Question

Conditional tasks

  • 22 March 2022
  • 8 replies
  • 59 views

Userlevel 4
Badge +3

I have set up a work template. There are tasks on the template that may or may not need to be completed for that work. If it does not need to be completed, is there a better way than just marking it complete regardless? If we skip it the job won’t complete when the last task is ticked off.


8 replies

Userlevel 1
Badge

We have similar templates, we delete the task if its not applicable. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

Hi @Imbi Finlayson 

We have created a sub status under Completed -  ‘Cancelled’ - to complete these tasks.  I have see others in the Community use ‘Not Applicable’ or ‘Not Needed’.

That way the task is completed for the purpose of the work order but if you look at the task you can clearly see that that particular task was not part of the process.

I also encourage my team to add a comment any time they use the Cancelled status to complete anything - if further clarification would be helpful.

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

Hi @Imbi Finlayson! 😀

Another option you have is to add a final step that, when checked off, completes the work item.

Here’s how I set these up:

And here’s the automation settings:

This way you can skip any steps in the middle and it just takes one click to mark the work complete when it’s finished. We use this when there are optional steps that we want to keep around for recurring work but don’t get completed every time.

Does that help at all?

Userlevel 5
Badge +6

I also use the Cancelled status for those tasks, but I will look into Max’s method, because that is a great idea!

Userlevel 5
Badge +5

@max, ohhh, that’s neat, thanks for the share.  I have sections that are conditional, and If I could create that as a mechanism to check of/mark all those tasks as cancelled in a particular section if not necessary, that would be cool, I like it! 

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

You could use the same idea to use an automation to mark all the tasks in section A as canceled if all the tasks in section B are complete. 

@max, ohhh, that’s neat, thanks for the share.  I have sections that are conditional, and If I could create that as a mechanism to check of/mark all those tasks as cancelled in a particular section if not necessary, that would be cool, I like it! 

 

Userlevel 5
Badge +5

@max, I figured as much, thanks for confirming! 

Userlevel 4
Badge +3

I have 2 issues with this process I cannot find a workaround for:

  1. If I create a sub-task called Non-applicable that completes the task, it still kicks off the automators that put that work to the wrong person. I want the work to go to a different assignee if there is a non-applicable task. It’s not possible to have an automator depend on a status of non-applicable. It sees any status under Complete as Complete.
  2. If we simply skip tasks if they’re not applicable, then the tasks stay open in that person’s My Week, so shows active tasks with them, rather than ‘you have completed all your tasks’.

At this stage I am thinking we cannot possibly have the automators work for us completely and will have to rely on manually re-assigning, if we have any chance of reducing noise and having My Week report accurately and not be confusing.

Reply