Increment a custom number field with a rule action

[Jan-Rienk]

For various applications it would be useful to be able to increment a number custom field as a rule action.

Tracking the amount of section or status changes could for instance give insights into efficiency.

Tracking the number of times a task changes between section

Looking to find a way to track tasks as them move from New task, to QA, to Approved, Sent to production,etc. Want to be able to see how many times a task has to go back to QA or another section because of late changes from the business owner. Thanks

Create a dynamic task name

I would like to know how to or if we can set up a recurring task with a dynamic task name. For eg. Task name: “Weekly updates - Week of Jul 15 to Jul 19”. When this task gets closed, the recurring new task should open with the name “Week of Jul 22 to Jul 26”. Or something similar that can identify the week in the task name. The due date isn’t helpful in this case as some tasks could have follow-up action that causes the due date to be extended.

[Leigh_Flynn]

This would be enormously helpful to me in automating the determination of level of effort based on a number of variables I already have represented in custom fields. For example adding a point to the overall value for multiple parameters (the project is a new product launch vs an edit to an existing product, multiple languages are required, an additional review is needed for this task) and then using the resulting number to set an Effort field appropriately.

[Aj_CKMA]

I would also be interested in this and was curious if this might already be existing functionality? I was excited at first, when I explored the following…

• Created a custom number field.
• Populated the field in Tasks within the Project.
• Created a rule to watch for a change in a Task and then 'Change selected custom field to…" and it allowed me to select an existing field to use as a variable value, so I selected the same field.

But then it became blocked. It was looking like I could select the field to use an existing value from and then I could add something to that like a “+ 1” operator, but… it only let me either enter a static value or select one or more fields to use as variable values.

So close.

[SamW]

Yes we need this feature as well. From an efficiency stand point we want to track the number of revisions a task undergoes. Right now we’re filling those fields out manually, but it would be great if it could increment each time that situation occurs.

[Alex_Tillman]

For what it is worth I have figured out a clunky DIY workaround. As long as you have a trigger that lines up with what you want to count, and a fixed amount you want to increment per action, this can work for you.

Create two number fields: first is the raw count, second is increment amount (1 if you just want it to go up by 1 each time).

Create a fromula field that equals raw plus increment.

Set the Count field to zero initially. This means the Count should show zero, the increment “1”, and the formula field will equal “1”

Then set up your trigger that you want to increment, and for the action set the Count field to the Increment field.

Your increment formula field is the one that has the accurate count of the increment you want to track. You can hide the other columns.

set Count to -1 to start the count at zero (depends on your use case weather you want to use 0 or minus 1)

[Jan-Rienk]

Hi @Alex_Tillman,

Thank you for your addition.

@Alex_Tillman

sorry Asana shut off my comment before I was done typing.

You can edit your posts afterwards. ( And this forum is Discourse, not Asana. )

I’ve combined your posts into the first one, but I don’t have the rights to delete your other replies. Can you do that yourself?