Automation - Add (and keep) date when Status changes

[Scott_Haiduc]

Hi- So I know just enough to be dangerous. To myself. So thanks for any help you can provide.

I am trying to time stamp records when the Status changes to Pending. I figured out the formula, but as soon as the Status changes from Pending to Published (the next step in the process), the time stamp goes away. I am trying to keep track of when writers submit their articles (marked Pending).

Is there any way to keep that time stamp - even when the Status gets changed from Pending to Published? Is there a better/smarter way to accomplish this?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Karlstens]

I personally use date fields that have restricted permissions applied that are updated by Automations with the time stamp for this process.

[Scott_Haiduc]

I understand about 34% of that. Any chance you have a link you can share (in the community or help section) or maybe some screenshots? Thanks for replying!

[Scott_Haiduc]

I have figured out the automation, but it looks like the only thing I can do is "Run a script." But I have no idea how to do that. I need to know Java to achieve my goal? I must be doing this wrong. Any thoughts?

[Karlstens]

I may have over thought this - as you can have a "Last Modified Time" column tied to your status column.

The result is a time updated everytime specified columns are updated;

That date could then be stamped into another date column using an Automation, say if you wanted to only capture a "Record First Modified" date/time - but not subsequent changes. The Automation would look something like this.

Anything more advanced, so long as you have a Pro account then you could also write a script using JavaScript and do lots of clever date updates, checks and comparisons - but, I don't think you'll need scripting for your immediate task.

[Scott_Haiduc]

I really appreciate your help on this. I'm so close. I'm just having an issue with the Update Record Configuration (see image #3).

I've got the Last Modified Time set. I've got the automation trigger set (see image #2).  

 

It's just the last few steps I keep getting errors on. I want to stamp the Last Modified Time into the Pending column (see image #1) when the Status is changed to Pending. Should this column be formatted as a Date or something else?

 

Again, I've got the modified time set, when the status changes to Pending it schedules...well, nothing because that's where I'm hung up. 

Thank you again for your help. So close.

[Karlstens]

For your circled Screenshot, you're needing to place the Record that's been matched from the Conditional Trigger - basically the automation is needing the details of the record that will have it's fields updated.

[Scott_Haiduc]

Okay, one last question and then I'm just going to manually enter the date every time a record is marked pending.

I did what I think you were saying, but I'm getting an error. Are my entries for Table, Record ID and Fields correct? Obviously, I have something wrong.

Sorry to keep bothering you with this. This will be my last message. Thanks again for all of your help.

[PeterE]

I guess you have solved this by now. I had the same problem and did like this. First I added a datefield to always update on status change. Then create a new datefield that you want for that speciell status. Then I made an Automation that looked for status and if status was the one speciell the I copied the time from the first datefield.