I have subtasks that need the exact same parent fields auto-filled. It’s way too time consuming to enter in each field again to the subtask. Is there any way to do this?
2 Likes
Welcome to the Asana Community Forum @Ashley_Kruythoff!
Usually you should be able to see the custom field info from the main task in the subtask.
Here is a screenshot from the Asana iOS App but on the web version it is the same.
Now for subtasks of subtasks this is not possible, also see here.
Here is more info on custom fields in subtasks.
Does that help?
1 Like
Thank you for your reply, Andrea.
Unfortunately that did not help. When I’m in a task and create a subtask, then click “show inherited fields” while within the subtask, none of the parent fields are populated in the subtask. I’d have to manually enter in each and every field again into the subtask.
A workaround that I’ve developed is to duplicate the parent task so the fields are included, then convert it to a subtask and make it’s parent the original task.
Surely there is a better way of creating subtasks directly from the parent task so that all fields are auto-populated into the subtask…
Hopefully that made sense!
I appreciate your attention to this matter. Thanks in advance for your help!
All best,
Ashley
Hey @Ashley_Kruythoff oh sorry I misunderstood, I thought it was just about being able to display the same custom fields.
In terms of updating the custom fields here are some workarounds/options:
Rules for subtasks should be coming soon as well: Allow Rules for Subtasks - #124
Flowsana is another option.
And here is a feedback request thread about this topic
Hope that helps
Andrea
1 Like
Since this thread is from 2023, I wanted to double check if Asana already has a solution for this: Is there a way to auto fill subtask fields based on the parent task’s?
2025 and I’m facing the same issue
I want to echo Julia’s question.
Hi @Julia_Rossini1 and @Richard_Shafer , welcome to the forum!
If you are creating the subtask with a rule, you can specify certain parent fields to pass down to the subtask (these will have a + next to them which you will click and then select Custom fields, then the field to be copied to the subtask). It appears that this only works with fields that require an actual input rather than a single select or multi-select response.
If you want to be able to add this at anytime without a specific trigger, you can create a “When Rule is run manually” rule that adds a subtask with the selected fields. Manually running this will add subtasks only to selected parent tasks whenever you’d like.
Best,
Jeremy
Is there a way to add the parent task to the subtask when the rule is run?
For example, the parent task says 3-28-25 Email. The subtask would be 3-28-25 Email: Write Draft.
But the rule would add the parent task of 3-28-25 automatically to the subtask when the rule is run.
If parent task name is not an option, I would also be open to the due date being in the front of the subtask. We are just looking for a way to differentiate these subtasks name in a person’s task list otherwise, they look all the same.
Welcome, @Sarah_Dr,
Yes, the previous post in this topic describes how to use Variables to do that. It’s not clear what trigger you’d want to use to cause the rule to fire, but you would be able to accomplish this for a rule firing on a task for which you want to create subtasks with those values. But not in other circumstances.
You may want to read more about Rules in help.asana.com.
Thanks,
Larry
Hi @Sarah_Dr,
Just FYI if you’re looking to do it in other circumstances, you can do that using the rules in our Flowsana integration.
2 Likes
(post deleted by author)
@Phil_Seeman
I have tried to this in Flowsana, but the only option for actions for Subtasks is: Add Subtasks. There is not an option to modify the name or add them from a template.
This is the workflow that I would like to happen:
- Task is created in project
- Checks to see if task name contains a certain word
- If it does, the action would be to create a list of subtasks (based upon a task template or set up as a rule in Asana so it includes subtask name, description, assignee, and due date)
- The subtask name would also then include either the parent name or parent due date with the subtask name so we don’t have a bunch of subtasks with the same name).
EXAMPLE:
- Parent Task: 3-28-25 Email
- Subtask from Template: Write Draft
- Final Subtaks: 3-28-25 Email: Write Draft (the due date on the subtask would be 3-15-25)
If you have guidance on how to set this up in Flowsana, would be greatly appreciated.
Hi @Sarah_Dr,
Since you were also discussing this with Laura in our support system, I just replied to you there with how to accomplish it using Flowsana.