Restricting status changes to prevent unwanted automations

Martin Caballero

Hi everyone,

I’m running into an issue with automations that are triggered by task or project statuses.

Some of our automations depend on specific status changes, but occasionally team members update a status by mistake. When that happens, the automation runs immediately, and even if the status is corrected right after, the automation has already been triggered.

I’m trying to find a way to prevent this from happening.

Is there any way in Wrike to restrict who can change certain statuses, custom fields, or custom item types? Ideally, I’d like to limit access so only specific team members can modify those critical fields.

Would appreciate any suggestions or best practices to handle this.

Thanks in advance!

David Simmington

@Martin Caballero, I’ve run into this too. The tough part is that once the status changes, the automation fires right away, so changing it back usually doesn’t stop what already happened. I’m not aware of a way in Wrike to lock specific statuses, custom fields, or item types so only certain users can change them. Because of that, the best fix is usually to adjust the process a bit. A few things that can help:

-Create a “review” or “ready for approval” status before the final trigger status
-Limit edit access to the project/space where possible
-Use a more intentional trigger, like an approval step or a specific custom field
-Make the first automation step something easy to reverse, like a notification

I’ve found it’s usually better to build in a checkpoint before any big automation runs.

Happy to hear how others in the community are handling this too.