Deadlines and milestones

Key dates live on the transaction, so nothing important is buried in a PDF or a thread.

The dates Backhouse tracks

Each transaction can carry the dates that matter for its type. Offer date, acceptance date, effective date, inspection, due diligence, option period (start and end), listing date, lease start and end, and closing.

How dates get set

• From a contract. Forward or upload the contract and your assistant extracts the dates onto the transaction.
• By asking. "Set closing on Maple to July 18." Done.
• By hand. Click any date on the transaction page to add or change it.

Putting them on your calendar

Turn on Transaction dates under Settings > Calendar and every key date across your transactions shows up on your Google Calendar as an all-day entry.

• Pick which date types you want. Only the ones that apply to a transaction's type ever appear on it, so a lease never puts a closing date on your calendar.
• An option period spans its start and end. Everything else is a single day.
• Entries are named for the date and the transaction, like "Closing date for 123 Maple".
• They stay in step on their own. Move a closing date and the entry moves with it. Clear the date, untick that type, or turn the setting off, and the entry comes off your calendar.
• The entry lands on the calendar of the agent the transaction belongs to, not whoever edited the date. Nobody is invited to it, so it's yours to see.

This is off until you turn it on, and it needs Google Calendar connected with Add to my calendar on. With calendar sync off the dates still show inside Backhouse, they just don't reach Google. See Connect your tools.

One thing it isn't. The entry sits on the day the date falls, and Backhouse doesn't attach a reminder to it, so set the heads up you want on the calendar entry itself.

Staying ahead of them

Every date shows on the transaction page, and changes appear on the transaction's timeline. Ask your assistant things like "What's coming up this week?" or "When does the option period end on Maple?" and it answers from the live transaction data.

For anything beyond a calendar entry, build an automation under Settings > Automations. A date-based trigger fires a set number of days before any transaction date and can create a task, draft an email, or hand the work to your assistant.