My team uses Asana to manage a bunch of editorial calendars, with each card containing several subtasks. We schedule tasks and subtasks in bulk, using Zapier, but then we have to go into each card and adjust the due dates manually to avoid weekends and holidays. Is there any way to set up an Asana project so that it blocks subtasks from being assigned to a weekend or holiday?
Hi @Nora_Schlesinger and welcome to the Forum!
In this specific case, I would recommend using Templates.
You could convert an existing Project into a Template and use it later to create new Projects.
If this Custom Template has Tasks with dates, when creating a New Project from it, you can set a start date or an end date to your new project and it will automatically adjust and schedule all the task following your template pattern and the start or due date you’ve selected for this new project. (You can learn how to do this in the following article: How to Use Asana Project Templates | Product Guide • Asana Product Guide).
The good thing about using this feature is that you can also decide if you want to schedule your tasks on weekends or not.
I hope this helps! Have a great Wednesday! 
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Hi Natalia,
Thanks so much for getting back to me! I’m already using templates, so this looks like it may work for me. Two follow up questions:
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Does the date restriction apply to subtasks as well, or just the master card/task?
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I’m going through the tutorial for setting up the date restrictions, but in order to schedule the project dates, I first have to set the dates of the project. When I go to that tutorial, it is telling me to click the drop down arrow inside the project (next to the project title). Right now, all I see is three dots, and within that menu, no “edit project details” option. I’m only able to edit the name and description. I have a premium account, so I assume I’m not locked out of any features. Can you help me figure out how to access the ability to set project start dates for my template? Thanks!
@Nora_Schlesinger, I believe there are a couple of versions of this functionality out there in the wild, so since you don’t have that version described, you can also set the project’s (start and) due date(s) by going into the project’s Progress tab.
Larry
Hi @Nora_Schlesinger. 
I’m happy to read that!
To answer your questions:
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If the Custom Template contains subtasks with dates, it will automatically adjust and schedule those subtasks as well.
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As @lpb mentioned, you can set the project’s Start and Due Date on the Project’s Progress tab. See the screenshot:
Let me know if that helps and if you have any follow-up questions!
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Thank you so much!
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Hey @Natalia I am on Nora’s team and I am having problems with subtasks skipping weekends, they are still getting scheduled via Zapier. Was this functionality broken?
Hi @dustin2 and welcome to the Forum!
Sorry for the late reply here! Are you still running into this issue? Is this only happening with subtasks? Are those subtasks associated to the project template?
To give you some context, Subtasks do not automatically inherit their parent task project. You can manually associate your subtasks to the project by following these steps: https://asana.com/guide/help/premium/custom-fields#gl-subtasks
Looking forward to your reply!
Hi @Natalia - with this, is there a way that template sub-tasks can be set up to avoid weekends? Ie. Use a template project with a template task (with relative due dates) which then avoid weekends with each time a new template task is created?
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@Natalia - believe you answered the question on how to avoid weekends, but how do we setup Asana so that it accounts for holidays as well?
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My guess is that it is hard for Asana to account for holidays as a multi-cultural/global company. Holidays in the United States will be far different than in Japan or Australia for example
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I have the same feeling @Mike_Tammaro . Same goes for week-ends, not every country have the same days off…
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Hi @Natalia ,
Thanks for your links! However, seems there is still no “schedule tasks on weekends” on my asana :<
There is due date in my template. When I create a project with this template, there is no “schedule project dates screen” even though it says " The schedule project dates screen will only show up if there are set dates (a project or task due date or date range) in the custom template." at How to Use Asana Project Templates | Product Guide • Asana Product Guide
Can you pls help?
From my own testing, this feature is now available in the template Edit mode. You have to click on one date, then click on the “due date rule” and you’ll see the checkbox there.
So it can’t be chosen on a per project basis I am afraid.
@Phil_Seeman is this another limit of PT 2.0?
@Jennifer_Chen: @Natalia’s screenshot was of the old v1.0 project templates. You’re now on the new Project Templates 2.0 which are quite different.
@Bastien_Siebman is exactly right - to get to the Schedule Dates screen including the ability to choose whether to skip weekends or not, you have to click on one task’s due date. For more background on this, see Say Hello to Project Templates 2.0! - #77 by Phil_Seeman, and here’s a video illustration of how to do it.
No, actually it is - even though you’re making the selection on a task, the button on that “Set schedule” screen is “Update all tasks”, so the settings do apply to the whole project. Yes that’s incredibly unintuitive, which I discuss in my post linked to above.
What I meant @Phil_Seeman was that in V1, you could choose to skip week-end (or not) while creating the project. In V2, you decide once and for all, isn’t it?
Ah, got it, I see what you were saying!
I don’t consider that a big loss, though - since a template defines a particular process with its interrelated steps, it seems unlikely that you’d sometimes want to perform that process including weekends and other times excluding them. Right?
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Yeah right, but it will surely break a few people’s workflows so it was worth mentioning.
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Oh right - @Phil_Seeman thanks a lot for your explanation and video link! Really helped a lot.
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This is still not a solution EVEN FOR WEEKENDS. I’d love to add custom holidays as well, but can understand that is slightly more difficult to incorporate. I am wondering what the original poster ended up doing. The problem with the weekend toggle button in templates is that it then counts project dates as business days only, it no longer allows for building a plan based on calendar day count only. I need to have the tasks based on calendar days, but if the due date happens to land on a weekend then it should automatically schedule it for the closest business day prior to that date.
For example, if a certain task should be due on the 10 days before the project due date and that date falls on a weekend, there is no way to schedule that task on the previous business day. It will schedule the task on the weekend day and then I will have to manually move it if I want it to change. The suggested solution above allows for business day count only so if you say 10 days, it becomes much longer than just 10 calendar days and that varies based on the calendar. I have been searching for weeks now and can’t find a solution.
Can you simply tell Asana not to schedule on weekends? I am open to any solution at this point that is better than manually moving the tasks.
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