You can now see and action subtasks directly from your Project task list!

Hi folks :wave:t3:

We’re excited to share with you that we’re rolling out a new update improving the display of subtasks in Asana!

In the past, you had to open each task manually to see subtasks nested within them. Going forward, each task containing subtasks will be marked with a little triangle (on the left of the task’s title), so you simply click on this little triangle to unfold subtasks and see them in the context of your project*.

With this update, we’re also automatically adding your project Custom Fields to subtasks! You will be able to fill them up within the subtask itself or directly from your Project List View!**

Last but not least, we’re updating the subtask count on all project views (List/Board/Timeline/Calendar) to reflect the number of subtasks that matches the incomplete/completed/all-tasks filter set on your Project! (Note that if your project is set to only display tasks which are marked complete, Asana will only reflect the number of complete subtasks and will not include any incomplete subtasks)

We know there is still some room for improving subtasks but we hope you enjoy this first step toward easier, more flexible subtasks!

As always, feel free to post your questions and feedback below, we look forward to reading you!

Have a great Thursday :smiley:


*Please note that currently, Asana will only display your first level of subtasks on the project list view. If you’ve created more levels of subtasks, you will need to open them manually via their parent task.

**Similarly to the note above, custom fields will only be available for the first level of subtasks.

37 Likes

Sounds exciting, is this live on all sites as I can’t see it on ours?

Yes! this update is now available to 100% of our customers!

2 Likes

Hey Marie,

The collapsible view of subtasks in the Project list is brilliant, however the default copying of custom fields to subtasks has absolutely destroyed the way I use Asana… seems like an unnecessary restriction as previously you can add custom fields simply by adding the subtask to the project. Now, I am forced to have them whether I want it or not. This is a real shame.

8 Likes

Thanks for the feedback @Leigh_Gordine, if you haven’t yet, I’d recommend adding your vote to Make Custom Fields on subtasks optional - #26 by JB_BRU :slight_smile:

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Thanks Marie - have added my voice and vote!

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We were thrilled to discover this at the office yesterday. Custom fields on subtasks are crucial for the way we track work at our organization. We’re now able to have templated workflows, which will save our PMs from having to do imports.

It would be great if we could also visualize subtasks on the timeline (maybe the ability to toggle them on or off). This is mainly important for auto-adjusting dependencies. Right now, there’s no way to do that with sub-tasks.

13 Likes

This is the #1 update we’ve been waiting for. So excited!

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I fully agree with Joe here! Great addition!

I would also really like to see the subtasks on the timeline view.

The same very much goes for the “workload” tab of a portfolio. If we could see subtasks there as well, that would make our Asana-lives so much nicer :slight_smile:

7 Likes

Interesting

This is going to be huge. Thanks for this update.

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@Marie does it mean subtasks are taken into account for workload?

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Nope @Bastien_Siebman!

It looks like subtasks still do not automatically inherit the parent tasks project. Only when they do will subs show up in Timeline and Portfolios. In the mean time you can use this little workaround I found.

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This is great to see on the platform. Thank you!
Don’t forget to update the documentation, it still says:

Subtasks are not visible in the project’s list view, Calendar View, or progress chart unless the subtask is explicitly added to the project.

We need sub-tasks to be reflected in Workload though, especially since they have hours attached…

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Please add a way to expand/collapse all :slight_smile:

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Loving that we can unfold the subtasks, and that the custom fields auto populate in.

Just some feedback regarding what we would like to see yet.

Not sure if you’re aware of this side of things, but it seems that when we filter out the tasks to see by assignee, the triangle to unfold the subtasks no longer appears. Our company uses this filter all the time, as they only want to see their own tasks and not everyone’s for this particular project.

I’ve attached screenshots to help aid what I’m describing.

3 Likes

We have the same feedback! Check out this thread and vote: Display subtasks on List view when project is filtered/sorted - #12 by mira-evan