I recommend GitHub: Array sortBy - a best implementation of sortBy method which uses the Schwartzian transform
But for now we are going to try this approach Gist: sortBy-old.js.
Let's create a method to sort arrays being able to arrange objects by some property.
Creating the sorting function
var sortBy = (function () {
  var toString = Object.prototype.toString,
      // default parser function
      parse = function (x) { return x; },
      // gets the item to be sorted
      getItem = function (x) {
        var isObject = x != null && typeof x === "object";
        var isProp = isObject && this.prop in x;
        return this.parser(isProp ? x[this.prop] : x);
      };
      
  /**
   * Sorts an array of elements.
   *
   * @param  {Array} array: the collection to sort
   * @param  {Object} cfg: the configuration options
   * @property {String}   cfg.prop: property name (if it is an Array of objects)
   * @property {Boolean}  cfg.desc: determines whether the sort is descending
   * @property {Function} cfg.parser: function to parse the items to expected type
   * @return {Array}
   */
  return function sortby (array, cfg) {
    if (!(array instanceof Array && array.length)) return [];
    if (toString.call(cfg) !== "[object Object]") cfg = {};
    if (typeof cfg.parser !== "function") cfg.parser = parse;
    cfg.desc = !!cfg.desc ? -1 : 1;
    return array.sort(function (a, b) {
      a = getItem.call(cfg, a);
      b = getItem.call(cfg, b);
      return cfg.desc * (a < b ? -1 : +(a > b));
    });
  };
  
}());
Setting unsorted data
var data = [
  {date: "2011-11-14T16:30:43Z", quantity: 2, total: 90,  tip: 0,   type: "tab"},
  {date: "2011-11-14T17:22:59Z", quantity: 2, total: 90,  tip: 0,   type: "Tab"},
  {date: "2011-11-14T16:28:54Z", quantity: 1, total: 300, tip: 200, type: "visa"},
  {date: "2011-11-14T16:53:41Z", quantity: 2, total: 90,  tip: 0,   type: "tab"},
  {date: "2011-11-14T16:48:46Z", quantity: 2, total: 90,  tip: 0,   type: "tab"},
  {date: "2011-11-14T17:25:45Z", quantity: 2, total: 200, tip: 0,   type: "cash"},
  {date: "2011-11-31T17:29:52Z", quantity: 1, total: 200, tip: 100, type: "Visa"},
  {date: "2011-11-14T16:58:03Z", quantity: 2, total: 90,  tip: 0,   type: "tab"},
  {date: "2011-11-14T16:20:19Z", quantity: 2, total: 190, tip: 100, type: "tab"},
  {date: "2011-11-01T16:17:54Z", quantity: 2, total: 190, tip: 100, type: "tab"},
  {date: "2011-11-14T17:07:21Z", quantity: 2, total: 90,  tip: 0,   type: "tab"},
  {date: "2011-11-14T16:54:06Z", quantity: 1, total: 100, tip: 0,   type: "Cash"}
];
Using it
Arrange the array, by "date" as String
// sort by @date (ascending)
sortBy(data, { prop: "date" });
// expected: first element
// { date: "2011-11-01T16:17:54Z", quantity: 2, total: 190, tip: 100, type: "tab" }
// expected: last element
// { date: "2011-11-31T17:29:52Z", quantity: 1, total: 200, tip: 100, type: "Visa"}
If you want to ignore case sensitive, set the parser callback:
// sort by @type (ascending) IGNORING case-sensitive
sortBy(data, {
    prop: "type",
    parser: (t) => t.toUpperCase()
});
// expected: first element
// { date: "2011-11-14T16:54:06Z", quantity: 1, total: 100, tip: 0, type: "Cash" }
// expected: last element
// { date: "2011-11-31T17:29:52Z", quantity: 1, total: 200, tip: 100, type: "Visa" }
If you want to convert the "date" field as Date type:
// sort by @date (descending) AS Date object
sortBy(data, {
    prop: "date",
    desc: true,
    parser: (d) => new Date(d)
});
// expected: first element
// { date: "2011-11-31T17:29:52Z", quantity: 1, total: 200, tip: 100, type: "Visa"}
// expected: last element
// { date: "2011-11-01T16:17:54Z", quantity: 2, total: 190, tip: 100, type: "tab" }
Here you can play with the code:
jsbin.com/lesebi
Thanks to @Ozesh by his feedback, the issue related to properties with falsy values was fixed.