Every FX contract carries a value date. For spot it is the spot-date; for a fx-forward it is whatever future date the parties agree; for an fx-swap there are two, a near leg and a far leg.
Value dates are quoted in shorthand: TOD for today, TOM for tomorrow, SP for spot, 1W, 1M, 3M for standard forward tenors. A date that does not fall on a standard tenor is a broken-date and is priced by interpolation.
Example: a corporate buys USD 5,000,000 against euros for value 3M at a rate of 1.0865 when spot is 1.0840. It pays nothing today; on the value date three months out, EUR 4,601,932 leaves its account and USD 5,000,000 arrives.
Related: spot-date, fx-forward, broken-date, fx-swap