Subtasks being added to the project autmatically would make my life alot easier…
Sorry, I just cannot believe this basic feature is still missing 
We use Asana as a team and my stakeholders cannot see the projects attached to the subtasks into their “MyTask” view which I find really upsetting…
Is there a reason that subtasks are not assigned to the same project as the parent task? Not having this done automatically seems illogical and creates some issues. The most glaring issue is that subtasks, along with their dependencies, do not show up in the timeline view.
If there is a reason for not having subtask project automatically assigned to the parent task project, can you share?
I’m new to Asana and this jumped out at me as a shortcoming. The alternative I see is to not use subtasks and to just create many tasks without organizing them into subtasks. Or adding the project to each subtask. But I would like to know if this creates any issues.
Thanks
Yeah - the Asana architecture is designed to make any task belonging to a project a top level task, I.e., not a sub task. Subtasks belong to tasks that belong to projects. Assign a sub task to a project and it’ll appear as a top level task as well.
It’s pretty frustrating, but also seems to be a core element of the program structure, so idk if we’re going to see any movement on this issue.
Some people have created a section in their project called ‘subtasks’, assign all subtasks to the project, then drop in them in that collapsed section. It’s not a fix, but at least those tasks will show up grouped by project in ‘my tasks’.
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Hello @anon40973018, welcome to the Asana Community Forum 
As @as_an_android explained this is how it is currently set up.
Here is an existing feedback request thread to upvote: Allow to automatically add subtasks to project
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I’m on the free version currently (waiting for my company to adopt it formally). You used to be able to add a subtask to a second project directly from the subtask, but that option disappeared two weeks ago! Anyone else struggling with this?
Welcome, @Lizzie_Martinez,
If you have the subtask showing in the task detail pane, you can type Tab+P to add to project, or choose that menu item from the overflow “. . .” menu.
Hope that helps,
Larry
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Do you know if there is a way to make this happen automatically? Currently when I create a subtask and then add it to the project, it automatically creates a top level task in the first section of the project, however I would prefer to have that section right at the bottom, but I’m not sure if it can be set up to do that.
Kind of - you could create a ‘subtasks’ custom field, toggle that option to ‘yes’ for subtasks, then create a rule with:
triggers:
- ‘task added to project’:
- ‘subtask custom field = yes’ & actions
actions: - move task to section ‘subtasks’
This still requires 2 steps, i.e., change subtask custom field + add to project, but at least those clicks are in the same pane.
A complete solutions is probably possible using Zapier/make & the API, but that involves 3rd party services and would take some time to map out.
Hope this helps!
HI Team!
Echoing that this is an essential feature that is missing ESPECIALY for non tech companies. We often will have multiple contributors taking support sub tasks (Design review, send to printer etc.) and need to be able to add these subtasks to separate team tracker projects The reason why we need to have this function is for workload reporting. No project in the subtask, no way to add it to the portfolio workload tracker.
It is WILD that this has been a known issue for 5 years.
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This is actually getting a little infuriating. Fine if you don’t want this feature added in automatically, but either make it a choice in settings, or at the very least allow a custom Workflown make this available.
I was very excited with the release of Workflows, but they’re so limited currently and they allow for barely any customization.
I can create a Workflow to create a subtask (action) when a task is added to the project (trigger), but the subtask still won’t be associated with the project.
Asana, just give your users some options here. Of all of the features requested on this platform, this has got to be the one most desired and for the longest time, and it’s not a difficult one to do either.
Do you know of anyone who has used Zapier to effectively manage this? If so, how did they do it?
The Asana Workflows don’t any any advanced functionality to be able to handle anything custom
Understand your frustration here. It would be nice if subtasks were automatically associated with a project, but that is not how Asana’s platform is currently built.
Their hierarchy is centered around tasks and work up to projects, portfolios, reporting, etc; subtasks are simply a checklist to track task progress.
Not to mention the complexity of assigning the same functionalities that tasks have.
I don’t work for Asana so this is all opinion, but I hope this is something they have been working on.
I just created a rule where the action is to add subtasks and specified adding the current project on the subtask (click its pencil icon to get there) thereby adding it also as a top-level task. You can optionally directly send it to a collapsed “Hidden Subtasks” section if you prefer.
Just wanted to make sure you were aware that Asana’s automation permits that (Business or Enterprise plan required).
Larry
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Hi @lpb , that is a great solution, but I do see one issue with that in context to how our company uses the platform:
- I can’t create that inside of the template, as the when editing the assigned project you have to choose one that already exists (unless I’m missing an option there). This also means that I would need to add the workflow after the project template creates, which wouldn’t activate retroactively.
For context, we have a pretty large pre-built template that we build for each client (24 sections with up to 5 tasks with subtasks in each section). We have close to 50 current client (and so boards), and are still scaling, which is why the automation and template work is important for saving time, since I am doing the majority of the work myself.
I’m loving the ideas, though! This will definitely work for smaller one-off projects where we don’t use the template.
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You’re absolutely right, @Austin_Spence. I wish Asana had a way to refer to the being-instantiated template project but it doesn’t, so this only helps as you pointed out for already-existing projects.
Thanks,
Larry
One additional question for you:
I was testing this on a smaller board that’s more ad hoc, and when the test ran the workflow, it shows the subtasks outside of the dropdown. Is there anyway for this to only show up inside of the dropdown?
Screenshot for reference:
I’m afraid I’m not following what you mean by “inside of the dropdown.”
The subtasks are inside of the Project Management section, it appears, so if you collapse that section you won’t see them.
Nothing else is really possible for a top-level task; it’s either in a section or not in a section (the Untitled section).
Larry
Sorry, to clarify, subtasks that are assigned to a project show up as a main task on that project, and I would prefer that they only show up when you click the down arrow to expand the selection to view subtasks, similar to how it appears when the subtasks are not assigned to the project.