Data entered into custom fields rolls down to subtasks

Hi,

I'd like to see an option for data entered into parent task custom fields to roll down to custom fields in subtasks where applicable.

Our use case: We have a top level task, within that task we might have video, photography, graphic design so we create subtasks for each area.

We have custom fields to dictate Website/Client, Type of Work, and a custom job number field (generated from another system) that would be the same information for the parent task and all subtasks underneath it. We have these as custom fields because we need to report on them.

At the moment we're just copying and pasting the information over which is taking up quite a bit of admin time.

Thanks
Holly

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Status: On hold

Comments

Anna Matthews

This would be great and save so much time!

Clare Gent

This would be a huge time saver and useful to the business.

Mark Pomfret

This would be a great time-saver if we could have this functionality.

Sarah McLoughlin

This function would be really helpful

Permanently deleted user

Hi everyone, I really like this idea, I can definitely see it's benefits and I'll be sure to pass it to the Product Team for review and report back with any new information.

I've been thinking of some workarounds that might help.

If you know the Custom Field values at the point you're creating the parent task, you can duplicate the parent task and choose to copy the Custom Field Values. Then convert this duplicated task as a subtask of the parent. Take a look at the below. I understand it's pretty manual but perhaps it might come in helpful for now.

Duplicate the task and include Custom Field values in the duplication options.

Then drag and drop the duplicated task so it becomes a subtask of the parent. The task becomes a subtask and keeps the Custom Field values from the original parent task.

Romy Vizzini

We are using request form and this will save us a lot of time.

Customers are filling the request form and we have some questions related to custom fields.

Then each PM need to fill the custom fields again. This is not optimal.

The custom fields of tasks of a project or subtask of a task are mostly the same. So it will be faster to have the same data and change one or 2 different custom fields then putting everything again.

Kathryn Price

This feature would be great for us too.

Pamela McDaniel

I agree. I would like a Task to be able to automatically inherit the Custom Field values that are specified in the parent Project. Copying/pasting or going back to the Parent project to get the necessary values is not efficient, and is prone to errors, and is frustrating since you can see the blank Custom Fields at the Task level and you know the data exists at the Project level.

Holly Benjamin

Any news if this is possible lovely Wrike team?

Brooke Huntley

Agreed, this would be a great feature to set as a default, unless the user does designate different field selections within the subtask. So if subtask fields are blank, then inherit parent task's fields in reporting. If any subtask fields are completed, then those should be reported on. Please

Elizaveta Bogdanova

Hi @All, thanks for your input here 👍 All the feedback is passed to our Product team. +1's of the original suggestion help us assess its popularity among Wrike users. For now, I don't have an update to share with you, but I'll get back to you when I have news. Once the suggestion hits 60 votes, we'll add one of the Product Feedback statuses to it, so please keep voting 🙂

Alex Walton

This feature would be useful for my team, as well. We use request forms that populate custom fields at the project level but that are also needed at the task/subtask level. Having the option to auto-populate customs fields to all tasks would be very helpful.

Will Broadway

Also would be useful for me.

Elaine McDonagh

Hi all, be sure to keep voting for this suggestion if it's something you'd like to see in Wrike.

This idea almost has 60+ votes now, and once it hits the threshold we'll be able to update the thread with a status.

You can read more about the Product Feedback process here 👍

Permanently deleted user

Hi everyone, our Product team is interested in this, and they are currently looking into methods of implementing it into the product. For that reason, I'm going to tag this thread as "Investigating". As soon as I have any other updates, I'll let you know!

Danielle Fairbairn

Any updates on this functionality? I have needed this for a long time. The manual copy/paste is time consuming and prone to errors and data is not always up-to-date because you have to wait for someone to populate the custom fields on the subtasks.

If functionality can't be set up to "automatically" populate the fields of the subtask, can you build a functionality that enables us to "roll down" the data from the parent task or project to the tasks and subtasks? Currently we can roll up dates - can we do the reverse, but with ALL custom fields, not just dates?

Cansu Yetisgin

Hi @Danielle Fairbairn, thanks for posting and sharing your use case here. Currently, this suggestion is still under investigation. There are no plans to introduce this functionality in the short term, but if there are any changes to this I'll be sure to let you know 🙋🏻‍♀️

Michelle Hammond

Hi All! I'm adding my upvote and use case here. We have a Change Notice request form that gets filled out when an item needs to be corrected or scrapped. The parent task contains all the custom fields that apply to the customer in general such as account number, sales rep, sales order number, etc., and auto-completes when all subtasks are complete. Each subtask is auto-assigned to the department that must handle their part of the change/scrap, but the custom fields are showing up empty. It would be really nice if there were an option for these to auto-fill with the information from the parent task. Thank you!

Cansu Yetisgin

Hi @Michelle Hammond, thank you for sharing your use case and feedback here, I've passed it on to the team 👍🏼

Ann McCartney

Any updates on this - we're spending quite a bit of time manually updating subtasks in our current workflow

Elaine McDonagh

Hey @Ann McCartney, thanks for checking in.

We don't have any news to share at the moment, but when that changes we'll be sure to let you know here 👍

Roxane Carrier

Any development on this? This will be a game changer to trigger automations.

Cansu Yetisgin

Hi @Roxane Carrier, thank you for bumping this thread. Unfortunately, not for the moment😔

Stephanie Castilla

Found this thread after spending hours copying custom field values down to subprojects and tasks.

For context:

Our custom field values contain customer meta data related to each of our projects. We already use blueprints to duplicate our service offerings into each customer project based on what the customer purchased. The project duplication work-around suggested above doesn't serve us because it would required us to create blueprints of each of our offerings for each of our customers. This would multiply our blueprints to an unmanageable quantity and create unnecessary upfront work.

If we could set custom field values at the parent project level and have them cascade to any blueprint-generated sub-project or task, the time-savings would be tremendous. It could be as simple as enabling cascading in Table-View using a right-click on the value we wish to cascade down, followed by a selection to enable cascading. If the option is disabled, cascaded values can remain until they are manually removed, but no new sub-projects or tasks would be updated with the values.

We are currently using these custom field values in integrations with other software via WRIKE Integrate and they are essential to our workflow.

Please consider this as an essential feature to WRIKE, similar to value roll-ups and column summaries.

Elizaveta Bogdanova

Big thanks for providing such detailed feedback and explaining your use case @Stephanie Castilla 🙌 I'm now passing on your feedback to the Product team.

Shermaine Russell

Hello, this now has 80 votes. What is the process for now getting this implemented? It would greatly help our reporting.

Elizaveta Bogdanova

Hey @Shermaine Russell, thanks for reaching out!

After reaching the 60 upvotes threshold, ideas here receive statuses from our Product team. This one is being researched, so the Investigating status reflects that. Once we have any updates from the team, we will let you know here.

Please let me know if you have any questions 🙂

Jess Cuddy

This would be a fantastic help to our team, we are spending a lot of time manually entering Custom Field values into subtasks. Our business process is that planned Projects have alignment with all Custom Fields on all subtasks.

Juan Muttoni

Hi @Jess Cuddy, thank you for supporting this idea! Please, rest assured that we will keep you informed about any available updates 👍

I'd like to mention that in the New Table View you can drag the value of the project or parent task to subitems to copy their value in a simple and fast way:

Also, it would be possible to create an automation rule to change the value of your custom fields based on a specific custom field value. However, the rule can only be applied to either tasks or projects, which means that it is not possible to create a rule where changing the value of a custom field at the project level would change the values of the custom fields at the task level.

If you have any additional questions, please let me know 🙂

Jess Cuddy

Hi @[Deleted User], thank you for your feedback!

We use the drag feature in the New Table View regularly, it's been a catalyst for productivity in our team!

I actually think automation could work in this instance. We have a business rule to populate all Custom Fields on tasks/folders within a project to match the parent project. I've just built two automation rules, one where any new task and the other where any new project is created in a given project, all Custom Fields populate to match the parent project. We'll just have to manually manage the folders and subprojects but that's not too much of an issue.

This will be a suitable workaround in the meantime.

Thanks for your help!