Have status on your Asana Task

Like ticketing, have different status possible on your asana task like :
-received

  • on going
  • done
    etc.
5 Likes

Hi @Eugenie

Have you thought of using tags for this? You could create tags for each status, and you’d be able to click on one of the tags to see a report of all tasks that are tagged with that status.

Or, if you’ve got a Premium account, you could use custom fields instead, which are even more versatile.

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Yeah I think most people use custom fields for that, which is why Asana came out with such a fantastic addition! =)

Here’s an article on them, they are premium only, but as Mark said you can use tags similarly and those are free =)

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yes, custom fields are they way to go.

Unfortunately using a custom field to track the status doesn’t have any impact on the Project Progress. Tasks are either “remaining” or “completed” which means my tasks could all be 90% complete, but it would still look like 0%.

Some additional status options at the task level that track through to the progress would be great!

9 Likes

Hey @Keri_Sprinkle; Michael from the Asana support team here.

You’re quite right, the use of custom fields would not affect the final status of your Project, the way you’re looking to leverage with status updates issued from the Progress Tab. I still think, should you have a premium account, custom fields might still be of use to you if you’re looking to keep track of the status of Tasks throughout your Asana space. The added benefit of integrating custom fields to your workflow is your ability to report on the progress of Tasks across your Asana with advanced search, as opposed to just the Project level, as is the limitation with depending on the solely depending on the progress tab of your Projects.

That said, I can confirm that only until your Tasks have been marked complete will that be reflected in the status of your Project’s progress.

Hope this adds a bit more context to the different ways you can report on the status of Tasks in your Asana space; hope this helps :slight_smile:

The problem I’m having with custom fields is that they’re just not structured enough to work effectively as custom statuses. On the one hand, the flexibility with this feature is great, but it’s _so_flexible that many people on my team can add/ edit custom fields as they see fit. This leads us into issues where we can’t come to an agreement as to how projects should progress :slightly_frowning_face:

Has Asana ever looked into what Monday and ClickUp have done with this feature? It would be great if you could offer something similar to ClickUp’s set up, since they offer both simple and custom status options. Please keep us updated on custom field alternatives! :pray:

6 Likes

Just to chime in here… I like the idea of a status/completion slider or something. Also building on that… having custom workflows would also help. So when I complete my part of the task, it can get auto assigned to the next person who has a role (next phase, approval, whatever), and then when they finish their piece, it can go to the next person in the workflow (which could be me again).

Even without the use of a slider, in another system, I used their workflows to build percentages, so I could just select the percentage I was on. So a workflow could look like:
25%
50%
75%
Submitted
Final

And these could be anything. Creating automated workflows is even better, where logic and be programmed. So if I click on Submitted, it would auto assign the approver and give them a deadline of 2 days, and set a custom field to “x,” etc.

Let me see if I understand:
1 - Today, Asana tasks have two status: Incomplete, Completed
2 - A tasks is Completed after we click the top left checkbox. Otherwise, it’s Incomplete

  • Up until here it’s what I figured out via the Aha integration

3 - If I want an additional status (e.g.: In Progress), that’s not possible.
4 - In order to emulate an additional status, I need to create a custom field.

NOW comes my question: If I do add a custom field, then the Complete checkbox at the top left corner becomes a duplicate, and in order to consider a task Complete I need two updated (custom field + Complete checkbox)? Is this accurate or am I missing something?

Thank you

1 Like

Other useful values:

  • In Progress
  • On Hold
  • Awaiting External Input
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@Eduardo_Mylonas_da_S, great question. has anyone got an answer?
Is it possible to link the task’s Completion status to a custom field?

This is how Monday.com does it.
You choose one of the status values from a custom field to represent Completed for the task as a whole. Pretty simple really.
eg:

  1. Started
  2. Waiting for Authority
  3. Waiting for Delivery
  4. Delivered [=Task Completed]

Asana, how about adding this feature too?

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Hi @Alex_Bailey1,

Not with Asana natively. You can accomplish this with a Flowsana If-Then Rule, for example:

Thanks for the solution. Flowsana sounds better by the minute :smiley:

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100% Agreed with @Eugenie
Asana is missing the major workflow relates to custom status.
We are working with other customers using ClickUp, they give users the option to customize our own status WORKFLOW which is similar to Jira. Because each project might have different needs.

TAG is not status, even though you can use it as a status field
See video and guideline how it works here https://docs.clickup.com/en/articles/831184-statuses

It would be very useful for us if Asana can implement such a crucial feature without involving a third-party plugin such as Flowsana as @Phil_Seeman mentioned above.

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Wow… posted in 2017 and Asana still cannot give a task a status natively? Clearly this isn’t a priority then. When the solution is “Use a third-party tool” and it still doesn’t add any value to the data produced from Asana as it pertains to complete-ness, it’s time to look elsewhere.

3 Likes

Wow! Now it’s 2023 and still missing these feature((((

1 Like