Date and time modification tool

Date and time modification is an Albato tool that adjusts a date or time received from an earlier automation step.

It is useful when the next app expects a different time than the source provides. For example, you can:

• set a specific hour, minute, or second;
• add or subtract minutes, hours, or days;
• calculate a due date before creating a task in a CRM.

What you need to know

The tool separates values that replace part of a date from values that add or subtract time.

• Set hours, Set minutes, and Seconds to set replace the corresponding part of the original time.
• Add days, Add hours, Add minutes, and Number of seconds to add increase the original value.
• The subtraction fields decrease the original value by the specified number of days, hours, minutes, or seconds.

For example, if the original time is 10:30 and you enter 15 in Add minutes, the resulting time will be 10:45.

The tool returns the result in the Changed date and time variable. You can map this variable to a date or time field in the next step.

Example: schedule a HubSpot follow-up task

In this example, a new Facebook lead is added to HubSpot as a contact. The automation also contains an immediate HubSpot task. We will calculate a time 15 minutes after the lead was created and use it as the due date for a second follow-up task.

The immediate task is optional. The important part of this setup is that Date and time modification comes before the HubSpot task that uses the modified value.

Step 1. Add the tool

Click the plus icon where you want to calculate the new task due date.

Find and select Date and time modification.

Step 2. Configure the new date and time

In Date and time to change, select Creation date and time from the Facebook Lead Ad trigger.

Enter 15 in Add minutes, then click Save.

Albato will now return a new value in Changed date and time every time the automation runs.

Step 3. Use the result in HubSpot

Add the HubSpot action Create new task after the tool.

In Task due date, select Changed date and time from the Date and time modification step.

Complete the remaining required task fields and click Save.

The resulting automation may look like this:

Now you can calculate a new date or time and use it as the due date for a HubSpot task. If you have any questions, contact our support via chat in your Albato account.