Date Picker Custom Field – Calendar Input for Bookings, Profiles & Widgets

A calendar control lets a user select an exact date (and optionally a time slot) in one tap, reducing keyboard errors and speeding form completion. Modern date pickers are touch-friendly, localisation-aware (DD/MM/YY vs MM/DD/YY), and meet WCAG guidelines when labels and helper text are provided. Enterprises use them for preferred delivery dates, project deadlines, renewal reminders, and consent-valid-until fields—contexts where free-text “10/11/24” can be interpreted two ways and break downstream workflows.

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Where can the Date Picker be used?

• Services → inquiries, quotes & bookings – e.g. “Preferred service start date.”

• Embedded inquiry widget – lets website visitors suggest an appointment date before you call them back.

• Customer profile – store ongoing data such as “Contract renewal date” or “Birthday.”

• Fieldworker profile – hold licence expiry or next medical check date.

• Forms & Checklists – inspectors mark “Inspection completed on” (fields here never affect price/time).

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What is the Date Picker field?

A Date Picker renders the HTML <input type=”date”> element (polyfilled on browsers that need it) so users choose from a pop-up calendar instead of typing. Best-practice guidelines from W3C and Nielsen Norman say date pickers reduce format ambiguity and typo rates, provided you keep the default locale format and label the field clearly.

• Accessible – keyboard arrow keys navigate days; screen readers announce day/month/year.

• Locale-aware – automatically respects the logged-in user’s language (e.g., 31 March 2026 vs 3/31/2026).

• Validation built-in – min/max attributes prevent past dates or impossible future years.

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Step-by-step set-up

1. Settings ▸ Service Settings ▸ Custom Fields ▸ Create New (or start in Inquiry Form, Customer Profile, Fieldworker Profile, Forms & Checklists).

2. Label – Preferred project deadline.

3. Internal ID – project_deadline_dt.

4. Field Type – Date Picker.

5. Optionally set Min/Max date (e.g., today + 2 days, today + 180 days).

6. Add Helper text (“Select any weekday within the next six months”).

7. Tick visibility toggles: Portal, Lead Form, Invoice, Search, etc.

8. Save → attach to one or more services (if you started in Service Settings).

(When creating in Forms & Checklists, the same steps apply but price/time toggles are hidden.)

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How each role sees it

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Example use-cases & benefits

Reduces back-and-forth phone calls, ensures downstream automations fire on the correct day, and avoids “04/05/24” ambiguities.

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Reporting & filters

Dates are stored in ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) so you can:

• Use Advanced Search → Between Two Dates to list bookings in April.

• Export CSV for BI tools and build “average lead-time” dashboards.

• Trigger automations: e.g., 30-day reminder before Licence Expiry.

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Pricing & duration impact

Date Pickers are informational only; they never add cost or time. If you need a field that drives price (e.g., number of days), use a Number Stepper instead.

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Design best practices

• Keep labels explicit: Select inspection date.

• Use helper text for date-range limits.

• Default value: leave blank to force deliberate choice.

• Respect locale: avoid forcing “dd/mm/yyyy” for US users.

For more information please visit Octopuspro user guide, and subscribe to our youtube channel.