Creating an secondary due date a custom fields value days before the regular due date
Asked by Stefan:

I tried multiple ways to get what I wanted but always failed in some other way

I want to set up a card with a due date and a custom field set to a number. I then want to either use a card button or a detect a move to a different list

I wanted to try the following :

* On move / button press - set date custom field "Date" to {cardduedate}-{{%"Field"}}  

  =\> I'm only able to select a time frame to move it by ![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/139546iABF0803F3A52D1B0/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")
* After that I tried to replace the custom field with a start date  
  On move / button press - set start date to {cardduedate}-{{%"Field"}}  
  ![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/139547i919D66585B28FEB5/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")  
  =\> can't use {cardduedate} as it will only allow custom fields to be used here
* the last thing I tried was to remove the need for the extra due date by edit the Calender Commands to include the calculation each time   

  move each card due in less than {{%"Field"}} days to list  

  =\> I get an error CANT_PARSE_COMMAND  
  ![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/139545iA24C84D69C096A53/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")

At this point I'm kinda stumped and I would like to get some ideas form you

PS: I'm not using "Field" as my custom field I just needed a dummy name


Answers:
author: Garrett
body: Hey [@Stefan](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4247678)

You're quite close to having this set up, but there's one trick you'll need to do, to make this work.

Currently setting a date field doesn't allow for that variable manipulation, so you'll need to use a different option in Butler. Fortunately, you can manually enter the name of the Date field and use a variable as the value.

With that, and some [arithmetic formatting](https://help.trello.com/article/1159-arithmetic-in-date-variables), you can get the other field to subtract that set number of days as well.

Here's the action in Butler:

![Image 2021-04-21 at 4.19.54 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/139779i42F8B13F0B8FB8A5/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Image 2021-04-21 at 4.19.54 PM.png")

Also, here's the formatting after it's added to the command:

![Image 2021-04-21 at 4.20.01 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/139780i07079BEB4582CD2C/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Image 2021-04-21 at 4.20.01 PM.png")

Give that a try and let me know how it goes!

comments: author: Stefan
body: Thank you very much for helping me with my problem, everything works great now.

I would never have tried to use the "set custom field xxx to" because it wouldn't allow to pick it out of the list.

I must say that was a bit confusing. Was there something about that on the help page and I just missed it or is it a kinda secret feature ?


author: Garrett
body: It's not specifically called out in a help doc, but I'll let the team know we should consider adding some clarification that it can be used in that way.


author: tkelly
body: Bringing back this topic. When I tried this method, I get the errror:  

Couldn't find a Custom Field called "Date" in card <https://trello.com/c/ixxx>. Please make sure that the Custom Field exists with that exact name.

Any other ideas?


Tags: butler

custom-field