You’ve come to the right place if you want to learn about Salesforce’s Advance Formula Date Less Than Today. Additionally, we’ll cover how to use Salesforce Lightning and Salesforce Classic to generate a formula date less than today.
While working for an organization, I was assigned a job to determine whether a date is less than the current date. It enables us to manage and organize our data in Salesforce more effectively, as well as streamline workflows and processes based on today’s date.
The following are the topics that we will cover in this salesforce tutorial:
- Salesforce Formula for Date Less Than Today
- Formula for Date Less Than Today in Salesforce Lightning
- Formula for Date Less Than Today in Salesforce Classic
Salesforce Formula for Date Less Than Today
In Salesforce, we build an advance formula field that determines whether a date is less than a today date or not in order to compare a date field with a today date value to check if the date is less than the today date.
In Salesforce, we utilize the comparison operators Less Than (<) or Less Than or Equal to (<=) to compare the value of the set date with the today field.
For instance, we want to see if the object’s date field is less than today. Therefore, we define a Salesforce formula that looks like this:
DateField < TODAY()
#OR
DateField <= TODAY()
In this formula, we check if the date field is less than today’s date. For this, we use the TODAY() function, less or equal operator, and compare it with the date field.
This formula can be applied in a wide range of situations, such as triggering workflows and automated processes, sorting and filtering data, creating fields depending on today’s date, etc.
In conclusion, we now know how to check in Salesforce if a date is less than today’s date using a formula. The next step is to learn how to use Salesforce Lightning to verify dates that are before today date.
Read Salesforce Formula Date Greater Than Specific Date
Formula for Date Less Than Today in Salesforce Lightning
Here, are the steps to define a formula date less than today’s date in Salesforce Lightning.
- Click the Setup icon in the top right corner of the page to access Salesforce Setup.
- Click Object Manager from the menu’s left side.

- Look for the item to which we want to compare a date that is less than today’s date. I choose the Contract object from the list of objects in this instance.

- Choose Fields & Relationships.
- Next, select New.

- Choose the Formula as the field type.
- Click Next to proceed.

- After entering a Field Label for the formula, the Field Name will be filled in automatically. Here, I enter Field Label as Validation.
- Select Text as the Formula Return Type. After that, click Next.

- Enter the date less than today’s date formula in the Advance Formula editor. Here, is the formula:
IF( EndDate < TODAY(), "Contract time period is over. Please renew it.", "Contract is valid for " & TEXT( EndDate - TODAY()) & " days.")
The IF function determines whether the contract end date called “EndDate” is less than the current day called “TODAY()”. If so, the text “Contract time period is over. Please renew it” is returned.
Otherwise, it returns the text “Contract is valid for X days”, where X represents the number of days remaining until the contract end date.
The number of days left is converted into text using the TEXT function so that it can be included with the text using & the concatenation operator.
- To verify that the formula is valid, click Check Syntax.
- We can specify how you want to handle the empty field and include the Description and Help Text as alternatives.
- Then, select Next.

- Select the appropriate field Level Security and to make it visible to everyone, here we select the Visible checkbox.
- Select Next.

- Select the Page Layout Name for which the formula field is to be added.
- Click Save to save the formula field.

We can use the formula field once we’ve created it. Let’s look at an example:
- Create a Contract with the Contract Start Date, and Contract Term fields by opening the Contracts item and saving it.
- After that, click on the Details section, and here the Validation field appears which shows how the formula date is less than today’s date works.


As a result, we now understand how to use the advance formula date less than today’s date in Salesforce Lightning. Next, we’ll look at how to check a date that is less than today using the advance formula in Salesforce Classic.
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Formula for Date Less Than Today in Salesforce Classic
Here, are the steps to define a formula date greater than the specific date in Salesforce Classic.
- From the Salesforce Lightning to open your Salesforce Classic edition. Click on Avtar and click Switch to Salesforce Classic.

- Click on the Setup option.

- Scroll down to the Build section. Then under Customize, select the object for whom we want to compare a date that is less than a current date. Here, I choose the Products from the object list.
- Click on the dropdown menu and select Fields.

- As you scroll down the page, click on the New button under Custom Fields & Relationships.

- Select the Formula as the field type.
- Click Next to proceed.

- Enter a Field Label for the formula, and the Field Name will be automatically populated. Here, I enter Field Label as Extra Charge.
- Choose Currency as the Formula Return Type and then click Next.

- Enter the date less than today’s date formula in the Advance Formula editor. Here, is the formula:
IF( Payment_Due_Date__c < TODAY(),( TODAY() - Payment_Due_Date__c) * 5, 0 )
The IF function determines whether the product’s payment due date called “Payment_Due_Date__c” is today or later.
If so, it returns the number of days remaining until the payment due date using the formula and multiplies it by 5 to calculate the extra charges. Otherwise, it returns 0 as the extra charge.
- To verify that the formula is valid, click Check Syntax.
- We can specify how you want to handle the empty field and include the Description and Help Text optionally.
- Then, click Next.

- Choose the appropriate Field’s Level Security, and then check the box Visible to make it visible to all.
- Click Next.

- Choose the Page Layout Name for which the formula field is to be added.
- Click Save to save the formula field.

Once we’ve defined the formula field, we may use it. Let’s explore an example:
- Create a new product with the Payment Due Date field value by opening the Products tab and saving it.
- In the details section, we will get the Extra Charges field which shows how the formula date is less than today’s date works.


In a conclusion, we now understand the formula date is less than today’s date.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, we learned the advanced salesforce formula to check the date is less than the current date.
Moreover, we have learned that both Salesforce Classic and Salesforce Lightning provide a simple procedure for checking the date less than today’s date.
In addition to this, the following are the topics that we have discussed:
- Salesforce Formula for Date Less Than Today
- Formula for Date Less Than Today in Salesforce Lightning
- Formula for Date Less Than Today in Salesforce Classic
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I am Bijay Kumar, the founder of SalesforceFAQs.com. Having over 10 years of experience working in salesforce technologies for clients across the world (Canada, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, etc.). I am a certified salesforce administrator and expert with experience in developing salesforce applications and projects. My goal is to make it easy for people to learn and use salesforce technologies by providing simple and easy-to-understand solutions. Check out the complete profile on About us.