Due dates
Due dates tell people when assigned courses should be finished and flag overdue work in reports. Fieldbook gives new users an onboarding window and gives everyone time to catch up when a new course is assigned.
When a course becomes assigned, Fieldbook gives the person time to finish it. New users may have time remaining in their onboarding window, and every new assignment gets a catch-up window. Fieldbook uses whichever ends later as the course deadline. The date affects overdue labels, not which courses are assigned or what counts as complete.
Set the timing windows
An Administrator opens Account menu → Manage organization → Due dates.
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Use due dates | Whether deadlines and overdue states appear |
| New user onboarding window (days) | Time from a person’s onboarding start |
| Ongoing catch-up window (days) | Time from a new course assignment |
Enter the windows and select Save settings. Each accepts 1–365 days. Fieldbook starts with 90 days for onboarding and 30 days for catch-up, but your installation may use different values.
Turning Use due dates off hides deadlines and overdue states. Courses remain assigned and still count toward completion. Fieldbook keeps saved dates, and a person’s New user or Existing user stage continues to follow their onboarding clock. Turning due dates back on may reveal work that is already overdue.
How a course gets its deadline
A person’s Hire date starts their onboarding clock. If they have no hire date, an earlier recorded onboarding start can be used instead. First sign-in does not set a hire date. Without either date, the person is an Existing user and receives only the catch-up window for new assignments.
When a published course is assigned, Fieldbook records the assignment start for that course version. It compares the person’s onboarding end, if there is one, with the assignment start plus the catch-up window. The later date is the deadline.
For example, a person hired on January 1, 2027 has an onboarding end of April 1 with a 90-day window. With a 30-day catch-up window:
| Course assigned | Catch-up ends | Course deadline |
|---|---|---|
| February 1 | March 3 | April 1, when onboarding ends |
| March 20 | April 19 | April 19, when catch-up ends |
Fieldbook uses calendar dates in UTC. A course due April 1 becomes overdue on April 2 if its current published version is still incomplete.
What happens to existing dates
Saving different windows affects future onboarding clocks and new assignments. It does not automatically change an existing person’s onboarding end or a saved course deadline.
An ongoing assignment also keeps its deadline when another team, learning group, or curriculum begins assigning the same course. Removing one source does not restart the clock while another remains. Removing the last source ends the assignment; if the course is assigned again later, a new assignment period begins. Completed learning remains in the person’s history. See Course assignments.
Changing a person’s hire date updates their onboarding clock and New/Existing stage, but saved course deadlines remain until an applicable recalculation. Publishing a new course version creates a new current-version requirement. See Revise a published course.
Apply new windows to existing dates
To apply the saved windows to existing active people:
- Save the new values in Due dates.
- Select Review existing deadlines.
- In Recalculate existing deadlines, compare the Current date and Proposed date for each changed onboarding end or unfinished course. The counts show how many dates would change.
- Select Apply recalculation to make those changes, or Cancel to keep the existing dates.
Find a user or course narrows the rows shown in the review; it does not limit which dates are recalculated. Assignment start dates stay fixed. Completed courses keep their deadlines and completion.
A shorter window can make unfinished work overdue immediately. A longer onboarding window can return someone to New user. If people, assignments, or settings change while you review, Fieldbook asks you to review the dates again before applying them.