Awesome! I’ve updated my formula and think it’ll work that way. Thank you all so much for your help!!
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Just moved over to Asana from Monday.com and I’ve read through this topic.. Just wondering if I might have to move back to Monday if Asana can’t do the below:
Trying to add custom date fields and set up rules to automate things when that date is x days away. For example, email me when manufacture date is 14 days away. Change priority when install date is x days away and more along those lines.
At the minute all I can see is that I can do this with Due Date (when approaching) or Start Date, but not with custom dates?
This topic has been here for 3 years so hoping this is implemented by now
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Hi, @Mark_McCormack .
I have never used Monday, so please explain.
Are you requesting the following?
- Why do you care about custom fields?
- What kind of problems are there with due dates?
- Why is it necessary to set a specific date other than the due date, and then execute a different action when it is X number of days before that date?
It’s necessary for me because we have several important date points on a project timeline, not just a start and end date. I use automation in Monday to notify me when it’s 4 weeks from installation date to carry out quality control checks and make sure all components are ordered/in stock etc..
Basically we use 3 important dates that, at the minute, I can automate notifications/emails to be sent x days before those dates. I can’t do this in Asana it seems, only with Due Date or Start Date. It’s just extra flexibility that seems like it would be useful in general and is available in other software like this.
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As I understand it, the task (event) has a due date, and a sub-deadline is required 10 days before the due date. Is that correct?
Is the following correct as an example of how it works?
- Event task: Due date = August 14th, Alert days = 10 days
- Notify the person in charge on August 4th, 10 days before August 14th
To get straight to the conclusion, it was possible to achieve this using rules.
I will add more details later.
In that case, an alternative solution would be to create a follow-up task for the event task and set the due date of the follow-up task ten days before the original task.
It might be better to set a dependency between this event task and a follow-up task.
The “Asana way of doing things” really focuses on a task’s due date in these cases, so as @ka_nishiyama mentioned above, the general solution in Asana would be to create multiple tasks - and quite possibly make those subtasks - to track the other related dates.
Having said that, it is possible to do what you’re wanting in the rules of our Flowsana integration, for example:
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There are a lot of requests embedded within this thread… but we’re planning on introducing time based rules within our current quarter.
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Can you expand on what you mean with time-based rules?
@Jan-Rienk we’ve heard that customers need to automate processes on a specific schedule. To be more specific as an example: I as a manager want to remind my team to fill in a task for their weekly priorities on Monday at 9am (local time for task creator) before a live meeting. Or I as a Project Portfolio Manager need all my PMs to submit their portfolio/goal status updates by a certain time each week/month before a leadership review.
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@Garrett_Knoll, if I understand you right, we would be able to setup your rule to run on specified times.
I have mixed feelings about that.
On one hand that would mean you don’t have to rely on a previous recurring task being completed for the rule to run, so that’s good. Especially curious to see what can be done with AI powered rules that can do, and also combining it with web-search might enable exciting workflows.
On the other hand I don’t understand why not Enable Recurring Tasks to Trigger Rules ?
Doesn’t that yield the same result, with less work?
Calling the fact that recurring tasks don’t trigger rules expected behaviour never made sense to me.
Currently we have roughly 3 options to have recurring tasks to trigger rules:
- Use @Arthur_BEGOU’s workaround
- Use Flowsana rules
- Have an external tool like Zapier shoot tasks into Asana
Now we seem to be adding a fourth option, also in the background.
I’m worried people will start using the schedule option to compensate for recurring tasks not being able to trigger rules, making it less visible/obvious.
Having a new instance of a recurring tasks trigger the rules woudld bring it to the foreground.
Circling back to this thread, this feedback seems different than a schedule for rules. Would utilising custom date fields more extensively be included in this update? If so, besides the variants on due/start date is approaching for custom fields I’d also love to be able to compare date fields in a condition.
That’d also potentially solve: End Dates for Recurring Tasks, although it again would be leaning on the ability of the recurring tasks to trigger the rule…
Would love to see custom date field rules at a project level. For example, when a project is completed using Project Status. It would be nice if that date is populated into a custom date field (e.g., Actual Due Date/Actual Completed Date). This would then roll up into Portfolio reporting. The value here would be removing some of the administrative/low value work from manually adding completed dates)
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Apologies if this is restating someone else’s request. I did not have time to browse all the posts in this thread at the moment. I see this is marked “In Development,” which is exciting! I utilized extra private date fields and formulas to create a workaround today, but I’m hoping for these much more straightforward options within the rule builder:
- *Ability to add “*Task is overdue” or “Custom date field is [changed/approaching/past]” as criteria and not just triggers, allowing flows to check and do actions based on date context after other normal triggers occur. (Example: when added to current sprint, check if task is overdue and leave comment asking for due date to be updated to a realistic, future date)
- Improve existing Start Date, Due Date, and Custom field date options (when used in criteria) to:
- Allow a dynamic “TODAY” to be used in before, after, between options
- Allow other date fields to be used in before, after, between options
- Example: Due Date is before [custom “Entered Sprint Date” field]
- Allow relative dates within all date triggers and criteria (bonus if following work schedule)
- Example in criteria: Check if Due Date is between TODAY and 14 days from now
I have found the criteria options of “before, after, between” to be useless for all of our flows since they currently require static dates.
I am hoping at least some of these are in development and appreciate the opportunity to provide product feedback.