How to Automate an Updated Date based on Single Select Change

[Dani]

I was wondering if there was a way to create an automation where when I update a single select (from In Process to Complete), if an automation could be done to update the date column to TODAY(). I would like to do this without changing the date on previous completed assignments, is this possible?

[Justin_Barrett]

Welcome to the community, @Dani! :grinning_face_with_big_eyes: While you can’t use a formula function in an automation, you could create the value in another field and copy it over. For example, make a last modified time field that only tracks changes to that single select status field. Set up the automation to trigger on a condition: when that status field value changes to “Complete.” An “Update record” action would copy the date from the last modified time field—which would reflect the precise time that the change was made—to your static date field.

[Dani]

In that case, would my recordID for the action event be the “record from step one” button presented attached to the last modified column and the field be my date column? When I directly select those, the test fails and says the inputs are invalid.

[Justin_Barrett]

For the “Record ID” field, you’ll pick the ID of the record from the trigger step.

Record (from Step 1: ...) --> Airtable record ID

In the “Fields” section, you’ll select your date field, then fill that field (using the blue + button on the end) with the “Last modified time” field value from the trigger step.