What is a next target date and what are target dates in Glide?

Every job has a Next Target Date (where the workflow system has multiple sub-systems, each sub-job will have a Next target date) which is available in several widgets and reports across the Glide system.

Target dates are set on specific stages of a workflow and are visible to the right of that stage on the job card.

A target date is deemed incomplete where it is on either the current stage of the job or a stage with a higher stage order value that the current stage. A high order value would mean the stage is 'further down' the job card that the current stage.

At anytime a job can have one target date on each stage meaning there can be multiple target dates still to be achieved for each job. Within the Glide report writer you can report upon all of these target dates; however, Glide's own widgets and reports focus solely on the earliest incomplete target date on a job which we refer to as the Next target date.

This is to ensure that on widgets and reports (such as the Upcoming targets widget) only include one entry per job.

On the example in the screenshot below the current job stage (marked 1) is "To send payslips / reports to client" and therefore, in calculating the next target date, the system would review this stage and the two below it on the job card (those 3 stages under the dotted line). The earliest target date on these 3 stages is the 29th June 2019 (marked 2) and so this would be reported as the next target date.

The 23rd June 2019 target date on the very first stage is ignored because the stage has a lower stage order value (i.e. it is higher up on the job card that the current stage). It does not matter whether the job has progressed through this stage, indicated by an actual date alongside it, or not.