Creating a year field that updates every year

One of the ways I kind of gotten around something like this is instead of starting with a formula field for year, start with a date field that defaults to today’s date. If you need to create a “2024” record, you can manually select a date within 2024, or it can default to a 2025 date (or 2026 in the future). Then DATETIME_FORMAT() that to isolate out just the year. 

Hey ​@Sean_Lake1,

I don’t think I am fully following, would you mind rephrasing?

Do you need to create records on an yearly basis that will make reference to the corresponding year? Is that it? Or should the same existing records get updated with the corresponding year as yeas pass by?

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

Good day Mike!

The first one.  So there would always be a Gold, Silver, and Bronze ranking, but a 20XX would be added based on the current year without overwriting the previous year’s Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

So as the year is updated, like 2026 comes along, then AT would create a Gold - 2026, Silver -  2026, and a Bronze - 2026….then someone could select that(manually) to assign to the person, and so on and so forth.

Ah, you could probably just set that as an automation that fires on 1/1. Use the at scheduled time trigger, every 12 months on the 1st starting on 1/1, and have it create the relevant records. You might have to split it up so there’s a record creation automation and then a following record update automation so it can pull the date, but figuring out a conditionality for that second one shouldn’t be hard.

Depending on how your users are interacting, you could also take that opportunity to archive the old tags and make them unselectable 

Exactly my point :D

If that is the case, then you’ll want to follow ​@DisraeliGears01 instructions above: You will want to use the scheduled basis trigger.

However, for the date, you can actually get the dynamic date on of the date/time on which the automation ran (AT seems to be down now, so unfortunately I cannot share a screenshot with you!)

Please let us know if you need further help setting that up.

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

Hi,
add script step
 

Create automation for every 12 months starting from 2026-01-01
Set three Create record actions, using value from script step.
When setting starting time, note that new Date( ) is UTC time. Just to avoid cases when, for example, your time is UTC+3, script starts at 02:00 2026-01-01 when UTC is 23:00 2025-12-31 and Year will be still 2025.
With USA time zones, nothing to worry about.

 

Sadly, scripting is not allowed by our Enterprise admin :( 

Thanks though!

Hey ​@Sean_Lake1 ,

The current logic will only work for the current year (e.g., 2025). If you want to update the UAI Level field, you’ll need to change the field type from formula to single-select text or single-select.

For past years (e.g., 2024, 2023), this will require a one-time setup using an Extension Script.

• One-time Extension Script for Past Years: Use an extension script to create records for past years (e.g., 2024, 2023).

For future years, here's the approach:

1. "Prev. YEAR" Formula: Create a formula column that calculates the "past year" (e.g., YEAR(TODAY()) - 1).

2. Automation: Set up an automation that triggers on January 1st each year to:

   • Find records for the previous year (filter as UAI Level contains Prev. YEAR).

   • Loop through each record and create a new record with the primary UAI Level field set to “Select - YEAR” (e.g., GOLD - 2026 when the automation triggers on Jan 1, 2026).

This will ensure both past and future statuses are handled properly!

Let me know if you need further details or help setting it up. If this works, please mark it as solved. 👍
You can also explore my services and connect with me on LinkedIn.

You can create formula field with YEAR(CREATED_TIME()) and hide it. 
then use it’s value instead of script. The trick is you cannot use it directly from ‘Create record’ but you can Find it and the step will re-read values
So, at scheduled time(1):
(2)Create new record with ‘GOLD - YEAR’
(3)Find records containing ‘YEAR’, limit is 1
(4)Update record from ‘Create step’, use …. well, that’s easier to show
use the same value from Find Records for other two ‘Create Record’ steps(5-6)