When you create a template and set up task due dates, then use that template to create a project and select your start date, you can change your start date after by going into “Edit Project Details” but the only thing that actually changes is the start date itself. The rest of the dates do not change so you have to manually change your task due dates and it can get tedious depending on how many tasks you have for that project. It pretty much defeats the purpose of setting up the due dates in the first place if they don’t actually change based on the start date you picked (and i’m talking about the new template that rolled out where you can pick the due dates to be 3 days after said task due date etc.). If there was a feature implemented that gives you the option to update the task due dates based on the revised start date this would be huge! So if I create a template and have my project start date entered then have task #1 due 3 days after the start date and task #2 due 5 days after the start date etc., but something happens and there is a delay in my project so I go revise the start date, the following tasks I set up with the due dates should follow suit and change as well because now that the start date is changed the task due dates should reflect that since I created my template to have the due dates populate based on the start date.
Welcome to the forum!
In order to change task due dates in a project after the project has been created, and have them changed based on another task date changing, you need to set up dependencies and use the timeline view to change the task due/start date.
Here is some documentation on how to use timeline view with dependencies to change task due dates.
Hope this helps!
Are there any plans to make these feature work in list or block view? Timeline is great for a visual but not as much for day to day and going through tasks.
Hi Christine,
Thank-you!
We do use dependencies and the timeline view, great functions 
The function I am needing created involves the way the template works. We were so excited when the new templates rolled out because now you can set up task due dates to be whatever you input based off of the start date or due date, depending which one you select when creating your template (ex. 3 days after start or 3 days before due date and so on) thinking that if you change the start date of your project all your task due dates will follow suit. What we realized is that it works the exact same as before in the sense that you need to manually change your dates if anything were to arise. So being in the construction industry there are a lot of factors in your schedule so if I input a project and select a certain start date it then creates all my due dates based off of the start date I input when creating the project. If something comes up and my project is now delayed I can’t just go into the start date and change it to when my project will actually start and have all my corresponding task due dates be updated, the only thing that updates is my start date and all my due dates remain the same.
Hi @Nikki_J,
I understand timeline is not the exact feature you were requesting, but because the timeline/dependencies feature wasn’t mentioned in your original post I wanted to be sure you knew that option was available to you. The intention behind timeline is to provide you with the ability to not only change the project timeline if a project starts late, but to be able to change the timeline of a project if delays occur mid-project as well.
If timeline isn’t going to work for you in the scenario, another option would be to recreate the project from the template and delete the original. Just make sure you unassign all tasks before deleting the project.
Good luck with your projects!
Hi Christine,
Thank-you very much for ensuring I knew about the other options, I appreciate your input!
I do know that I have the ability to re-create the project and that could be a good work-around, I just thought if there was a feature to change the start date rather than re-create the project, it would be a great addition to the new templates and be less work for us.
I just wanted to give some feedback on the forum in hopes that the tech team can look into it for future implementation and see if this would be beneficial for other users!
I would caution anyone about relying on Asana to do the math correctly on changing a Timeline with dependencies. There is at least 1 serious acknowledged bug that has had no updates in the last 5 months: Timeline bug - Adding empty days from template
Oh wow, I just read the thread, that is a serious issue! I’m sorry it hasn’t been addressed yet, thank-you for the heads up!
You might want to check out the Auto-Adjust and Dynamic Duration workflow types of our Flowsana integration; they provide two different ways of handling changes in dependent tasks.
So in order to get due dates to automatically update to the new dates if a predecessor is delayed you either have to manually change the dependent tasks dates or purchase Flowsana?
Having just come across this issue myself, is there any plan on the roadmap to fix this? It’s quite frustrating that all automatic dates aren’t able to be changed by starting the project start date? Additionally, when setting up the project from template, how can you select what the start date should be. I don’t necessarily want it to be from the day I created the project, especially when showing sample timelines, I want to be able to show options of what the timeline would be if starting on different dates. Having to change each date manually defeats the whole purpose of having automated dates in place.
Asana, like a lot of its competitors, doesn’t publish a roadmap or comment on unreleased features, so I’m afraid there’s not an answer available to this question.
@Phil_Seeman @Nikki_J Any update on this? We recently brought on Asana to scale our project management and are looking for something other than spend more or do more work to efficiently manage projects. The solutions proposed are not going to be met well with our broader user groups so would be great if you could just make the spirit of auto-assigning dates cascade through a very predictable scenario of changing dates when projects need to be pushed out or pulled forward.
Thanks!
@Brian_Jorgensen The only update that i’ve noticed Asana make is if you have dependencies for a task you can select to update the dependency dates that fall after that task (it doesn’t touch any dates before that task). If you set up your project tasks to be dependent on the task before it then it could work, however, the process isn’t always perfect and I find myself still changing things around manually. Still hoping that they could just implement having a project start date and when that date changes, all of the other task dates in said project change as well, regardless if they have dependencies or not.
@Nikki_J Thanks for the confirmation - we will give your approach a go and see how we fare. Our projects tend to have many tasks and have moving ‘due dates’ so fingers-crossed!
@Brian_Jorgensen No problem. I feel your pain, that’s the exact reason I wanted that feature. Best of luck!!
We just encountered this issue today as well… the project due date was changed, but none of the task due dates changed along with this new date. Just checking into this tread to see if anyone knows if this issue has been addressed and resolved or do we still have to change everything manually?
Hi @Kim_Hall and welcome to the forum,
There’s been no change in this area - Asana doesn’t do any adjustment of tasks when a project start and/or due date is updated. FYI you might want to check out our Flowsana integration which has some solutions for this as noted above.