So I create a task form me, and I need my manager to approve.
- Create task
- Assign to me
- Mark as approval
Where do I assign my manager for approval?
1 Like
Hi @Juan_Diego,
This is a great question. We recommend you creating a subtask, mark it as approval and assign it to your manager. By doing so, the main task is still assigned to you and you will receive a notification once the request to approve in the subtask was completed. For more information please have a look at this thread.
I hope this helps!
2 Likes
We like to keep things simple. Tasks get assigned to whoever is currently responsible.
That way I know everything Iām supposed to do right now (or everything that is on hold waiting for me)
If someone creates a task that I need to approve, they assign it to me and leave a comment āapprove pleaseā. I comment āapprovedā and assign it back to them.
I hope that helps you think of a solution that will work for your team.
1 Like
Hi Ben, yes it is simple from one side, but not from the other.
For instance, manager has to do 3 things:
- Approve (this is intuitive)
- Assign back to me (this is not intuitive)
- Mark as not complete (so I can notice, not intuitive either)
So if my manager forgets about the 2nd and 3rd one, task is left in the void: he will see it as completed and I will have nothing assigned. So this is where the flow gets stuck.
I hope there is a better way out
2 Likes
Yes, for our process it is critical that the manager knows to assign it back.
Hereās how it worked for usā¦
Following your steps:
- Approve by typing comment āthis is approvedā
- Forgets to assign it back to you. Then it still sits in their to-do list, still assigned to them. This is exactly what we want.
- Initially a problem - we had to create a new habit āonce you approve, do not mark complete, instead assign it back to meā.
Go luck with whatever process you decide.
Itās funny because Iām having the same issues as well. If you make the main task as approval task and someone click āchanges requestedā, it basically marks it as complete and drops off the āMy Tasksā list.
3 Likes
If I have to say to āreply with a comment to approveā then the āApproveā button becomes useless. In other words we should not use this feature as it creates more overload and confusion. I think it needs to be refined
6 Likes
That is a good solve for now, but it would be nice to maintain the resource at the task level and assign a specific approver. The resource being the person executing on the work.
Hoping Asana provides this as an option in the future. In Wrike (another project management tool), you have the ability to keep the task assigned to the person executing on the work and you can add multiple approvers to the task to ensure the necessary stakeholders have all weighed in/approved. This also allows us to maintain the that history for reference against the task without having to scroll or click through previous updates made to the task.
8 Likes
HI
Issue is as follows
- Using sub tasks is that it is mutli step as you need to create a sub task & then turn it into an approval task.
If the original task has an attachment then its one step of request approval on the attachment.
- There is no indication on the original task that it is waiting for an approval ( only by going into it you can figure it is waiting for the sub task approval ) This is a major issue as you will have tasks sitting in your task list that you can not move on.
Work around would be to then turn the original task into dependant on this approval task. Which is very time consuming.
Best would be to have the ability with one click to create an approval sub task with & make the original task a dependant task on this approval sub task at the same time
This would be a win win solution.
5 Likes
Hi
- Create Task and assign to Manager with āMark as Approvalā
- Create another Task which you should continue after your Managerās approval . This Task should have a āDependenciesā on the 1st Task
1 Like
Sharing the process Iām trying out for handing off Approvals tasks with the new Rules integrations:
Weekly recurring task to āDraft Weekly Reportā - assigned to Writer
Second weekly recurring Task - set as an Approval Task - for āReview Weekly Reportā - assigned to Reviewer
-
The Approval Task is marked as dependent on the āDraftā Task
-
Completing the Draft Task will unblock the Approval Task, which will notify the Reviewer in their Asana Inbox. (I also set up a Rule triggering an automated message to the relevant project Slack channel - which my team checks more frequently than inboxes) letting the Reviewer know the draft is ready.
-
If the draft is good to go, the Reviewer can simply mark the Approval Task as āApproveā, and this will trigger notifications in Asana and Slack to alert the team the report is ready for delivery.
-
If the Reviewer has notes, they mark the task as āRequest Changesā.
-
If āRequest Changesā is selected Rules are setup to re-assign the Review Task to the Writer, to generate a comment in the task tagging the Writer to alert them of the needed revisions, and to trigger a back-up message to the same team Slack Channel flagging requested revisions. Then Writer can then mark the task as āApproveā once the requested revisions are made.
1 Like
@anon56253679 Do you think Wrike is better than Asana? We keep running into many issues with Asana and when I look at these forums I see user requests that are 4-5 years old that Asana has done nothing about. Does Wrike have an API is its functionality much better, more intuitive?
Iām a very long time Asana user (also beta tester) and yes, itās a shame they have so many issues lockend foor many years. Iām tired. For us the problem switching to Wrike (way much better) is the migration process. Unfortunately there is no simple way to export/import.
@Francesco_Canovi I agree that it would be really hard to change. We have over 300 users, even though our adoption is relatively low due to limitations of Asana it would be a lot of work to make a change. Can you explain what is so much better about wrike? I think I looked at it but not sure there was a free full version for trial. I tried smartsheets and while that solved some Asana issues the user interface was too simplistic and excel like.
It has an integrated timer, an inbox for every project, task approval cycle and tons of other functions that asana doesnāt have or that requires external paid services. For the same price than asana.
Ask for a one to one demo. They will contact you and offer you a trial and they will show you how it works via a personal meet.
1 Like
Thank You