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Hello. I am having some trouble with automations for email reminders.


I am using the formula below to create the condition that will be used in the automation. When entering the start date and time, I can’t seem to enter this information quickly enough without either a) the date appearing as a partial of the real date (eg “9/1” instead of “9/16”) and thus triggering an email immediately, or b) the auto-populated time for the date (the current time) appearing and thus triggering an email.


I can tell this is happening because the start time field appears in the email header as “9/1/2022” instead of “9/16/2022” for example.


Is there any way to get the system to give you a few seconds to enter things before jumping the gun?


Thanks!


IF({Start date}, VALUE(DATETIME_FORMAT(SET_TIMEZONE(NOW(), “America/New_York”), “YYMMDDHHmm”)) >= VALUE(DATETIME_FORMAT(SET_TIMEZONE(DATEADD({Start date}, -30, “minutes”), “America/New_York”), “YYMMDDHHmm”)))

Hi @KP217 ,


Welcome to Airtable Community !


What I usually prefer to do for such cases is entering the data via a form so it comes to Airtable as a complete set of data. But Im guessing you are changing the data in the {Start date} field later after the record is already created?


In such case, a formula to compare the Last modified time for the {Start date} field and NOW() can be helpful to trigger the automation so you can put a delay of 2 mins or so.

Hi @KP217 ,


Welcome to Airtable Community !


What I usually prefer to do for such cases is entering the data via a form so it comes to Airtable as a complete set of data. But Im guessing you are changing the data in the {Start date} field later after the record is already created?


In such case, a formula to compare the Last modified time for the {Start date} field and NOW() can be helpful to trigger the automation so you can put a delay of 2 mins or so.


Would you be able to get me started on that formula? The date/time functions are so cluttered it’s hard for me to visualize them. Thank you so much for your quick reply!

Would you be able to get me started on that formula? The date/time functions are so cluttered it’s hard for me to visualize them. Thank you so much for your quick reply!


Always my pleasure 🙂


What I would do, add a new field called Trigger with this formula


IF(AND({Start date},DATETIME_DIFF(NOW(),CREATED_TIME(),"minutes")>2),"Trigger")

This will result in adding the word “Trigger” in this field 2 mins after the time the record is created. You can also substitute the Created_Time() part with LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Start date})


Then in the automation add this condition 🙂

Great, this was so helpful. Thank you!

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