How do due dates transfer when copied?

Hey Asaners (is that a term? Maybe?), I’m working on building out a set of templates and had a question regarding due dates. I’ve worked offline on basically having a list of times required for each individual sub-task, but I’m curious what happens if I assign the due dates for all sub-tasks, and then copy that task or project. If I set the due date for the task on the copied project, will all the sub-task due dates be automatically updated?

Basically, I want to make sure that when I copy a task and set its due date, all the respective sub-tasks will retain their due dates (i.e. Sub-Task B is dependent on Sub-Task A and needs to be completed 6 days prior to Task #1 (in which Sub-Task A and Sub-Task B live).

Thanks in advance for the help!

Hey Trask, when you copy a task/project the due dates don’t change like that. So:

If you set a date of June 20th for the task in the original project, then Subtask B is June 14th, Subtask A is June 8th, etc. - and you copy the task/project, it’ll carry over those same dates.

And then if you change the copied task’s date from June 20th to July 20th, the subtask dates won’t change.

However, @Alexis wrote down some instructions that I think might help you on this!

Do note though that this doesn’t work for subtasks, however if you were to manually add the subtask to the home project, you could probably do it?

If none of that works, though, you could do it with an integration - Instagantt I think copies over task dependencies. So if ST B is dependent on ST A, then every time you move the due date for ST A, ST B’s moves as well. I think you have to do that in instagantt though, it won’t move the dates if you change the date in Asana (please correct me if I’m wrong!)

Hello Caisha,
Quick question. I am project manager, so sometimes projects consists of very similar tasks. When I choose to duplicate those tasks, due dates are also taken and when I change said dates on the receiving project, dates also change on the original one.

How can I fix this?
Thanks a lot in advance,
Best.

Hey Victor, so to understand your dilemma, you’re saying:

  1. You take an existing Task X and duplicate it
  2. You choose, in the duplication, to duplicate the due date as well - creating Task Y
  3. When you change the due date to Task Y, Task X’s due date changes as well?

That shouldn’t be working like that unless both tasks are in the same project (as tasks can be in multiple projects) or somehow the same task. So let me know if I’m understanding you right before we go further! =)

Good morning, thank you for getting back so quick. What I am saying is:

Just to clarify, I took a task from a project, click the + button and added it to another project. I think that is the way to duplicate tasks, right?

Once again, thx.

Hey Victor! So actually by pressing the + sign on a task, that’s what is called Multi-Homing - basically adding that task to multiple projects (read more about that here - one of the best features IMO!). It is not copying or duplicating the task.

To copy a task, please read this under ‘copying tasks’:

I hope that helps =)