How to Add a Due Date Column in SharePoint
Due dates turn documents into actionable items. Combined with Person and Status columns, they power deadlines, reminders, and proactive management.
What it is
A Due Date column captures when an action on a document is required — review by, approval deadline, submission due, expiry. As a Date column, it sorts chronologically, filters by date range (‘this week’, ‘overdue’), and feeds Power Automate flows that send reminders before deadlines hit.
Where Due Date earns its keep is in active management. A view filtered to ‘Due in the next 30 days’ sorted by date gives you a daily snapshot of what’s coming. Conditional formatting that turns overdue dates red makes problems immediately visible. Power Automate flows that email owners three days before their due dates create a proactive culture instead of a reactive one.
Combine Due Date with Person columns and you have a personal task system inside SharePoint. ‘Show me documents I own with a due date in the next 30 days’ is a column-level query that doesn’t need any external tool. For organisations that want to keep their workflow inside SharePoint, this combination is a hidden superpower.
When to use this
- For Review By, Approval Deadline, Submission Due, Expiry Date.
- When documents have time-bound actions.
- When you want to prevent overdue items by notifying owners ahead of time.
- When auditors need to see what’s compliant and what’s overdue.
How to do it
- Add as Date and time column (Date Only is usually fine).
- Set required if every relevant document needs a date.
- Apply conditional formatting — red for overdue, amber for upcoming.
- Build views: ‘Overdue’, ‘Due this week’, ‘Due next 30 days’.
- Combine with Person column for [Me] views: ‘My documents due soon’.
- Set up Power Automate flow: email the owner 7 days before due date.
Best practices
- Combine with Person columns. Due dates without owners aren’t actionable.
- Apply conditional formatting for overdue. Red dates draw the eye to problems.
- Send proactive reminders. Don’t wait for things to be overdue — notify in advance.
- Use ISO date format wherever you can. Sorts correctly without ambiguity.
Common mistakes
- Due dates without owners. Who’s supposed to act? Combine with Person columns.
- No reminders. Due dates that no one watches are ceremony, not management.
- Stale due dates that aren’t updated. Last year’s deadline shouldn’t show as overdue forever.
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What is a Due Date column in SharePoint?
A Due Date column stores a structured date for when a file or item is due — a deliverable deadline, a contract expiry, a review date, an approval cutoff. Because it’s a real date type, SharePoint can sort chronologically, filter by ranges (‘show me everything due this month’), and trigger Power Automate flows before the date arrives.
How do I send reminders before a Due Date in SharePoint?
Build a scheduled Power Automate flow that runs daily, queries items where Due Date is within X days (e.g. 7 days before due), and sends a Teams message or email to the owner. This is how teams build deadline reminders, contract expiry warnings, and review notifications without writing code.
Can I show overdue items in red in a SharePoint view?
Yes — use column formatting (JSON) on the Due Date column to colour it red when the value is in the past and yellow when it’s within 7 days. SharePoint provides starter JSON templates for date-based conditional formatting. The visual cue immediately surfaces what needs attention without any filtering.
Should Due Date include the time or just the date?
Date only for most cases — deadlines like ‘end of business Friday’ or ‘by 30 June’ don’t need a time component, and adding times forces users to think about which timezone, hours past midnight, etc. Use ‘Date and time’ only when the deadline is genuinely time-sensitive (e.g. submission cut-offs to the minute).