Applies to

Smartsheet
  • Pro
  • Business
  • Enterprise

Capabilities

Who can use this capability

  • Owner
  • Admin
     

Work with the Record a date action

Use the Record a date action to set the date when a workflow is triggered. 

Who can use this?

Plans:

  • Smartsheet
  • Pro
  • Business
  • Enterprise

Permissions:

  • Owner
  • Admin
     

Find out if this capability is included in Smartsheet Regions or Smartsheet Gov.

To record a date when a workflow triggers:

  1. Go to Automation > Create from template...
  2. In the Sheet change section, select Record the date when specified criteria are met > Use Template.
  3. Enter a name for your workflow. 
  4. Configure what triggers the workflow. 
  5. Select the date field where you want to record the date.
  6. Select Save

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. Also, Resource Management locks the date columns it uses to calculate start and end dates. Those columns aren’t available for the Record a date action. 

Record a date is a terminal action, and it doesn’t accept any other conditions or actions in the workflow.

Keep the following in mind

  • The sheet owner’s personal account settings define the time zone of the date set.
  • If someone deletes or changes a Record a date workflow’s target date field to another column type, the workflow gets deactivated, and sheet admins receive an email notification.
  • 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 can’t set start and end dates automatically calculated by predecessor or parent roll-up dependencies.
  • Each time a Record a date workflow triggers, it overwrites any previously recorded date value.
  • Update cell actions need time to update the sheet, especially if multiple workflows exist. 
  • The Record a date action is a terminal action, meaning no additional actions can be added to the workflow after it.

To avoid creating endless loops, Smartsheet doesn't initiate the Record a date action when the trigger cell includes cross-sheet formulas or are linked to other cells. To work around this, use time-based automation or recurrence workflows. 

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