The Set CRM Field automation action writes data directly to a contact, opportunity, or account record when the automation fires. The most common use is stamping a date field the moment something important happens — like marking when a relationship started, or when a proposal was sent — without anyone having to remember to fill it in.
The Canonical Example: Stamp a Date When a Lead Arrives
Here's the most common setup: when an opportunity enters your Lead Received stage, automatically set relationship_started_at to today's date.
- Go to https://app.trustpager.com/crm/pipelines and open the pipeline you want to automate.
- Click the Lead Received stage header to open its settings.
- Add a new automation and set the trigger to Stage Change (fires when an opportunity enters this stage).
- Add a Set CRM Field action.
- Choose the target record — in this case, the Opportunity.
- Set the field to Relationship Started At and the value to
{{today}}.
- Save the automation.
From now on, every lead that lands in that stage gets its relationship start date stamped automatically with the correct date in your workspace timezone.
Writing Multiple Fields in One Action
You don't need a separate action for each field. The Set CRM Field action supports multi-write — add as many field/value pairs as you need in a single action step. For example, when an opportunity is marked Won:
- Set
actual_close_date → {{today}}
- Set a custom
outcome field → Won
- Set
closed_at → {{now}} (full UTC timestamp)
All three fields are written atomically in the same automation step.
Useful Recipes
| When this happens | Set this field | To this value |
|---|
| Opportunity enters Lead Received | relationship_started_at | {{today}} |
| Opportunity enters Proposal Sent | actual_close_date | {{today}} |
| Opportunity moves to Won | status (custom) | Won |
| Contact submits a form | contact source (custom) | Inbound Form |
| Any stage change | last_stage_change_at (custom) | {{now}} |
Understanding {{today}} vs {{now}}
Two date tokens are available in Set CRM Field values:
{{today}} — today's date as YYYY-MM-DD in your workspace timezone. Use this for date fields like relationship_started_at and actual_close_date. If you're in Australia/Sydney and it's 8am AEST, you get today's Australian date — not UTC's previous day.{{now}} — the current UTC ISO timestamp (e.g. 2026-04-22T08:15:30Z). Use this for full datetime fields. Postgres timestamptz columns handle the timezone conversion automatically.
For the complete token reference including name and CRM variable tokens, see https://trustpager.com/help-center/first-name-only-contacts.
What Records Can You Update?
Set CRM Field can write to:
- Opportunity — standard fields (name, value, etc.) and custom metadata fields
- Contact — standard fields and custom metadata fields on the primary contact
- Account — standard fields and custom metadata fields on the linked account
To find custom field IDs, open the variable picker inside the field value input — it lists every writable field with its exact path.
Tip: Set CRM Field is most powerful when chained with other actions. For example: opportunity enters Won stage → send a congratulations email → set closed_at to {{now}} → create a follow-up task for 30 days out. All in one automation, zero manual steps.
