HubSpot Ideas

MichelleFink

Workflows: Date fields on Deal level and logic for those relative dates

We have come across a variety of business cases where the need for a workflow action that centers on a date property field within the deal level would be helpful. Our most common issue is that when the deal becomes closed/won, our work is not done. We have to continue to nurture that client and provide services to that client and would like actions to trigger based on certain periods of time. You can select specific dates in Hubspot but if you have deals closing on all different dates and those clients all have different needs, those check-in dates are all different.

 

One client might be attached to multiple deals at the same time and therefore, the ability to create workflows centering around a contact does not work. We need the workflow to follow actions made in the deal profile. Almost all of the date logic already exists in the contact workflows but does not exist in the Deal level. There is no current work around for this problem.

 

Scenario 1: Deal X becomes Closed/Won. We have a field called "Engagement Start Date" that lives on the Deal level and this is date picker.  This lives on the deal level because the deal is a service we provide the client. We want to create a simple workflow that says ok enroll if "Engagement Start Date" is known (this is already possible) + Send an internal or external email X number of days before that date + send an email X number of days after that date to check up on progress. We cannot use the closed/won date because they may pay us on the closed/won date but they are not actually requesting our services until an "engagement start date" which could be days, weeks, or months away and we need to be reminded to provide that service and follow ups etc.

 

Here is an example of a workflow I would make if I could. Enroll if Start Date is known AND enroll if 2 days before Start Date. As you can see in the options....there is no available logic to base a workflow on the actual date chosen in that field. I would then continue this workflow to send an email to an employee or a client. 

 

Screen Shot 2017-11-14 at 5.51.06 PM.png

 

Scenario 2: Maybe they don't pay us right away either and we need to create a workflow that asks for payment x number of days after closed/won date. This does not even exist....you have to pick an actual date which prevents this workflow from being applied to all deals that become closed/won.

 

Our business is directly relatable to this more basic example: say we are painting houses...one client owns 10 houses and they want them painted on certain dates that work for them. We need to know when to paint house #1, #2, #3...etc. So we create a field called "Paint Date" similar to the "engagement start date" example above and it has to live on the deal level because it's the same client but 10 different deals. House #1/Deal #1 is scheduled to be painted on 11/30/17 so we want to create a workflow that sends an email or auto creates a task for the painter and maybe one for the client with a reminder that they need to paint the house 2 days before the date the customer requested. Right now, the only option in Hubspot workflows is to select an actual date not a logic statement like this.

 

Here is an example of needing to create a workflow based on a completion date. I want to add the to parameters: X number of days after the completion date do this... I would continue this workflow by sending an internal email for an employee to check in with the client on how the job was done OR I could set it up to send an email directly to the client. This is not possible due to the inability to enroll in a workflow using date logic.

Screen Shot 2017-11-14 at 5.42.34 PM.png

 

We need options to use logic statements for date fields such as equal to or less than, equal to or more than, x number of days before and x number of days after a date field.

 

This feature would help deal management and it provides the company automation so that the sales team has more time to work with clients and less time trying to manually track their client needs. A related Hubspot idea can be found here. This looks like it might solve this problem but cannot find the property based workflow UI shown in diagram here- regardless, this is a date field on the contact level not deal level.

13 Replies
graceafon
Participant

Agreed, am trying to create a workflow and I want to create an If/Then branch in which the next action will only happen if they submit a form within 7 days of enrolment, but the only options I have are:

 

  • Rolling dates ("happened more/less than X days/weeks ago")
  • On or before date (fixed dates)
  • On or after date (fixed dates)
  • Between dates (fixed dates)
  • Number of times

So for my workflow to work, I would have to manually add a fixed date after the first enrolment. For the workflow to continue working in future without fixed dates, I would need an option like "between 0 to 7 days after action (e.g. email sent/enrolment)". Unless anyone knows of an existing solution I haven't explored??

 

When I tried to replicate what you were attempting to do, I saw that there are now "is more than" and "is less than" options which you might like to try - similar to the Rolling dates option I encountered, but I think what you need is "is exactly 2 days later"..

cbanks
Member

We are in the same position as the ideas posted above. I want to be able to direct my sales team to follow up with a customer to re-inspect a job "X" days after the job is completed or invoiced. Same to follow up with a customer thank you. I cannot seem to find the logic that tells a deal owner to follow up with the contact associated with the deal based on some lapse of time.  

graceafon
Participant

@cbanks Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe for your case you may be able to do it this way:

Enrolment criteria into Workflow: Job is completed/invoiced (based on a custom field)

  • Delay "X" days
  • Send internal email (to your sales team to follow up with customer)

Since they are only enrolled when the job is completed/invoiced, the +"X" days will be based on their enrolment date aka the job completed/invoice date

MrTMoney
Member

Agreed; flexible/relative deal-related date triggering for workflows is essential. @Hubspot there are numerous threads (in Community and Ideas) that all request this functionality.

mhancecands2
Participant

Yes, agreed I also need to create an automatic workflow that triggers a customter satisfaction email AFTER a custom date field on a deal.

Fredrikhoglind
Participant

This needs to be done so much! 

 

to be able to add more complex dats on ticket workflow. 

 

My example is like this, we put ticket in a pipeline and status Called "Reminders - Rented products" so when we rent out a produkt to a customer we put the ticket there and porperty "rented until date" is required to be set. Now i want to create a workflow thats reminds me on that day, that the time has expired. this is not possible today since the dates are only fixed dates or days from now and so on. 

 

I need to be able to in the workflow to set

date = date()

or

date = [Date Property]

 

And also build on top of that with rules like

2 days after [Date Property]

2 days before [Date property]

 

and so on. 

 

 

BastiSchuhl
Top Contributor

I fully agree with this idea. Deal Workflows should have the same functionalities as Contact Workflows when it comes to relative dates and workfows based on a certain date property.

sz9t52
Member


This is an important feature for me as well - I need to set a task - that is due two days before a Date Property on a Deal.  

 

For example - I have a 'Scheduled to Close' date property.  I need to schedule a review task - two days prior to this date - which Hubspot is not capable of doing at this time.

CSchulte5
Member

This is a highly important feature for our business. Much of what we do is very dependant of pre-set dates. 

 

We have contracts signed that specify dates for contingencies to be met up front & we've easily created date properties, but they do us little good right now. We create tasks based around these dates and the due date of the task needs to be an option in the workflow. 

 

For example, we need to send a survey to the client on the date picker property date. It would be nice if at the beginning of the workflow we could say "Create Task assgined to ___ for due date ___", which could be a deal property that would be placed. Or to say "If ___ then create task for ___ date"

NWolf
Member

Please make it happen, @hubspot 

 

So many of our tasks are based on X days after/before a date property, and each deal happens in a different time frame, this must be an option in the workflow!

Please take care of it ASAP.

Thank you

DKJ
Member

Wow Amazing automatic workflow sheet. can i implent this feature on paint for spraying furniture website. Because i have tried multiple solutions and it could not work for me.

vvenvena
Member

 

 

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we are supplier

so we can try to introduce us each other

 

     best regard

 

     ekan

 

vvenvena
Member

 

 

     hai

we know furniture 

perhaps we have the same vision about them

 

     regard

 

      ekan