File Storage Best Practices

Can anyone share use cases on your organization’s policy/procedures for file storage in combination with Asana? I’m looking for ideas on team processes.

The feedback I hear most often from our team about Asana confusion is, “I don’t quite understand where everything is supposed to live. Are we putting files in Asana, Dropbox or our shared drive?”

I remember reading somewhere here in the forum that while Asana has storage capabilities, that it is not designed to be a full storage solution. And that’s true. Our organization has put a large emphasis on Office 365 and shared drive/OneDrive storage.

Therefore, my recommendation to our team has always been - while the task is in production, files are in Asana. Once the task is complete and the files are finalized, then the final file is stored in our shared drive. Files only need to go in Dropbox if they are being shared externally. The question comes back, who is responsible for ensuring the finalized file is placed where it needs to go? The person who completed the task or the person who is the receiver or approver?

What is your company’s best practice for this situation?

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Hi Crystal,

We struggle with that here as well. Does your organization used SharePoint or OneDrive? We have been using that type of share drive to save documents and we will use the link in Asana to point to the file. This might solve your issues with moving files around. Asana and OneDrive are not currently working optimally, which is the major drawback.

Katie

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I agree Asana is not the best tool for storing files. Even worse if your organization is already storing files in another location. Then you have to worry is the file in Asana or the other location and rummage around in multiple locations.

Because of this and the problems you listed, I tell everyone to store files in our file storage location first (We use Google Drive.) and then attach the file to the Task.
In general, it’s best to define what each tool in your organization is for to avoid overlaps and confusion.

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Thanks guys. Just including a link to the file on the shared drive when updating the task in Asana sounds like it might be the easiest solution.

That’s exactly what we do. Link to file path in description of task. The way I coach newbies is I have them talk about how annoying it is to email back and forth about a file. Having to find the word doc file that had your boss’s comments and edits then you goof and use the wrong version. You only want to make that mistake once. With Asana we all collaborate directly on file server (and I teach that revisions on a file are great just do a save as and change “rev.2019-03-11” to next date). I do allow them to attach things in Asana that are small / clearly just a one-time thing that doesn’t need to clutter our file server. A custom letter to a donor (saved in our CRM anyway), a quick flyer HR needed for an event, etc.

We have a similar Dropbox workflow as you - for our board of directors and graphic designer (external).

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