Set a date property as "x days after" day of step

[SmartAcre]

Hi, currently we are working on a new Free Trial experience, whereby users are now given 30 days to test out software and are then shut off after that period. 

When users sign up for a free trial, we would like to populate a Date Property that is "30 days after" the time they fill out that form. As far as I can tell, workflows can only set a date property on the day of the step, or a set date. Is there a way around this so we can use that "End Date" property to customize warning emails telling contacts that their trial is running out?

Thanks!

[DSelucky · Accepted solution]

Hello everybody,

this is quite a time after the question was posted, but let me exercise here one low key solution. 

I had a similar question and what happened is that I came up with 2 simultaneous automation at the same time - just for fun. 

The task at hand:

When the deal is created, let the salesperson pick the interval after which he will follow up with the deal based on its ripeness. Make sure the salesperson has the ability to change intervals as he goes.

Solution 1:

Create a simple workflow that once the picked interval is known, set the date of when the interval has been set. This date then being known triggers a workflow that based on the interval picked triggers its own workflow with a delay of the days that correspond to the interval. 

Each of the workflows has a goal set that when a property "Restart Timer" is "1" then the deal gets kicked out of the workflow, so it could then enroll again if needed to reset its delay. 

In the picture below there is this resetting property set to 1 and then to 0 again and then there is 15 minutes window for HS to realize it has been reset back to its default value. I tried originally 5 minutes, but HS sometimes didn't realize after 5 minutes that the property is back to 0 and it was kicking deals from the next pipeline right after it enrolled. So 15 minutes it is. 

See pictures below.

Solution 2: Create a property "Days Till Reminder" which will be basically just a number property that will update daily as a countdown of days till the reminder. Hook it to something that runs through the system daily to be sure it updates as important system properties update with it so you don't get some serious misalignment in data. 

I hooked it up with my "Today's Date".

And once it gets to 0 it's up to you if you set a new workflow that triggers a task, or that sends an internal email to your sales that its time to contact them or trigger your Paid Membership Pro integration to limit their access to your paid content. In my case, it is purely decorative so when our sales team opens the deal they see not only the interval that was picked and the start date but also how long till it's due. Needless to say, this value is being reset with the interval once the interval is set as per my first image. 

I know it's not much, but on our end, it's doing magic without any other integrations. We try to use as few as we can to keep data in one system, eliminate errors and eliminate costs for additional systems. 

[BLewty · Accepted solution]

Hi all, 

This is now possible through a HubSpot workflow but requires Operations Hub Pro or Enterprise. 

By using the 'Format Data' option, you can set a future date based on a present date.

Please see an example in this video or the workflow options below:

[Arlene]

Just to piggy back off of this. I used our zapier connection to do this. The steps were: 

Declare a trigger event. I used: [Contact Recently Created or Updated in HubSpot] and picked my "start date" as the property that I wanted to trigger this event. 

Then added a zapier filter to only continue if.... then set parameters for: Only trigger if start date does not contain "null" or end date contains "null". I did this so I didn't override what was already inputted manually in HubSpot.

I had to add another step to customize my data / time format so that it would change from the default "UTC" to my timezone "US/Central". Despite having my master settings updated, without this step, my date kept adjusting incorrectly. Instead of adding 90 days it would add 96 days... This corrected that issue, and I haven't had a problem since. 

Added a step to add the "data/ time" transform for "add/subtract" time. Since my identifier was a start date, I made that my input data and added "+90 days" as my expression.

Then sent it back to HubSpot but this time as the end date instead of the start date. 

Since this only helps with ongoing needs, to back date my data, I created a second zapier flow that was very similar, but it had a different starting trigger. 

First, I created a static list in HubSpot that I used as the trigger for this zapier flow. 
Second, I went into HubSpot and made a workflow that had the enrollment trigger as "Start Date" property is "known". Then enroll contact into static list. 
Third, turned on my zap. 
Fourth, turned on my workflow and enroll all eligible contacts. 

[RolfKaiser]

Hi Arlene,

I want to use this function to calculate the expiring date for a license. Unfortunately, I can´t find the Zapier app, although I am connected with Zapier (s. attachment).

 

What to do?
Thank you!
All the best

Rolf

[PamCotton]

Hi @Arlene 

Thank you for sharing with us your steps!

Kindly,

Pam

[Jeaniemparker]

Zapier is usually used to connect two applications. In this case it would be Hubspot and ???. Google Sheets maybe. Do I create a formula to add the 90 days?

Any additional help would be great.

Thanks.

[Hawk-Steve]

Hi Jeaniemparker

Zapier is capable of zapping within a single app, so a zap could do something in outlook when a outlook trigger happens for example.

Although in Hubspot's case and your desired result, hubspot actually has 2 different apps on zapier, Hubspot and Hubspot CRM (I don't know why!)

I created a zap as an example for what you might like:

• Trigger - Hubspot CRM - Deal enters stage (30 day trial active)
• Delay for 28 Days
• Action - Hubspot - Add contact to workflow (Email -- Your Trial ends in 2 days!)

I hope that makes sense? It's pretty long winded for something easily doable by Hubspot themselves. Maybe respond to this idea and kudos the OP to get this happening sooner? https://community.hubspot.com/t5/HubSpot-Ideas/Allow-the-use-of-relative-dates-in-workflow-smart-lis...

Steve

[Hawk-Steve]

Hi again Jeaniemparker!

Just having a think about this and I realise this can be done in hubspot workflows but without focusing on the date field in the trigger, instead using a deal stage as a trigger.

So the workflow waits until the contact enters a deal stage (Trial) and waits 28 days with the delay action before sending the contact the reminder email.

There is also the newer features in workflows to focus around a date instead. Allowing you to pre-action/delay the schedule and timing

[jdlaguyo]

Is this being developed for deal based automation as well? 

I would love to have the capability of automatically calculating projected dates from an initial date stamp of a deal property. This would be an invaluable thing for since we are a sourcing company and we have to know our dates from production to delivery. An adjustment at the anywhere on the timeline would have a compound effect on the entire project timeline and manually adjusting these dates is a tedious process.