How to Use the Date/Time Formatter in Sparkforge Workflows

Workflows often pass date values between systems that format them differently. The Date/Time Formatter action normalizes those values inside Sparkforge so the rest of the workflow gets the format it expects.

Three Functions

• Format Date — convert a date from one format to another.
• Format Date and Time — convert a date-time from one format to another.
• Compare Dates — return the difference between two dates in days.

Format Date

Use this when you have a date in one format (for example 2026-01-15) and need it in another (15/01/2026).

1. Field: select a Specific Date, Current Date, a Contact date field, an Appointment start or end date, a Custom Value, or an Inbound Webhook field.
2. From Format: auto-detected for system fields. For Custom Values and Inbound Webhook fields you must select the matching format manually.
3. To Format: pick the desired output from the format list.

Output merge field: {{datetime_formatter.1.date}}

Format Date and Time

Same idea as Format Date, but the value carries a time component as well.

1. Field: Specific Date and Time, Current Date and Time, Appointment start or end date-time, a Custom Value, or an Inbound Webhook field. Contact custom fields do not currently support a date-time structure.
2. From Format: auto-detected for system fields; manual for Custom Values and Inbound Webhook fields.
3. To Format: pick from the date-time format list.

Output merge field: {{datetime_formatter.1.datetime}}

Compare Dates

Returns the difference between Start Date and End Date as a number of days.

1. Start Date and Start Date Format: pick a date field and confirm or set the format.
2. End Date and End Date Format: same, for the other date.

Output merge field: {{datetime_formatter.1.days}}

The result is calculated as End Date - Start Date, so you get a negative value when Start is later than End.

Common Patterns

• Inbound Webhook from a booking tool sends an ISO date — format it to readable form before inserting it in a confirmation email.
• Compare today against a contract end date to drive a renewal reminder when fewer than 14 days remain.
• Convert an appointment start time to the contact's local format before sending an SMS reminder.
• Format a date into YYYY-MM-DD before writing it into a Google Sheets row.