# 📅 How you can use the Today input in Advanced Formulas, today! **URL:** \ **Category:** Forum Leader tips\ **Tags:** forum-leader-tip\ **Created:** [19 March 2024 09:53 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315 "2024-03-19T09:53:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Richard\_Sather](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/richard_sather/32/276096_2.png) [@Richard\_Sather](https://forum.asana.com/u/Richard_Sather)\ **Post date:** [19 March 2024 09:53 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/1 "2024-03-19T09:53:19Z")
The [Today input](https://forum.asana.com/t/formula-custom-field-with-advanced-editor/481803/51) is finally here! 🎉 Below are some handy formulas which you can copy/paste into the Advanced Formula editor, available for Asana Business/Advanced tier and above. Alternatively, you can use [this link](https://app.asana.com/-/import_project?domain=1203650356028320&key=q77FrLXn5ue9m2A_23tt8Q) to import a project, that contains all these formulas, into your Asana space. 🤩 **💡 Hack to use formulas with the Today input in Portfolios, until it is becomes available..** To use the below formulas in a Portfolio, first create the formula field in a project, then add it to your field library and then add that field to your portfolio by searching for it in your library. # **1. Time spent from creation date, up until today** Calculate the time between the task’s creation date in relation to today. You can replace CREATED ON with any date field such as employee’s start date (see #5 below) or birthday (see #6 below) or the native ‘Start date’ input. **Result in #d #h format or, if value is greater than a week, in #w #d** [[$TODAY]]-[[$CREATED\_ON]] **Result in number of _days_ in decimal format** ( ( [[$TODAY]]-[[$CREATED\_ON]] ) + 0 ) / 1440 **Result in number of _months_ in decimal format** ( ( [[$TODAY]]-[[$CREATED\_ON]] ) + 0 ) / 43920 **Result in number of _years_ in decimal format** ( ( [[$TODAY]]-[[$CREATED\_ON]] ) + 0 ) / 525960 # **2. Time remaining from today, until due date** Calculate the time between the task’s due date in relation to today. **Result in #d #h format or, if value is greater than a week, in #w #d** [[$DUE\_DATE]] - [[$TODAY]] **Result in number of _days_ in decimal format** ( ( [[$DUE\_DATE]] - [[$TODAY]] ) + 0 ) / 1440 **Result in number of _months_ in decimal format** ( ( [[$DUE\_DATE]] - [[$TODAY]] ) + 0 ) / 43920 **Result in number of _years_ in decimal format** ( ( [[$DUE\_DATE]] - [[$TODAY]] ) + 0 ) / 525960 # **3. Planned percentage of completion, up until today** Calculate the percentage a task or a project is completed, based on it’s start date & due date, in relation to today. **Result in number with decimal format** 100 - ( [[$DUE\_DATE]] - [[$TODAY]] ) \* 100 / ( [[$DUE\_DATE]] - [[$STARTED\_AT]] ) 💡 until formatting the result of formulas is available, it’s a good idea to call this field “% Planned complete”, i.e. include the % at the start/end of the field title. # **4. Planned budget spent, up until today** Calculate the budget that should have been spent up until today, assuming that budget is spent linearly between a task or project’s start date and due date. Formula is as per above formula, but instead of 100, replace it with your ‘ **Budget** ’ field. **Result in currency (or just a number with 2 decimals, if using a custom currency for your Budget field)** **Budget** - ( [[$DUE\_DATE]] - [[$TODAY]] ) \* **Budget** / ( [[$DUE\_DATE]] - [[$STARTED\_AT]] ) # **5. Employee’s time employed, up until today** Calculate how many years an employee has been at your company. This formula is similar to #1 above but you simply replace CREATED\_ON with a date field, let’s call it ‘ **First day** ’ (at work). **Result in number of _years_ in decimal format** ( ( [[$TODAY]]- **First day** ) + 0 ) / 525960 💡 if you want the result in days or months, follow the same logic as per the other formulas in #1 above. # **6. Person’s age, up until today** Calculate a person’s age based on a dedicated date field for their birthday. This formula is similar to #1 above but you simply replace CREATED\_ON with a date field, called ‘ **Birthday** ’. **Result in number of _years_ in decimal format** ( ( [[$TODAY]]- **Birthday** ) + 0 ) / 525960 💡 if you want the result in days or months, follow the same logic as per the other formulas in #1 above. _🚀 See all of my top tips & tricks on my [website](https://www.richardsather.com/top-tips-tricks)._ ---
**Author:** ![Arthur\_BEGOU](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/arthur_begou/32/279746_2.png) [@Arthur\_BEGOU](https://forum.asana.com/u/Arthur_BEGOU)\ **Post date:** [19 March 2024 10:49 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/2 "2024-03-19T10:49:07Z")
Awesome, thanks @Richard_Sather “Today” was a good day 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Berger\_lpb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/larry_berger_lpb/32/276017_2.png) [@Larry\_Berger\_lpb](https://forum.asana.com/u/Larry_Berger_lpb)\ **Post date:** [19 March 2024 16:58 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/3 "2024-03-19T16:58:50Z")
A valuable resource, @Richard_Sather; thank you!! Larry ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_Grobler](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/paul_grobler/32/100608_2.png) [@Paul\_Grobler](https://forum.asana.com/u/Paul_Grobler)\ **Post date:** [20 March 2024 18:06 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/4 "2024-03-20T18:06:49Z")
Bookmarking this today! ---
**Author:** ![Tanner\_Wilson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/tanner_wilson/32/26476_2.png) [@Tanner\_Wilson](https://forum.asana.com/u/Tanner_Wilson)\ **Post date:** [21 March 2024 17:17 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/5 "2024-03-21T17:17:12Z")
Amazing! Thanks Richard. We’ve been hoping for “Today” based formulas for a long time! Maybe you could set me straight, but I think our account may have a bug. I copy pasted your “( ( [[$TODAY]] - [[$CREATED\_ON]] ) + 0 ) / 1440” formula to show days since creation, and all new tasks start -1 day in the negative. Anybody else running into that? See attached screenshots. The task I created today shows “-0.68” days since creation (but in the history shows created 54 minutes ago). Processing: Screenshot 2024-03-21 at 11.14.51 AM.png… ![Screenshot 2024-03-21 at 11.14.22 AM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/asana/original/3X/6/4/64923459b05f156695cec7e7bed2cab8e060e4f7.png) ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Sather](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/richard_sather/32/276096_2.png) [@Richard\_Sather](https://forum.asana.com/u/Richard_Sather)\ **Post date:** [21 March 2024 18:47 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/6 "2024-03-21T18:47:10Z")
Hi @Tanner_Wilson , glad you found my post useful and you are leveraging the new TODAY input! Yeah the fist day will look a bit weird - I think this happens because the Today input starts counting from the first minute of the day, so it will be a negative until midnight of the following day. It looks like you created the task at 68% of the day, say around 16:00-16:30 your time? So it should logically go positive as of tomorrow! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tanner\_Wilson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/tanner_wilson/32/26476_2.png) [@Tanner\_Wilson](https://forum.asana.com/u/Tanner_Wilson)\ **Post date:** [21 March 2024 21:05 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/7 "2024-03-21T21:05:20Z")
Oh that makes sense! “Today” technically does mean starting at 12:01am midnight right? That’s probably gonna throw a lot of people off. I wonder if maybe they’ll ever make a “Now” function? I think most people using “Today” just as much mean “Now” and that might be clearer to prevent the 12:01am negative time creation issue. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Sather](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/richard_sather/32/276096_2.png) [@Richard\_Sather](https://forum.asana.com/u/Richard_Sather)\ **Post date:** [21 March 2024 21:29 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/8 "2024-03-21T21:29:20Z")
@Tanner_Wilson , could you confirm the creation time of the task in question? That way we can understand from what time it starts counting the day. I could also run some tests I guess… I think this is a bit of an edge case because we are also translating to decimal days. If you use the basic editor for the same Today - Created on, then you may find a more sensible result not going negative. Also worth a test! ---
**Author:** ![Tanner\_Wilson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/tanner_wilson/32/26476_2.png) [@Tanner\_Wilson](https://forum.asana.com/u/Tanner_Wilson)\ **Post date:** [21 March 2024 22:39 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/9 "2024-03-21T22:39:07Z")
So we’re using this as a “days since creation” measure. Originally I’d set this up without your formula, just a basic “Date created” - “today” kind of thing. And that was also showing a negative on the first day, probably again because of the 12:01am thing you pointed out. Might be fringe, but I think anybody that uses the “today” field to track days since creation is going to be confused on day 1 when they first make a task as to why it’s “Days since created” shows “-22 hours” ago. They won’t know “today” is backward referencing 12:01am. ![Screenshot 2024-03-21 at 4.37.53 PM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/asana/original/3X/9/1/91e969dc5fcc78dabc0cd0d8ad03d444a038ba3b.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Cummings](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/sarah_cummings/32/97509_2.png) [@Sarah\_Cummings](https://forum.asana.com/u/Sarah_Cummings)\ **Post date:** [22 March 2024 14:01 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/10 "2024-03-22T14:01:33Z")
Hi Richard, wow, thanks for sharing these useful formulas. I am using the “Employee’s time employed, up until today” formula for a LinkedIn staff anniversary shoutout tracking project. If we wanted to show a whole number rounded down with no decimal point, is that possible? ---
**Author:** ![Bobby\_McGivney](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/bobby_mcgivney/32/56848_2.png) [@Bobby\_McGivney](https://forum.asana.com/u/Bobby_McGivney)\ **Post date:** [22 March 2024 15:44 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/11 "2024-03-22T15:44:41Z")
AMAZING! I was waiting for this TODAY functionality specifically for number 2. Can you divide that result by estimated duration, to essentially create an urgency score of some sort? I would test this myself, but just downgraded to a lower plan this week to see if I can work with the lean set of features. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Sather](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/richard_sather/32/276096_2.png) [@Richard\_Sather](https://forum.asana.com/u/Richard_Sather)\ **Post date:** [22 March 2024 17:51 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/12 "2024-03-22T17:51:53Z")
Sure @Bobby_McGivney , I don’t see why not! 👍 ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Sather](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/richard_sather/32/276096_2.png) [@Richard\_Sather](https://forum.asana.com/u/Richard_Sather)\ **Post date:** [22 March 2024 17:52 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/13 "2024-03-22T17:52:53Z")
Hi @Sarah_Cummings , glad you found these formulas useful! Unfortunately, as it stands, it’s not possible to round up/down or format the results of a formula field… 🤷‍♂️ ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Sather](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/richard_sather/32/276096_2.png) [@Richard\_Sather](https://forum.asana.com/u/Richard_Sather)\ **Post date:** [22 March 2024 17:56 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/14 "2024-03-22T17:56:14Z")
@Tanner_Wilson , you could try compensating for the discrepancy by adding 1440 (minutes in a day) instead of the 0. Or whatever number you feel may provide a reasonable result! ---
**Author:** ![Rashad\_Issa](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/rashad_issa/32/283198_2.png) [@Rashad\_Issa](https://forum.asana.com/u/Rashad_Issa)\ **Post date:** [9 April 2024 15:42 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/15 "2024-04-09T15:42:21Z")
Richard, this is a brilliant post. Thanks for outlining all these resourceful formulas here. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Sather](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/richard_sather/32/276096_2.png) [@Richard\_Sather](https://forum.asana.com/u/Richard_Sather)\ **Post date:** [9 April 2024 16:16 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/16 "2024-04-09T16:16:54Z")
Thank you @Rashad_Issa , that’s very kind of you! Glad you find these useful 👍 ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Lewerentz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/martin_lewerentz/32/288961_2.png) [@Martin\_Lewerentz](https://forum.asana.com/u/Martin_Lewerentz)\ **Post date:** [23 April 2024 09:09 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/17 "2024-04-23T09:09:17Z")
@Richard_Sather, #2 is also what interests me most. Tested it and it shows a neat “17 [days remaining]”. **If only I could substract week-end days, then I’d have the info that I would really want:** xy workdays remaining to get this done. Is Asana aware of how useful such a countdown feature could be? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Sather](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/richard_sather/32/276096_2.png) [@Richard\_Sather](https://forum.asana.com/u/Richard_Sather)\ **Post date:** [23 April 2024 09:27 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/18 "2024-04-23T09:27:47Z")
Hi @Martin_Lewerentz , I agree that would be super useful. Hoping the Asana team will eventually add IF conditions to formulas. 🙏 Btw, you can switch to the Gantt view to simply see the duration of tasks in work days, but unfortunately not from ‘today’. ---
**Author:** ![Ulises\_Solorio](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/ulises_solorio/32/261451_2.png) [@Ulises\_Solorio](https://forum.asana.com/u/Ulises_Solorio)\ **Post date:** [20 September 2024 09:59 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/19 "2024-09-20T09:59:13Z")
Hello Im using the field for “days since creation”. One thing though, is that on the tab All activity for every task, it keeps updating the field daily, _Asana changed Creation Date from “##” to “##+1”_ is there any way to stop this daily updating? @Richard_Sather ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Sather](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/richard_sather/32/276096_2.png) [@Richard\_Sather](https://forum.asana.com/u/Richard_Sather)\ **Post date:** [20 September 2024 10:58 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315/20 "2024-09-20T10:58:08Z")
Hi @Ulises_Solorio , welcome to the forum 👋 Unfortunately there isn’t a way to stop this - it’s the expected behaviour, for better or for worse. If the ‘All activity’ tab appears too cluttered, you can always switch to the ‘Comments’ tab instead. [Next page](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-you-can-use-the-today-input-in-advanced-formulas-today/746315.md?page=2)