How do I send a reminder before a renewal, expiry or event date?

Some work is due on a date that belongs to one customer: a renewal, a permit or policy expiry, a wedding or move date, a filing deadline, a service that is due. Keep that date on the customer and an automation can act a set number of days before it, on the day, or after it, without anyone keeping a calendar in their head. Automation rules are on Pro and up.

Add a date field

You name each kind of date once, for example "Renewal date" or "Permit expiry".

1. Open TMS, then Setup, then Automations, and click New automation.
2. Pick the trigger "A date on the customer".
3. If you have no date field yet, click Add a date field, type a name like Renewal date and click Add. The new field is picked for you. You can also make one under Settings, then Inbox, then Custom attributes, with Applies to Contact and the Date type, see How do I add extra fields to a conversation, like an order number?

Keep the name to 64 characters or fewer, using letters, numbers, spaces, underscores or hyphens.

Fill the date in on a customer

1. Open the customer's page. Once you have at least one date field, a Dates card shows a box for each one.
2. Pick the date and click Save.

A customer with no date in the field is skipped by the rule.

The AI can fill a date in from a chat

If a customer tells your AI assistant their wedding or renewal date in full, the AI can save it into the matching date field on their record. It only does this when it is sure it is really that customer writing, so a message it cannot tie to the customer never changes their record. It only fills a date field you created, never any other field, and it asks first when the year is unclear. The conversation's grey note says an AI action was done, and the date appears on the customer's Dates card, where you can change it by hand. Be aware that a date it saves can start your date reminders, which may message the customer.

Build the rule

1. In the same New automation window, pick the Date field.
2. Under When, choose Before, On the day or After. For Before and After, enter the number of days, from 1 to 365.
3. Under Repeat, choose Only once or Every year. Only once needs the whole date to match. Every year uses the month and day, from the year of the date onward.
4. Pick an action and write the message or task, the same as any other rule, see How do I send an automatic text, email or task when something happens? Complete task is not offered here, because a date has no task to finish.
5. Save. Your list of rules shows it in plain words, for example "30 days before Renewal date, every year".

You can have several date rules at once, for example one 30 days before and one on the day.

When it goes out

The rule is checked once a day. A text, email or WhatsApp message goes out at 9 am in your business's timezone, the one set under Settings, General, and a message never goes out outside 9 am to 9 pm. A customer who has opted out gets no message. Creating a task and notifying a staff member still happen, because they never reach the customer. If you change a customer's date, the rule uses the new date from then on.

Deleting a date field

A date field that a rule uses cannot be deleted. Under Settings, then Inbox, then Custom attributes, the delete is refused with "This date field is used by 2 automation rule(s). Change or delete those rules first." (the number is how many rules use it, switched on or off). Delete or change those rules under TMS, Setup, Automations, then delete the field. A field no rule uses deletes as usual. Dates already saved on customers stay on them, but are no longer shown in the Dates card.

What it does not do

• A date entered after its day has passed is not sent late. The rule only acts on the day it names.
• A 29 February date acts on 28 February in the years that have no 29 February.
• It does not add a time of day. Every message goes at 9 am your time.