript code, dumping the date and time to a field. The second will calculate the difference in minutes between two timestamps, excluding non-business hours. If anyone has any feedback on this idea, please share. Or if anyone has done this already, this group would likely benefit from anything you can share.

[tmitch_sona]

Almost two years on from adding my voice to requesting this essential functionality at my old company, it still appears to be nowhere near coming to fruitition so I'm posting again from my new company. PLEASE Hubspot - this should be really basic functionality 🙏

[shajones]

Hi folks,

I’m Shay Jones, the Product Manager on the CRM product team.

Thank you all for taking the time to submit, upvote, and comment on this Idea. We hear you loud and clear, and we agree that this functionality is important. We are currently evaluating if this Idea is feasible and, if so, how our team will implement it. 

Any news about this feature request will be relayed on this thread, so stay tuned!

-Shay

[JoeGlenn]

Wow someone from HubSpot finally responded and acknowledged our request.

Thank you and please keep us advised.

[mvdbree]

@shajones Excellent to hear! Looking forward to an update.