Enable Recurring Tasks to Trigger Rules

[Jan-Rienk]

Welcome @Lisa_Ryan!

Do I understand you correctly in that this is the same issue and it would solve your request?

Recurring Tasks to Trigger Rules

EDIT: This was initially a bug report. After it turned out recurring tasks not triggering rules was not considered a bug by Asana this topic became a feature request. Briefly describe (1-2 sentences) the bug you’re experiencing: Reccurring tasks not responding to rules Steps to reproduce: Add sections ToDo and Done in My Tasks (I’m guessing other projects behave the same, but I’ve seen it in My Tasks) Make recurring task in section ToDo Add rule to move completed tasks to section “Done” …

If so I’ll merge the topic and the vote(s) will be transferred.

[Lisa_Ryan]

Thank you @Jan-Rienk
Yes I’d like a recurrence of a task to trigger a rule so that we can maintain custom field integrity based on our own Status custom field

[CGPGrey]

+1 to this. As a new user to Asana figuring out rules for the first time it was completely non-obvious that a repeating task would not trigger a ‘new rule’ added to this project rule. Would appreciate a way to run automation on repeating tasks.

[Elizabeth_Lumsden]

I found this has been a feature request going back to 2020! Could we get someone to merge these and combine the votes to raise attention on this?

Enable Recurring Tasks to Trigger Rules

Briefly describe (1-2 sentences) the Bug you’re experiencing: “Task added to this project” Rule trigger isn’t met with repeating tasks. Although new tasks are created when tasks set to repeat are completed, if the “Task added to this project” trigger is used within a Rule on a project then the trigger is not met. This doesn’t seem correct. Steps to reproduce: Create a Rule such as the following and you will find that the Custom Field isn’t set when a new tasks is created (added to the project) …

Rule to change a field on repeating tasks

Sounds like a great idea @Rod_Petrie, hopefully this is something we can implement in the future. While I can’t promise anything at this stage, I’ve made a task to our Product team to take it onboard for future updates

This third one also would be resolved with this feature, as they could set up a custom rule to clear whatever fields they would like to clear if rules could apply to repeating tasks.

Recurring tasks with blank custom fields value

Hello, I am looking for a way to create recurring tasks with default blank values for custom fields on a weekly basis. Right now, the recurring task is getting created based on the values of the most recently completed tasks. My use case is below: Each week I have a task with 4 custom fields that a user can fill out if necessary. If they do not fill out any of the fields that is completely okay and a default value is used in the backend However, if they do fill out a custom field then it shoul…

[Jan-Rienk]

Thanks for spotting and mentioning these @Elizabeth_Lumsden !

I’m wondering how best to merge these as I’ve never done such a big merge before.

I’m thinking merge the topics chronologically, so:

• all into the oldest thread
• preserving the individual thread order
• renaming the topic of the first thread into “Enable Recurring Tasks to Trigger Rules” as I think this best describes the request and would solve all feedback threads.

@ambforumleader @pforumleader @Forum-team Thoughts?

[lpb]

My suggestion would be to merge only this topic into Enable Recurring Tasks to Trigger Rules and retitle it as you indicated.

I believe the other two requests are not the same as those two and shouldn’t be merged with them.

Thanks,

Larry

[Julio_V]

Hi everyone,

I’ve merged the thread here, and as @lpb suggested, I believe the other requests are not exactly the same.

I’ve also updated the title as per @Jan-Rienk’s suggestion.

Thanks for flagging this, @Elizabeth_Lumsden!

[Harry_Wright]

Would like to also add how frustrating I find this lack of functionality - we have rules setup that will mark a status of a task as overdue a few days after it actually goes overdue.

The below rule doesn’t trigger on recurring tasks as they are recognised as duplicated instead of recognised as a new task being added - if there was some sort of trigger for when a duplicated task is added instead I feel like this would solve the problem for most?

You can see the result for a task that is duplicated with a new due date below - it’s frustrating with so many tasks trying to manually update the status of each of them!

[JeremieBergeron]

This would be very helpful… I have a lot of use cases for this.

[Jan-Rienk]

A workaround I’ve been thinking of would be to have an external tool like Zapier add the tasks. It would ensure they are always added in the same way.

Drawbacks:

• Any edits would need to be made in exeternal tooling
• If you skip they you can’t just move the open task to a later date
• New interface that doesn’t match Asana
• Dependent on external party

Depending on the volume of tasks it might be worth exploring.

And then I scan the post again and see what @Phil_Seeman’s wrote, which is probably the best solution so far.

@Phil_Seeman

Just FYI @Jan-Rienk, rules in our Flowsana integration do trigger on new instances of recurring tasks.

[Ka_Nishiyama]

P.S.
When a repeating task is completed, a new due date is set,
so I wondered if I could use the timing “When the due date changes”?

I tested it, but it didn’t work.
It seems that repeating tasks are adamantly not new tasks.

[Jess_deCsesznak]

Has anyone found any other workaround here within Asana (no third party)?

I have people on our team asking about recurring tasks and we really need to be able to trigger a rule when a new recurring task is created.

Thank you!

[lpb]

I’m afraid not

[Wayne_Hedlund1]

Adding my vote here.

I recognize this is the desired behavior for Recurring Tasks. However, it does seem to make more sense that Recurring Tasks would be treated as a new task in every instance. I’ve never seen a use case where I would expect the Recurring Task to not be a new, independent, task.

For example, I’ve setup Meeting Management templates for clients which include ‘Current Agenda’ and ‘Upcoming Agenda’ Sections. It’s common for meeting facilitators to have recurring agenda items like, “Review Past Minutes” or “Status Updates”. Ideally, I’d have a simple Rule that says, “Hey, when the new recurring task enters the project, go ahead and put it into the ‘Upcoming Agenda’ section since it’s not part of today’s agenda anymore.” Sadly, not possible.

Does anyone know if this is on Asana’s radar as a possible improvement in the future at all?

Wayne

[Sébastien_Sénéchal]

Very intersting, I would guess that as a feature, they can add an option/checkbox like “enable trigger to apply on recurring tasks” for the trigger “Task added to this project”.

We have found a workaround, but this involve an extra status column and the fact that you rely on this status instead of marking a task as completed. Basically, the concept is the RULE move the task to another section (and change what need to be change) before it is completed.

[Arthur_BEGOU]

Note: Not a solution but marked as such to elevate a key reply

Hi all.

I’ve luckily found a native workaround for recurring tasks to trigger rules when completed.

What worked for me:

1. A rule that complete the task. Instead of completing the task manually, you will use this rule, for example via the “Run manually” option.

2. Any rule where the trigger is the Task added to the project.
   For example:
   
   

3) The result

Before: completing a task with the normal button (rule is not triggered by the recurring task):

After: completing the task using the rule (rule is triggered)

Remark:
You probably also need this option to be activated on the second rule.

---

Hope that helps

Arthur

[lpb]

Well done, @Arthur_BEGOU!!

I added a note to the top of your task and marked as a workaround solution to this topic for visibility.

[Liohn_Sherer]

Thanks for the work-around.
Rather than using a manual rule, I set a rule to mark the task complete when all my custom fields are completed. So this actually resulted in even fewer steps!