Applies to
Smartsheet
- Pro
- Business
- Enterprise
Capabilities
Who can use this capability
The sheet Owner and Admins can add Record a date actions.
Set the current date with the Record a date action
Use the Record a date action to set the current date when a workflow is triggered. The sheet owner's personal account settings define the timezone of the date set.
Get started with the Record a date action

Create a Record a date workflow
- Select the Automation > Create a Workflow.
- Inside the workflow editor, scroll down to the action selector and choose Record a date.
- On the Record a date action block, choose a Date field. The Record a date action type only sets dates into date columns. A message appears if there aren’t any date columns on the sheet.
If someone deletes or changes a Record a date workflow’s target date field to another column type, the workflow gets disabled, and sheet admins receive an email notification.
Keep the following notes in mind when setting up actions:
- In cell history and activity log, you see the change attributed to Smartsheet Automation.
- Record a date is a terminal action, and it doesn't accept any other conditions or actions in the workflow.
- Smartsheet doesn't currently support relative dates (5 days from today, 3 days ago).
- Record a date cannot set start and end dates that are automatically calculated by predecessor or parent rollup dependencies.
- Each time a Record a date workflow is triggered, it overwrites any previously recorded date value.
- To prevent infinite approval loops, cells containing cross-sheet formulas or cell links don't trigger automations that automatically change the sheet (Move Row, Copy Row, Lock Row, Unlock Row, Approval Request, Record a Date, Assign People, Change Cell, Clear Cell). To work around this, consider using time-based automations or recurrence workflows.
- Update cell actions need time to update the sheet, especially if there are multiple workflows.