Linking multiple task due dates together.... possible?

English Forum Tips and Tricks
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We design, manufacture, and install some very complicated product. The process is tracked in Asana; each product lives in Asana as a Task, which is moved from one Asana Project to another as the product passes through various stages of production.

You can imagine that a LOT of those tasks have dependencies, and I’m aware the Asana has rolled out some dependencies features, but they don’t do what I thought they’d do.

I need Asana to change the due date of several other subtasks if one the “prior” subtasks gets changes.

For example, a simplified version. Each job (Task) will have the following Subtasks along with the relative due dates shown:

  1. Design (day 1)
  2. Drawings (Day 2)
  3. Engineering (Day 3)
  4. Fabrication (Day 4)
  5. Paint/coatings (Day 5)
  6. Final Assembly (Day 6)
  7. Delivery (Day 7)
  8. Final Installation (Day 8).

If someone changes the due date for #1, I need Asana to automatically move the due date for everything above #1 out by one day.

Our jobs are actually quite a lot more complex than what I have posted here, and the company frequently has 30-40 of these major jobs happening at once. You can imagine what a nightmare it is trying to keep up with all these various subtasks.

It helps that ALL of our jobs use the same template task as it’s basis, so if we can find a way of tying all of those subtasks into one due-date-chain like this, this would hopefully copy over to the new jobs when that task template is duplicated.

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Long story short: no Asana does not allow to link dates in a way that they adapt.

One exception: in Timeline view, if dependency conflict avoidance is toggled on, Asana would move tasks in the future to avoid a conflict.

Flowsana from @Phil_Seeman has a feature around this topic, I’ll let him answer.

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Bastien, that one exception that you mentioned is still quite helpful. It works, but very simplistic. We frequently have due dates that need a “lag time” between them and the next dependant task that we’d want to retain, but that’s a fairly nuanced preference.

Thus far I think we can get what we need from this.

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Then Flowsana is exactly what you need I believe!

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I will look into it— I’m not familiar with it, thank you for the suggestion.

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Hi @Matt5,

Unlike Asana which only moves dependent tasks if there’s an overlap/conflict, Flowsana will always move dependent tasks, thus maintaining any lag times. The workflow type you want for this is the Auto-adjust Workflow. (If you’re going to use it, be sure to turn off Asana’s “Prevent dependency conflicts” option so the two systems don’t step on each other’s toes, so to speak.)

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