Updated Jul 12, 2023
Although not required, we recommend setting a project date around a specific event, such as a wedding or product deliverable deadline. Using a project date in all your projects improves automation in Dubsado:
Projects appear on your Dubsado calendar and can be exported to your connected calendar.
Block off your scheduler availability.
Autofill dates in emails and forms with smart fields.
Create timed payment plan reminders based on the project date.
Automate workflow actions.
Be aware that asking a client to book an appointment through a Dubsado scheduler won’t set a project date. The Dubsado scheduler creates an appointment, not a project date.
Manually create or change a project date
Go to Projects to select the client’s project.
Click Set Date below the project title.
If a date already exists, hover over the date and click X.
Enter a date or date range.
Uncheck All Day to add specific start and end times.
Select Available or Busy. This directly affects your availability when using the scheduler.
Selecting Available will keep your availability open so other clients can still book appointments.
Selecting Busy will block your calendar to be unavailable so new appointments can’t be scheduled during the date range.
Click Apply.
Automatically create a project date
Instead of going into each project to manually add a project date, create one automatically with a Dubsado form. That way, you can have your clients enter their own project date — either of an event or a deadline — and that date automatically populates in Dubsado when you use a smart field.
🚨 Using a form to create a project date automatically defaults availability to Busy. There isn’t a way to change this.
To create a project date automatically:
Go to Templates >> Forms.
Select any form.
We recommend using either a lead capture, proposal, or questionnaire to collect a project date.
Click Date select. The element will appear in your form.
In the form, click the newly added Date select element to open additional settings.
Under Field mapping, choose Project Date from the dropdown.
To include start or end times, add two Date select elements: one for Project Start Date and one for Project End Date.
Now whenever a client fills out your form and selects a date, that date will automatically populate as the project date.
Calendar appearance
When you click Calendar in Dubsado, projects with a lead status will be black and projects with a job status will be blue. All projects that have a project date will appear on your calendar.
For long-term or ongoing projects, the project will span the entire date range on your calendar. We recommend choosing a single date instead, such as the deliverable date or contract expiration date.
