Due Dates in Automators

Question

I’m wondering how other firms work with due dates that change based on task completion.

Currently, we only have the option in an automator to change the due date to x amount of days after the automator is triggered. Logically, it would only make sense to set a specific day.

For example, a personal tax return has a due date of April 15. However, when the task “Extension” is done, the due date now changes to October 15. With the current setting, because I can only set the due date an amount of days later, it won’t give an accurate due date since I will be completing the task “Extension” on different days.

Changing due dates for hundreds of work items manually is a real pain.

Any ideas?

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Best answer by DianeK 28 April 2022, 16:47

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DianeK · Accepted Answer

We leave all our due dates as the original 4-15 for personal and Corporate returns and 3-15 for partnership and S-Corp returns. We then have Automators within the work that will reset the dates when triggered. Once we receive all the tax documents and the return moves to preparation, an Automator sets the due date to 14 days later. Once preparation is completed, the return moves to review and the Automator changes thedue date to 7 days later. This allows us to track where things are going over the time budget and why. Is it us or are we needing additional information from the client?

max · Answer

Hi @Dee G! That’s a great question.The Karbon Dev team are considering adding government due dates as an additional way to track work so that the actual date you want to complete the work isn’t mixed up with the legal deadline of the work.In lieu of an additional due date, you have some options:Leave the due date as 4/15 (this is what our firm does)We want to complete all the tax returns by 4/15, and if we don’t do that, we still consider the work past due and try to complete it as quickly as possible.When creating work, make the due date 10/1510/15 is the actual due date and 4/15 is basically arbitrary at this point aside from clients that need to send payments and estimates.You can add a task within the work itemthat is due 4/15 called “File Extension” that will complete if the work completes earlyUse the API to make mass changes to due dates (this is something we have also done)Must be comfortable with basic programming (I have a python script that I will share on the community)Can quickly make changes to large batches of work itemsManually change each one (you have already said that this is the least desirable option)I don’t know if that helps at all. 😀I’m curious how other people handle it.