Flowsana is now available!
What is Flowsana?
Flowsana is a service, specifically created for and integrated with Asana, which provides a number of automation capabilities for your Asana projects. You can sign up for a free 30-day trial subscription at https://flowsana.net.
More specifically, Flowsana consists of three different types of workflows that you can apply to any of your projects.
Auto-Adjust DueDate-Based Workflow
This type of workflow is simple: If you change the due date of a task in the project, and that task has dependent tasks, the start and due dates of all of those dependent tasks will be automatically shifted the same number of days that you moved the initial task. And it takes weekends into account, so a shifted task will never end up starting or ending on a weekend.
Here’s an example of an Auto-Adjust workflow in action:
In addition, when you put a project under this type of workflow control, you have the option of choosing “Treat Subtasks as Dependent Tasks”. If you choose that option, then the above rule also applies to subtasks; i.e. if you change the due date of a task in the project and that task has subtasks, then the start and due dates of all those subtasks will be shifted the same number of days that you moved their parent task.
Dynamic Duration-Based Workflow
This type of workflow lets you have projects where rather than setting specific due dates on tasks, you instead set a duration for each task, defining how long it will take to complete each task. You can optionally also set a lag time for a task; this indicates there should be a delay between the end of a previous dependency task and the start of the task which depends on the previous task.
You then set a start date for the overall project. When you do, Flowsana automatically sets the start and due dates for all tasks in the project.
You can also set or change a start date for a particular task, and Flowsana will adjust the start and due dates for all of its dependent tasks.
You can see an example here - once I set the project start date, Flowsana fills in all of the task dates for the project:
Rule Workflow
This type of workflow is comprised of a condition and an action, otherwise known as an If-Then Rule. This allows you to automate a large number of behaviors on your Asana tasks, such as moving them, associating tags, setting custom fields, assigning to users, etc. Here are the currently-available conditions and actions:
Here are just a few examples of the type of behaviors you can automate with If-Then Rules:
If a task is moved to the Completed column, mark it complete.
If a task is marked complete, move it to the Completed column.
If the Priority custom field is set to Urgent, assign the task to Mary Smith.
If it’s a new task, assign it to John Wilcox.
(This provides the ability to automatically assign all new tasks in a project to you.)
If a task is tagged with the Active tag, add it to the Marketing Activities project.
If a task is moved to the Urgent Tasks column, set its Priority custom field to Pants On Fire.
Here you can see in action the rule, "If a task is marked complete, move it to the Completed column":
How do I get Flowsana?
Sign up for Flowsana at https://flowsana.net.
You can also learn more about it in the online Flowsana Knowledge Base with detailed information on how it operates.
I hope you’ll try out Flowsana and see how it can make your use of Asana more efficient and productive!