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Workflow & to-do date & status automation

  • 26 August 2021
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Userlevel 2
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Hi all!!! This is a two part question

  1. I know that you can automate a workflow to set a due date and status, is there a way to automate the To-do date of a section/task in a workflow?
    1. To give you and example of what I want to achieve - there is a section in a monthly workflow that is assigned to a colleague - I only want this section to show in my colleagues To-do on the 29th of the month, and change the status of the tasks in this section to “in-progress” at the same time, using automators.
  2. I have a couple of monthly clients and their workflows start on the first of the month, but have approximately 10 - 15 tasks each - so you can imagine what my To-do list looks like on the 1st of every month. again - is there a way to automate the to-do date of a task in a workflow. If not - have you encountered the same issue, how have you negated it - apart from moving 300+ tasks to the desired To-do date on a monthly basis?
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Best answer by Victoria Peters 26 August 2021, 13:57

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Userlevel 7
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Following - these are great questions.

  1. To get around this you could create a separate work order with the start date that you want, instead of using a section.  Of course that means it would not trigger automators for the rest of existing work order, unless you moved all of that to the new work order as well.
  2. The above solution could add to your second issue.  To deal with an overwhelming To-do list we use sub tasks (with no assignment or due date).  Only the main task is assigned and dated so it shows up on the To-do list - I rename it identifying how many subtasks are associated and only mark it complete when all of the sub tasks are complete.  
    • eg. Process current month (6 tasks)

If you have not already done it, be sure to submit a feature request for To-do automators, it’s a great idea.

Userlevel 2
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Thank you Victoria! I agree that both workarounds will eliminate my problem, but will create more admin/the same amount of admin.

1st option is great, I would essentially need to split out the monthly fee per work item, and budget per work item to track profitability... 

2nd option will still result in me having to bounce the item from 1 week to the next as each subtask is completed (assuming each sub-task accounts for a weekly task).

I will certainly submit a feature request - something like - When the work has the status “ready to start” set the To-do date to “x-days” before the due date

Userlevel 4
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@Victoria Peters I love the idea of adding the number of sub-tasks involved.  Great suggestion!

 

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