Automation for 'unmark' as approval

Really surprised that approval requirement can’t be ‘unmarked’ with automation. Why is this the case?

For example, if a task that was once marked as approval ends up in an ''won’t do" section, I’d like to be able to unmark it for approval

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Hi @josh_hinden, thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback.

While this feature isn’t available at this time, hopefully it’s something we can see our Product team implement in the future. :slight_smile:

I’ll keep you posted and let you know if any changes are made!

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Thanks. I really think it’s important to have rules / triggers for everything otherwise the benefit of automation is reduced. If one is trying to build a flow to reduce ‘human error’ (laziness) using ‘sections’ that a user simply has to drag cards to in order to stay organized, the whole thing falls apart when some things happen automatically and others don’t.

For example, I’d like to have a “done-requires approval” column that is separate from a “done column” (doesn’t require approval) along with a “changes requested” column and a “rejected” column. These types of workflows become tricky to build which isn’t a major issue, but if the rest of the workflow is reliant on ‘dragging cards’ to ‘sections’ then it fractures the logic. Hope that helps to provide some insight as to why ‘unmark as approval’ (along with other missing approval automation) is desired. Thanks

Hello team. Is there any update for the automation to ‘unmark’ as approval? This would be a great feature to have. I have a rule where once a task is approved, it is moved to another project. Once in the project, I need to ‘unmark’ as approval and move to open task to complete a different process. Is there a timeline for this enhancement?

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Asana doesn’t publish a public timeline or comment on unreleased features, so there won’t be any information update available. We’ll just have to wait and see if it gets implemented at some point.

We released a set of rules called “iDO things” allowing you to “unmark as” a task. You’ll find them within the rule editor.

It seems like there is the option to convert a task to an approval task as an action using Asana’s rules, but there doesn’t seem to be the option to convert an approval task back to a regular task. I know you can manually make a task “Unmark as approval” but if there is a way to use rules to “unmark as approval” as an action it would really improve the workflows we’ve been developing! Am I just not looking in the right place? Or is this something that isn’t currently available?

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Welcome to the Asana Community Forum @Grace_Malone :wave:

I have merged your post into an existing thread. Don‘t forget to leave your vote :slight_smile:

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It’s possible this is intentional since if you change an Approval type task (that has been “acted on” already by an assignee) to a non-Approval, you would probably lose the record of any approvals that occurred and by whom.

Hi @Grace_Malone

Yes, this is possible in the rules, with one of the external actions “iDO Things”.
(this is a free service)


@Bastien_Siebman @Phil_Seeman This is sad that users have to come to the forum because they don’t find their way with the “External actions”; when solutions exist there. I believe that the search bar is not playing its role in the current configuration.

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100%

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It’s a good point, @Arthur_BEGOU. The search does work to search External actions, but only if you first select the “External actions” tab at the top.

In Rules, when a task turned to approval goes into another section, one cannot change it back to a task automatically but can do it manually. It would be great for it to change back after it’s approved.

@Andrés_Vilensky, Your request already was made so I’ve merged your post into that thread and your vote will transfer.

Thanks,

Larry

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Thanks Larry, see Arthur’s answer above about our solution.

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It would be desirable if it were possible to remove it manually from the task menu, as it could also be done by default according to the rules. (I have verified that it can be done through external actions)