Every transaction has a set of milestones: the dates it turns on, such as earnest money, the investigation, loan, and appraisal contingencies, the final walk-through, close of escrow, and possession. They appear in two places on the transaction, and a change in either saves as you make it:
- the Workflow tab's Milestones section, where every date is open for editing at once;
- the Milestones section on the Overview tab, a list in date order that you correct one date at a time. It appears once the transaction has a document; until then, use the Workflow tab.
Where the dates come from
You don't enter them. When the purchase agreement finishes processing, LetterScript reads the agreed time periods and computes the calendar dates. Counter offers and later amendments, such as an extension of time, override the original contract's terms, so the dates reflect what was finally agreed.
A note above the list says how many deadlines were added, and from which document. Undo takes them back. If automatic deadlines are off for the transaction, the note says so and offers Turn on. On the Workflow tab, Sync dates from record recomputes the deadlines from the transaction's current dates: acceptance, close, and the contingency periods.
Reading a date
Markers on each row say how the date got there:
- ✨ means the date was derived from a document. Click it to see how the date was counted (for example, "Acceptance + 17 days"), with a link to the Source document and to the counting rule. A derived date is an estimate: confirm it against the executed contract, or use Set this date by hand.
- Edited means someone changed a derived date by hand. Hover over it to see when it was changed; the revert arrow beside it puts back the document's value. A date added by hand is marked Added.
- rolled means the date moved off a weekend or holiday (see How deadlines are counted, below).
- TC marks a finer-grained date a transaction coordinator tracks (see TC dates and All dates, below).
A line under each derived date spells out how it was counted. A date you set by hand always wins: re-processing a document never overwrites it.
Following a date to its source
On the Workflow tab, a derived date has a document icon. Click it to preview the page the date was read from. When the date couldn't be pinned to one spot on a page, the icon is a speech bubble instead: clicking it opens the document beside the assistant, with a question about the date ready to send. On the Overview, the date itself is the link (it's underlined with dots) and works the same way.
A deadline counted from another date, such as acceptance plus 17 days, isn't printed anywhere in the contract, so its link points at the date it was counted from. See the transaction record for how citations work.
Dates shown as a chip
Some rows show a chip instead of a date:
- Waived: a contingency the contract waived, with a 0-day period.
- Removed: a deadline struck because the transaction was cancelled.
- Done: a contingency that a signed contingency removal has already removed.
None of these land on the calendar or trigger a reminder.
How deadlines are counted
By default, deadlines count calendar days, as the California purchase agreement does. When a computed contract deadline, such as a contingency, the deposit, or close of escrow, lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or federal holiday, it rolls to the next business day, under paragraph 25.I(4) of the purchase agreement. The final walk-through and possession dates never roll. A rolled date carries the rolled marker, and the line under it says it rolled to the next business day. Click its ✨ to see the weekend or holiday it moved off and the date it landed on. On the Calendar, the date is marked rolled from the original day.
The rule is set for your whole account on the Calendar page, in the strip above the calendar grid. Click Adjust to choose Calendar days or Business days (business days aren't the purchase agreement's standard) and to turn Roll weekends & holidays forward on or off, then click Save rule. Unlike milestone edits, nothing changes until you do; Cancel throws the choice away. A change applies to each transaction the next time its dates are derived. To recount a transaction under the new rule right away, open its Workflow tab and use Re-derive these dates (see below) or Sync dates from record. Settings → General shows the current rule under Deadline counting, with a Change on Calendar link.
On the Workflow tab's Milestones section, a line notes which rule the transaction's dates were counted under and how many were rolled, with a Counting rule → link. If your account's rule has changed since, it says so and offers Re-derive these dates or Keep as counted. Re-deriving can move a deadline that's already in the contract, so it's your call.
TC dates and All dates
The finer-grained dates a transaction coordinator tracks are tagged TC: delivery of the seller's documents and the review of those documents, plus informational access to the property, an increased deposit, or due diligence when you add one with Add milestone. An increased deposit read from a signed addendum or counter offer is an ordinary date: it isn't tagged TC and shows on the Calendar without All dates. The Calendar leaves them out unless you turn on the All dates filter in its toolbar. A transaction's own Milestones list always shows every date.
Adding and renaming milestones
Dates aren't limited to what the contract derives. In either Milestones section:
- Add milestone adds a row you then set to a standard event, such as inspection scheduled, appraiser scheduled, seller or buyer signing, loan funding, or counter offer.
- Add custom adds a free-form milestone. Name it anything.
- Rename any date: on the Workflow tab, type over its name; on the Overview, use the pencil beside its name. Renaming is only a rename: the date stays the document's, keeps its ✨, and still moves when a counter offer or a re-read changes it — including being dropped if the documents stop calling for that deadline at all. Your name sticks through those refreshes. To take the date over as well, type the date you want.
Remove a row with its ×. Undo appears for a few seconds afterwards. Custom milestones also appear, marked Yours, among the steps of the Workflow tab's Purchase timeline.
If the transaction is shared with you as view-only, you can see the dates but not change them.
The rest of the Workflow tab
The same documents drive the Workflow tab's Purchase timeline section, the transaction's checklist, and its Activity section, the record of what each document did. Under Documents on the timeline, every document is listed by the date it took effect, with a badge for what it did (Establishes, Amends, Settles, Lifecycle for one that changes the transaction's status, such as a cancellation, or Context) and a link to the document itself. See The Workflow tab.
These links point at a document, not a spot on a page — the claim is "this is why this row exists", not "this page says X". For a value quoted out of a page, see the transaction record.
The Calendar
Calendar, in the navigation bar (in the menu on a phone), shows every active transaction's dates, along with your booked meetings, on one calendar in Month, Week, or Day view. Filter to Inside 7 days or Meetings, or turn on All dates to include TC dates. A bell marks a deadline an active reminder covers. In Month or Week view, click a derived date to see how it was counted, with a link to its transaction; a date set by hand opens its transaction directly. In Day view, clicking a date opens its transaction, and the info icon beside it shows how it was counted.
On a transaction's Workflow tab, See these dates on the Calendar under the list of sections opens the same calendar. On a phone, where the sections become a row of buttons across the top, that link isn't shown; open Calendar from the menu instead.
The emails that fire or draft as these dates approach are set up on the Automations page; see Automations: reminder and email moments. To push these dates into your own Google or Outlook calendar, use Calendar sync in Settings → Integrations (the Calendar page links to it); see Sync deadlines to Google or Outlook Calendar.
If a date looks wrong or is missing
Deadlines depend on the contract documents. If the purchase agreement or the latest counter offer isn't uploaded yet, or is still being read (Processing or Queued on the Files tab), dates will be missing or out of date. A transaction with no documents yet shows an Upload documents button on its Overview tab. If a derived date is simply wrong, type the right one: your date wins. See Extraction didn't fill in.
An empty deadline list tells you which case you're in
A transaction with no deadlines says why, and the three reasons need different things from you:
- "No deadlines yet — the acceptance date couldn't be read." A contract is on file, but the date the contract was accepted wasn't found in it — and every other deadline is counted from that one, so nothing can be derived. This is the case that looks most like a bug and isn't: set Acceptance on the transaction record and the whole timeline is generated from it. Merged or scanned signature pages are the usual reason the date doesn't read.
- "No deadlines yet. Nothing on file states a date or a time period to count from." There are documents, but none of them is the contract. Add the signed purchase agreement, or add a deadline by hand below the list.
- "No deadlines yet. Upload the signed purchase agreement…" — nothing is uploaded yet.