Templates & due dates: having both "days before" and "days after" within the same project

Yes, please make this possible because at the moment Excel is more convenient than Asana.
I’m trying to make a template for event planning and want all dates to work back from the event’s start date, however I’d also like to have a follow up phase for debrief etc.

I would also like to have a +days from the date of project creation, so I can list the small setup tasks needed.

  • Setup +7 from Today
  • Phase One - 50 days from deadline
  • Phase Two - 20 days from deadline
  • Phase Three -10 days from deadline
  • Event - 0 Days from deadline
  • Debrief + 10 days from deadline

I would also greatly value this feature.
Even just the ability to do a negative number would solve the problem. Like
“-2 days before end date” which would be 2 days after.

I plan events for my company and being able to base around the day of the event would make my life so much better!

Has there ever been a solution for this issue?

We have the same challenge. We want to set up the templates, based on the due date of the event and not from “creation of the task” on.
We need the exact same as described by RebeccaCS.

As far as I know, there hasn’t.

I made a work around by making a template in Excel where I could put the dates in, let it calucalte the dates and then uploading it into Asana as a .csv . Not pretty or elegant but it gets the job done.

This is frustrating that this has not been resolved yet. There should be an option that allows you to default to before or after, but you should be able to override it for each task.

You should also be able to override to have an exact date. Annual planning for each project needs to be done by X date after the start of the fiscal year, but the tasks will need to be done Y days before the project, reporting and billing need to happen z days after a project is closed. This should be chooseable in a way that you can say X month and day and the system would know that it would work for any year. Or an exact date including year. Bonus points if you can say the first Wednesday of the month type thing.

Other issues - only having days as an option. I don’t want to have to do math to figure out how many days 5 months is, or 5 weeks.

Bump. Same ask, also shocked this is not a feature, which seems to be table stakes.

Our use case is to have milestones at the start of a client project.

Example:

  • “Client must sign off on requirement completion form 20 business days after project kick-off”.
  • “Client must sign off on production deployment 90 business days after project kick-off”.

I too second this feature, im surprised it’s not already available. We work in event production and this would seriously save us SO MUCH time.

Hello!
I’m creating some new templates for my team, and I always need help on the due dates.
For ex, a project for offboarding someone.
I have the termination date; that’s the date the person will be let go. But I have to take some actions BEFORE the termination date and some other tasks after (those work fine when the project has the due date rule to be after project start date).
I tried to add the minus sign, but it doesn’t work.
Is anyone successful in some workaround on this case?

it is possible to trigger tasks and subtasks based on an end date. which version of Asana do you have? you might need pro to have the feature.

For a while I though it was just me not “understanding” how to make this happen. It’s bittersweet to know that I’m not the only one looking for this feature.

1,5 years later - and no progress at all. As you can see here this is a feature some users are waiting for…

Hello!

I am trying to make a project template for employee onboarding, but I want to make the template have due dates before and after our new employees start date. For instance, I want to set a relative due date to achieve things like setting up and employees desk and laptop before their onboarding, but I would like to have a check up 7 days after to review and make sure they all onboarding paper work done. Is it possible to set relative due dates before and after the start date or can you only choose one?

Welcome, @William_Fincher,

I’m afraid it’s only one or the other, relative to start of project or end of project.

I’ve merged your post into an existing thread where you can click the title to scroll to the top and vote by clicking the purple Vote button.

Alternatives are to include a task assigned to set up the project by adjusted a date or two manually, or having two templates.

Thanks,

Larry

Yes! I am currently creating my onboarding template, and was googling to see if this was an option. Sadly no… Please Asana! Bring this feature in!

I am wondering whether this is on the horizon or the roadmap somewhere.

We have projects which require 9% of the tasks before the due date, but then the following 10% as follow-up tasks PAST the due date.

Currently in templates you can only select for the dates pre-populate before OR after a date, but not both… could this be a feature that could be explored?

I’m guessing this would solve it: 📅 Relative project template dates (other than after start or before end)

When creating a project template, users currently have the option to choose between two due date models: “# of days after the project start date” or “# of days before the project due date.”

I have a use case that doesn’t fit well into either due date model and requires more flexibility in setting relative due dates.

I am making a project template for the planning cycle of a large annual event that my organization puts on. Task due dates range from 500 days before the event (booking space, brainstorming theme) to several weeks after the event (follow-up tasks). In the template, it makes most sense to set the due dates relative to the date of the event, using the “before project due date” schedule type. However, there is no option to set relative due dates after the event date for our follow-up tasks. Please add this functionality! This is significantly limiting the usability of templates for our needs. (For now, we will have to set all tasks that should be due after the event to be due the day of the event instead, and will have to remember to manually correct these due dates each time a project is created from the template. This introduces a significant opportunity for error, particularly in the case of staff turnover.)

Yep, same issue for our organization! Like other commenters on this thread, we want to create an event planning project template with due dates relative to the date of the event, with the option to set some due dates before the event and some due dates after.

Example: Employee onboarding. Planning would happen relative to the start day of the new hire. Not choose between before or after.

Brand new in asana and taking over an existing proejct. The due dates are listed just as dates. How can I change it to be # of days instead? Can you point me to this. Thank you !