I am managing many projects within different portfolios. As task managers update schedules and budgets on tasks, there is no way for me to track those changes. I am looking for a way to track when dates and budgets change and WHY they changed. How can I do this in Asana? Is it even possible? Seems like a basic request for project management software.
Great question! Asana doesn’t have a built-in “audit log” feature for tracking field changes automatically, but there are a few workarounds depending on your plan:
**Option 1: Use the “History” tab (Basic)**
Every task in Asana has a “History” section at the bottom that shows recent changes (date changes, assignee changes, etc.). However, this doesn’t track custom field changes like budget.
**Option 2: Create a Change Log task template (All plans)**
Create a recurring task or subtask template that task managers must complete when making changes:
- Create a subtask named “Change Log: [Date]”
- Include custom fields for: Date Changed, Field Changed, Old Value, New Value, Reason for Change
- Make it part of your workflow process
**Option 3: Use Asana’s “Last modified” timestamp (Advanced plan)**
If you’re on the Advanced plan or higher, you can see last modified dates on tasks, but this still doesn’t give you the “why.”
**Option 4: Third-party integration (Best option)**
Consider integrating with a tool like:
- **Zapier/Make**: Trigger when a task is updated → Log changes to a Google Sheet or Notion database
- **Unito**: Two-way sync with a spreadsheet for tracking
**Option 5: Asana Admin Console (Enterprise)**
If you’re on Enterprise, the Admin Console has more comprehensive audit logs, but these are more for security/compliance than project tracking.
The most practical solution for most teams is Option 2 (manual change log subtasks) or Option 4 (automation). Would either of those work for your workflow?
I’ll need to look into these but thank you for the options. My main goal is to eliminate manual work as much as possible and find a more automated way to capture this information. I did try setting up rules, but the options there were limited as well.
Hi @Jaime_Johnson_PG_ASP . To be perfectly clear, do you want to track this change in Asana directly? Or on another tool, and if this is the case, which one?
If this is in Asana only, do you have one Portfolio containing all the other projects that are also available in all other Portfolios? I found the Dashboard view of my main portfolio to be pretty useful to track progress across all projects, adding custom widgets when needed!
Hope that helps,
I was hoping to track it in Asana only, but if there’s another less-manual way to do so I’d be open for that option.
For Asana only - yes and yes. The Dashboard doesn’t show changes that have happened and the widgets are too basic to allow for this. I’m looking for a way to track if someone changes a date on a task or a budget on a task, that change is logged and the user has to enter a comment.