Prevent updates to shared field from adding task to project

[Mike_Goswick]

We have a shared field between two projects that are aligned with the status of the task. The setup is as follow

• One main board (A) that contains all tasks
• Several sub boards (B) that contain tasks specific to individual projects

Right now, we have tasks that will live on both the board A and B, and some tasks that only live on board B or are a subtask of a task that lives on A. When a task lives on both boards, we want the status updates from B to update the location on A, and have a shared custom field to facilitate this (if custom field is X, move it to X column). We also have different stages on the different board B’s, and have aligned some of them with the status on A. As such we have a flow that

• Status changed for task on B
• Automation Updates share custom field value
• Automation moves task on board A to corresponding status.

This works well when the task lives on both boards. But when a task only lives on board B, the automation still changes the custom field value, and then it seems the movement automation also adds the task to board A. Is there a way to prevent this behavior?

[Alex_Christensen]

Hello @Mike_Goswick - Thank you for the explanation and breakdown of your rule. Would you mind attaching screenshots so that I can visually see the rules?

[Mike_Goswick]

Hey Alex,

Sorry about the delayed response. The issue appears to be that the movement task will automatically add a task to a board even if it’s not on that board, but I was able to solve it by adding a custom field the handle it in the rule. It’s not ideal but seems to work. Below are the relevant rules that appear to cause the issue.

“Project Stage” custom field is shared across both projects, but the tasks on Subboard B may be subtasks or tasks on Board A, but if task on Subboard B is a subtask on Board A, it gets added as a task on Board A when the “Project Stage” is updated on the subtask.

On board A

On subboard B