CONTENT: Day Counter Custom Fields

What is a Day Counter?

A Day Counter is a special type of Custom Field that nobody types into. You point it at one of the record's own date fields, and it shows how long ago that date was, or how long until it: today, 1 day ago, 128 days ago, in 1 day, in 12 days.

It picks the direction itself, and it is correct every day without anyone touching it, because the count is worked out from the date each time it is shown. Use it for anything you measure in days: how long since a client finished their program, how many days until a filing deadline or a renewal, how long since you last spoke to a client.

Day Counters are available on every account, with no plan or add-on required. Anyone allowed to manage Custom Fields can create one.

How do I create a Day Counter?

A Day Counter works as a pair: a date field you already have, and the Day Counter that counts from it.

Navigate to Flyout Menu > Custom Fields and click the Manage Custom Fields tab.
Click + Add Custom Field.
Choose the Usage (the kind of record, for example CRM > Contacts).
Set the Type to Day Counter.
Under Count from, choose the date field it should count from, give the field a name, and save.

That is the whole setup. There is no formula to write. Every existing record that has a date shows its count straight away; nobody has to open or re-save records.

A Day Counter is available on every kind of record that has Custom Fields: Contacts, Company (Public and Private), CRM Target, Organization, Your Staff/Team, Work Request, Work Request Item, Projects, and Support where Support is enabled. Count from lists only the date fields of the same kind of record.

TIP: If the kind of record you chose has no date field yet, the window says "Add a date field to this kind of record first, then choose the date to count from." Create the date field first, then come back.

How does the count read?

A date in the past reads as the days since it: 128 days ago.
A date in the future counts down: in 12 days.
Today's date reads today.
No date shows Not Provided on Staff screens, never a misleading zero.

The count moves on at midnight in your account's own timezone. You never choose the direction or the wording; both follow from the date.

If a date was stored in a shape that cannot be read, Staff see a short note instead of a count: "The date this counts from is not in a recognised format. Correct it to see the count." Clients never see that note. Correcting the date starts the count at once.

Where do I see the count?

Your Staff see a Day Counter wherever they read a record's fields:

The Contact or Company details panel and the full field list beside it.
The Quick Edit (Data View) window, where the count is shown and cannot be edited.
Work Requests.
The Custom Data panel on Contact and Company list cards, for each Staff member who chooses the field for their cards.

Showing it on list cards

On the Contacts or Companies list, click Customize Cards and switch on up to 10 Custom Fields. Each card then has a Custom Data button that opens those fields, Day Counters included, in a side panel. In the same window you can rename the button, show a count of how many chosen fields hold data, and color that count by completion. These choices are personal: only you see them.

How do my Clients see it?

A Client sees a Day Counter only where you put it.

On their own profile: edit an existing Day Counter and switch on Show on the Client's Profile (Read-Only). Your Client then sees the field under their other fields, as plain text in your branding that they cannot edit. The switch is off for every new field, and off again whenever a field is duplicated or copied.
In your content: use the field's Dynamic Data Placeholder in portal pages, dashboard blocks, announcements and emails. Each Day Counter has two: its usual placeholder reads as the wording (128 days ago), and a twin with Days added to the end of its name reads as just the number of days (128). For example, a field named Days Overdue offers {{DaysOverdue}} and {{DaysOverdueDays}}.

The number is positive for a date in the past and negative for one in the future. When the date is blank, both placeholders produce nothing.

TIP: A Day Counter on Contacts, Companies, Private and Targets can be limited with Visibility (Circles), just like any other CRM Custom Field. A Client outside the chosen Circles does not see it.

How do I filter a list by a Day Counter?

On the Contacts or Companies list, open the filters and choose the Day Counter under Custom Fields. It offers six plain choices:

Within the Last N Days
More Than N Days Ago
Today
Within the Next N Days
In More Than N Days
Has No Date (a blank or unreadable date)

N can be up to 36,500 days. Save the filter and it keeps returning the right records every day, for every record you have now and every record you add later. For example, a saved filter "Within the Next 7 Days" on a shoot date is always this week's shoots.

How do I use a Day Counter in an Automation?

EVERY trigger: a Day Counter can be a condition, in any of the six choices above, and it is checked afresh each time the trigger runs. For example: every Monday, for clients More Than 90 Days Ago since their last check-in, create a follow-up task.
On the day it reaches day N: under Today's Date EQUALS, choose Calculated Date and pick the Day Counter. It fills in the counter's date counted forward, so "day 90" is that date plus 90 days. It fires once per record, on that day. A day missed while the Automation was off is not made up.

Day Counters are offered for Contact, Company, Private and Your Staff/Team counters. Automations that run when a field's value changes do not offer them, because the count changes with the calendar, not with an edit.

How do I use a Day Counter in a Calculation?

A Calculating Custom Field can use a Day Counter's number of days. In the formula, write the counter's placeholder with Days added, for example {{DaysOverdueDays}} * 5. Ten days after the date that reads 50; the next morning it reads 55, without anyone opening the record.

The result changes the moment the record's date changes, and is worked out again once a day, just after your account's midnight.
A record with no date gets no result, not a made-up zero.
If a Number field and a Day Counter answer to the same placeholder, the Number field wins.
A formula that also uses [[current_value]] is only worked out when the record changes, not daily.

If a Calculation's formula cannot be worked out, Staff see a Not Updating marker beside its value, with the reason, and the value shown is the last one that worked.

What happens if I delete or change a Day Counter?

Before anything changes, the platform tells you which Calculation fields would be affected and names them:

Deleting a Day Counter clears the results of every Calculation that uses it, on every record, rather than leaving them frozen at the last count.
Deleting the date a counter counts from names the counter and the Calculations that use it; their results are cleared too.
Changing a Day Counter's Field Type asks you first, and names the Calculations that will stop updating. Those keep their last value.

Renaming the date field keeps the counter pointed at it. Duplicating a counter keeps its date. Copying a counter to another account, or taking one from the field library, points it at the date field with the same name there.

IMPORTANT: If the date field a counter counts from is deleted or changes type, the counter shows nothing on every record, and its settings say "Source missing: {name}. Choose a date field to count from." Choose a date under Count from to bring it back.

What can't a Day Counter do?

Nobody can type a value into it: not on the record, in Bulk Edit, in an import, through an Automation's "set Custom Field value", or through the API.
It counts one date against today. Any other arithmetic on the count happens in a Calculation that reads it.
It counts from a date on the same kind of record only.
The passing of days records no history and fires no Automation by itself; use the Automation choices above to act on a count.

Where else does the count go?

The API, webhooks, Zapier, spreadsheet exports, the Reporting Toolkit and the Support Ticket side panel carry a Day Counter as a signed number of days: positive for the past, negative for the future. A blank or unreadable date sends an empty value, never a zero.

CLICK HERE to learn about Custom Fields

CLICK HERE to learn about Dynamic Data Placeholders