Date Formatting in Notification Templates

Notification email templates support a formatDate helper that lets users control how dates appear in emails. Use this helper to display dates in a variety of styles by combining tokens. You can show or hide the time, use full or abbreviated month names, switch between 12-hour and 24-hour format, and more.

How to use it

Place the helper anywhere in a template where a date should appear:

{{formatDate <date_variable> "<format>"}}

• <date_variable> – The date value from the notification data (for example, end_date, created_at).
• "<format>" – A format string you build using the tokens listed below, wrapped in double quotes. To use the default format, omit this argument entirely.

Important: Don't add extra spaces inside the format string. "MMM DD, YYYY" is correct. "MMM DD, YYYY" produces unexpected spacing in the output.

Available format tokens

These are the building blocks you combine to produce the date style you want. Everything else in the format string—separators like /, -, :, spaces, and commas—appears exactly as written.

Note: Use hh and A together. Using hh alone displays the 12-hour number without an AM/PM label.

Examples

All examples use the date March 15, 2024, 10:30:45 AM UTC.

Example 1: Default style

Both of the following produce the same output. Use whichever is cleaner in your template.

{{formatDate end_date}}

Output:

Mar 15, 2024

Example 2: Full month name

Use the complete month name for a more formal appearance.

{{formatDate end_date "MMMM DD, YYYY"}}

Output:

March 15, 2024

Example 3: Compact numeric date

Use a slash-separated format for dense content areas.

{{formatDate end_date "DD/MM/YYYY"}}

Output:

15/03/2024

Example 4: Date with 24-hour time

Include the full time when precision matters, such as in deadline or audit notifications.

{{formatDate end_date "DD MMM YYYY HH:mm:ss"}}

Output:

15 Mar 2024 10:30:45

Example 5: Date with 12-hour time and AM/PM

Use a 12-hour format for customer-facing emails.

{{formatDate end_date "MMM DD, YYYY hh:mm A"}}

Output:

Mar 15, 2024 10:30 AM

Quick reference: Common patterns

Behavior on invalid or missing dates