We have a LOT of parent tasks with a subtask called “Install Date” that has a very important due date. That subtask is homed in other projects out of necessity so that it shows up on various project calendars for planning and communication purposes.
However, on those Parent Tasks, we very much need to be able to see that “Install Date” as a custom field, but we need it synchronized automatically with that “Install Date” subtask.
The reason we need this is because we NEED to be able to see the install date in List View for all those Parent Tasks.
I realize we could manually keep those synchronized but we all know human nature, our team is simply not going to be able to keep those synchronized and we’ll have conflicting information.
In reality there’s actually several subtasks we need to be able to do this with. Not just “install date”.
I don’t think this feature exists, but please please give us a way to link a Date custom field to a specific Subtask due date!! Also make sure that this is something we can build into Project and Task templates, because that’s how all of our Parent Tasks are created.
Hi @Matt5 , unfortunately this is not currently possible natively in Asana and not sure 3rd party apps will sync information. I know Flowsana.net will copy parent task information into a subtaks but not the other way around.
It’s a good solution to multihome your subtasks into other projects but you may consider to redesign your system so that you are not ‘stuck’ within subtasks where you now realize their support is limited.
Perhaps upgrade your subtasks to tasks, your tasks to projects, and your projects to Portfolios?
We’ve tried making our tasks Projects before and found that Projects lacked the tools and ability to organize them that Tasks have.
Admittedly I think projects have more custom field options now than they used to since we first tried this and maybe we need to revisit it, but the first time we tried it, it was a huge flop.
Also, you still would totally lack the thing I’m asking for. If we converted all the parent tasks to projects, we would still need that Project to have a Custom Field called “Install Date” showing on the main Portfolio view that is 100% tied to a task inside that project called “Install Date”.
There’s really no other way to state it. We really need a way to tie the “Date” custom field to 1 specific task/subtask.
This would be a MONUMENTAL leap in usability for Asana for us.
*Not an Asana-native solution, but marking as the solution to elevate a key reply/best option @Matt5 - Unfortunately, there’s no way to do this currently in Asana natively.
In case it’s helpful, this is a fairly simple automation to do in Make.com to layer on top of Asana.
You can learn Make.com or hire a Make.com consultant to build this for you.
Here are the steps:
Webhook watching for changes on the install date tasks.
Get Task (for parent task of the task that triggered the automation)
Update task to add subtask install date to parent task
PS: You can easily have this automation run globally across all projects with an “Install Date” in your account by simple adding a Tag named something like: “AUTO: Populate Install Date” and then making that tag the trigger for the automation. It will run nearly instantly (within 10-15 seconds) every time you add or change an install date.
Message me if you’d like help building this.
By the way, Make.com is like Zapier but cheaper and more powerful. But both apps can do this and are amazing custom automation tools.