I’m really enjoying Asana! This is a powerful tool and my team is getting very into it. We’re currently developing some custom Project templates that we can clone for each successive project that we take on with similar configuration. To that end, it would be great if we could set up tasks to have cascading deadlines, i.e. Task X is always due one week after Task Y. Is that feasible?
Welcome, @Jamie_MacRae,
Yes, this is a feature of project templates.
You can assign relative due dates for tasks. They will either be relative to the start date of the project or the due date of the project.
In your example, you’d want to use the start date of the project as your basis. Task Y could be due, say, 2 weeks after the start date, and Task X 3 weeks after the start date. That would make X due a week after Y.
See Setting project dates for a custom template.
Thanks,
Larry
Thank you for this information! This is a really useful tool, but I noticed it’s all relative to the Project start/end date. I’d like for tasks to have cascading due dates relative to each other rather than the project itself as a whole.
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Until that feature becomes available, you can consider this:
Using this approach I mentioned, task dates are both relative to each other (which you want) and based on the start date (which you don’t want).
So after project creation, you can go into Timeline view, multi-select all those tasks which are spaced properly but on the wrong dates, and shift them all at once to be on the correct date. The relative positions will remain intact.
That’s the best you can do at the moment.
Hope that helps,
Larry
Hello (and sorry for sending my last post too early)! Now that the Gantt view feature is available, is there a plan in place for Asana to allow the duration field to be set in a project template to support the cascading tasks due dates outlined in this topic?
Ideally, my team would like to be able to set up several templates that incorporate typical dependencies and the durations of a certain task. Today you can set the dependencies, but you cannot set the duration for a specific task in a template.
As a simplified example of how this would ideally work… let’s say the template is set as follows:
Task 1 | Duration = 5 Days
Task 2 | Duration = 5 Days | Blocked by task 1
Task 3 | Duration = 3 days | Blocked by task 2
And then when someone uses the template and specifies the start date, the dates would dynamically populate as follows (assuming we are weekend aware):
Start Date = 12/13/23
Task 1 = 12/13/23 - 12/19/23
Task 2 = 12/20/23 - 12/26/23
Task 3 = 12/27/23 - 12/29/23
This would be a huge time saver from my team for setting up templates as our product offerings change, so any guidance you can give on if this functionality will be supported by Asana would be great!
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One frustrating limitation: I can’t set the start date for the project - it just assumes that today is the start date. How can I get that on the product upgrade list?
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Welcome, @Dena_Koren,
You can set a project’s start date just like the start date of a task. But, confusingly, it remains captioned “Due date” so maybe that’s throwing you off? Also the start and due date can’t match or it will assume just a due date.
From the project actions menu, choose Edit project details to see this dialog:
You can also set a project’s start/due date from its row in a portfolio if you’re using portfolios.
Thanks,
Larry
Unfortunately, this is only available after I’ve created the project. What I want to do is be able to set the start date for a new project that I create from a template while I’m creating the project so that all the cascading due dates are set correctly. If you have the template set up so that it is backing into all the due dates from the final project deadline, it opens up a field to set the due date… but if you set up the template so that all the due dates are a certain # of days from the start of the project, it assumes the start is the day you create the project… it doesn’t give you the option to set a different start date (e.g., the project is starting next Monday). If you set the start date of the project after you create the project, as you are suggesting, it will not properly set all the task due dates in the way you’ve set them up in the template. Does that make sense? Is there a solution? The way I’m thinking I have to do it is to set the final due-date of the project and backwards map all the deadlines, even though that’s not how I want to do it, because that’s the only way I have control of the dates when I’m creating the project.
You can set the start date when creating a new project from a template. Here’s what it should look like:
That is not what my screen looks like… am I entering the project-creation process from the wrong place?
When I go to open a new project, here’s what I see first:
I choose “Use a template” and here’s what I see next:
I select my template using the blue button in the upper right corner, and here’s what I see next. Similar to the screenshot you’re sharing but not the same:
Any help in getting that Start Date field to appear would be greatly appreciated!
Dena
Hi @Dena_Koren , have you added any relative dates to tasks in your template?
If you click on Edit (instead of Use template) and then upload a screenshot, we could better help diagnose the issue. 
This part of the article may also help:
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I have been working a lot on the relative dates, which is how this problem came up in the first place. Here is the screenshot you requested. The first few tasks don’t have any due dates because they are essentially sub-categories, but their subtasks have due dates:
I’m having the same problem here… no start date. But I’m going to try and see if I add a start date to some of the main tasks, will it open up the start-date field. I did create a brand new test template with only two tasks, each having relative due dates, and the field you showed DID open up… so clearly there is something funky going on.
Thanks for your support!
Problem solved(ish): If I give a relative due date to the task, and not just to the sub-task, the Start Date field does open up for projects created from the template… and it does give the proper start dates. It would be nice if the field opened up when there are relative due dates only for sub-tasks as well, but alas… we cannot have it all. Thanks for troubleshooting this with me… hopefully this chain helps others as well!
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Glad you figured it out, @Dena_Koren, with others’ help.
I didn’t fully understand what you were asking about in your initial post because you didn’t mention “project template” there.
It would be great if you opened either a Report a Bug or Product Feedback post to report the subtask issue; not sure how it would be treated!
Thanks,
Larry
Is there a way to change the Due Date once a project has been created from a template? So that if a project is delayed all relative dates are pushed out.
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@lpb thanks for the welcome and the information.
The tasks I want to shift do not depend on each other.
Here’s what I did in case it’s helpful (and there isn’t a different way of doing it). Go to timeline view and display by quarters, select all tasks by dragging the cursor across them, and moved them to all to a later date.
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You’re welcome, @Ezequiel_Alvarez-Saa, and you found the best way!
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