Hi Barb,
If this is important information that you would like to keep track of today, you could create an Optional Date field (in the Company Profile) with a title of 'Start date' or whatever would work best for you. Then when a new item is created, today's date could be entered manually onto the item. Clicking on the 'calendar' finder next to the field defaults to today's date, so no typing is necessary - just remembering to visit the field.
Optional fields can also be imported to update existing items, as well as when creating new items.
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Regards,
Softrak Tech Support