Wrike Session: 5 Things Not to Do in Wrike

Thanks so much - this webinar was very helpful.

Good day @stephaniewestbrook. Do you know when the session recording will be emailed to us?

Hi All -Thank you so much for joining us during our session yesterday. Apologies for not getting to all the questions we had during our session. We had loads of questions and have put them together by category for you to browse through. If you have more questions feel free to add them here and our we will be there to answer them. :)

Have a great day!

Folder Structure

Q: Are starred Folders universal or can each person have their own unique set of starred Folders?

A: Each person can have their own starred Folders and it won't affect your teammate's Workspaces

 

Q: Can you have tasks in more than on Folder?

A: Yes, you can cross tag things so that they live in two different locations. Our Help Center has more details on how to do it.

 

Q: Is there a way to mass move projects to another Folder? I've got an "email" Folder but want to spit it out into "Email 2017" and "Email 2018" and need to move a lot of Projects. The two ways you demonstrated would take too long.

A: You can mass edit tasks for this - meaning you can move/add many tasks to another Folder at once from the the List View. Check out this article.

 

Q: If I create a Folder for 'Quotes' and then create separate Projects within that Folder, can I share specific Projects with specific people or does everyone I have identified on the Global "Quotes" Folder see each individual Project?

A: Sharing in Wrike works top-down. That means that if you share a parent folder you share everything inside it as well. So all people who are shared on Quotes will have access to its subprojects. So we’d recommend sharing on a project level in this case.

 

Q: What is the difference between a "Project" and a "Folder"?

A: They're very similar both hold tasks, but you can Report on Projects as well as add specific project attributes like a start/end date and an owner. Our Building Blocks page goes into more detail, but let us know if you have any other questions!

 

Q: Is it possible to have "Board View" on Folders, not Projects?

A: Sure! You can open any of your Folders in the Board View.

 

Q: If you want to share a Folder with your client/customer to work on a project in collaboration, does the customer need a full license for it or is it free for the customer to use?

A: You have unlimited Collaborator license, however there is some restrictions around what they can do compared to a regular user. Read more about Collaborator rights.

 

Q: Should we use Folders to designate task status? eg. a "complete" Folder?

A: Folders are one option, but if you're on Business or a higher subscription, I think Custom Workflows are a much better suited option. Read more.  

 

Q: How can I change the file that Wrike defaults to when I visit the site? Right now it defaults to the "Welcome to Wrike!" Folder.

A: You can try bookmarking the needed folder in your browser and accessing Wrike using this bookmark and it will take you to the preferred Folder in your Workspace.

 

Q: If we have older Folders, Projects, tasks, and subtasks that are for canceled work assignments would you suggest that we delete or archive our Folders and Projects so that our Dashboard is cleaned up and easier to use?

A: This is such a great question, I'm going to go through best practices for the different types of objects. Tasks - older tasks that aren't going to be worked on should be changed to a "Cancelled" status (or deleted if they're duplicates). For Folders and Projects I strongly recommend creating an archive - just because those items probably hold a lot of information. Here's some detail on how to archive.

 

Q: If someone shared something with everyone and it is not in a Folder, can I create a Folder and add it there to organise my view, without affecting others?

A: Yes, just make sure that your Folder is private and that’s all you need to do. See our Help Center for more information about sharing Folders.

 

Q: Is it possible to add more than one Project to a Dashboard?

A: Widgets are based on one specific Project of Folder indeed. As a workaround, you can create a tag Folder, tag all the needed Folders and Project with this tag and then simply build your widget based on this tag Folder.

 

Notifications

Q: At Wrike - do many of you prefer to uncheck the email notifications, or is that more rare?

A: It really depends on how the person likes to be notified. One person may prefer to uncheck some of the email preferences because he works heavily with Wrike Inbox. Though people who are relying on emails more may find these options useful, so it's really up to you. Read more about email preferences and your options.

 

Q: Are notifications customizable on a per Folder basis?

A: You can choose to follow or not follow a Folder on a Folder-by-Folder basis, but email notifications are set the same for all Folders/Projects in your account. We do have a Product Feedback section on the Community forums if you would like to submit that as a suggestion.

 

Reports and Requests

Q: When you refresh an 'unassigned' type Report, will any tasks that have since been assigned still show up in the Report?

A: Yes, if your Report filter is set to show assigned tasks (to Anne) then it will not longer show in the Reports. But you can click edit and change the Filter if you wish to include unassigned. Playing with the Filters can provide wide options for reporting.

 

Q: Can you update Custom Fields with a Request form?

A: You're looking to 'map' Request form answers to Custom Fields. So, this is possible. See this article for more.

 

Q: When creating dynamic Request forms, how do you assign a Folder and start/end date per selection?

A: This is possible using conditional questions in Requests forms. Please read more about conditional capabilities of Wrike Request forms.

 

Q: Can we make filters in order for every Project to go in a specific Folder by having as a criteria an assigned person?

A: If you're creating a Project via a Request form you can have a Project owner automatically added when someone submits the form and you can have the Project land in a specific Folder.

 

Q: Are requesters who don't have a Wrike account able to see the list of Request forms?

A: You'd need a Wrike account (it could be a free Collaborator account) to see a full list of Request forms. But if you don't have a Wrike account, you'll only be able to fill out external Request forms when you have a direct link to the form.

 

Q: Can you limit someone's ability to edit a Request form if they have access to the form?

A: Only admins are able to edit or create the forms, but if admins have access to the form in the Account Management section then they'll be able to edit the form.

 

Q: Can you set a task to default assign to yourself or someone?

A: Yes you can auto-assign someone to a Request form.

 

Q: Is it possible to have a link to a Request form on our website? Example; if a client has problems with their server, but they don't have access to Wrike, can they fill out that Request form "template"?

A: Yes, that's definitely possible. The best way to do this would be with external Request forms. People who aren't Wrike users are able to fill those out and they land in your Wrike Workspace.

 

Q: Is it possible to capture Request form inputs in a table inserted in a task description (not only populating fields for a task)?

A: No, it’s not possible. Though it's a good idea for our Community's Product Feedback section?

 

Q: When you are creating templates, do you need to assign dates in order to organize the tasks? Or for templates, leave all of this blank?

A: We recommend inputting dates, especially if tasks in that project are interdependent.

 

Q: I want to set up Request forms for office management so I need to have them digitally sign it if possible? How would I do this?

A: There's no option to add a digital signature. However this has been requested on our Community. It would be great if you could vote on the post so our Product Team are made aware of the interest around it.

 

Q: Can Report templates be shared with other users in my organization?

A: Yes you can share Reports and Report templates.

 

Q: When running Reports, only the tasks show, but they don’t show Project name. How can I remedy this?

A: Usually Table Reports show parent Project. If yours doesn’t, please click on the gear button in the top left corner of your report and enable the Project field.

 

Q: Do you need to have admin access to create a Request form?

A: Admins need to create forms, and users in the account can submit forms (so can external users submit forms once the admin creates an External Request form).

 

Q: Can Reports generate tasks with predefined subtasks?

A: Reports don’t tell tasks and subtasks apart, so when you build a Report based on tasks it also includes subtasks.

 

Task Management

Q: What if you want to assign and see when individuals have completed the tasks, and have it notify the next individal that is waiting for that task to be completed to start their portion of the project?

A:You can do this using dependencies.  

 

Q: Do you recommend always setting an arbitrary due date, rather than leaving it blank?

A: Yes, we recommend to always have defined due dates. This makes it easier to manage your Timeline and Workload view.

 

Q: Can you also set a Project as recurring. Just as you did for an individual task?

A: No, but as a workaround you can have a project template that you would activate every time there is need in it.

 

Q: Is there a way to bulk assign tasks? If Peter is leaving the company and being replaced by Mary, can I replace Mary on every task Peter is assigned to?

A: Why of course! Check out more about mass editing.

 

Q: What's the best way to use Wrike to check to see if a team member is being under/over utilized for assigned work within a specific period?

A: The Workload View is the best place to see that type of information, here's an Ask the Expert session that goes deeper into how to best use the view.

 

Q: Is there a way to track time spent on tasks?

A: There's really two ways to track time spent on tasks: the Timelog View and Timelog Reports. Try them out and ask us any questions that come up!

 

Q: How to save the Table View layout?

A: One of the things that you could do is to export the current view to Excel. Also, you may think Reports as an alternative. In there you get an ability to see all the tasks filtered and sorted in the needed way in a table form:

 

Q: Is it possible to assign Subfolders in Inbox and assign a person - both?

A: Only tasks can have assignees and Projects can have Project owners. At the moment you're not able to assign work from Inbox, is that what you were looking for?

 

Q: Is it possible to add "due date"?

A: Would you like to add a due date to a task or to a request? You can definitely add a due date to a task and in Request forms you can have a "due date" question and have that date automatically mapped to the task's due date when the request is submitted.

 

Q: What is the best way to monitor my team's tasks?

A: We recommend using Dashboards or Reports. Make sure to use the «assignee» filter when setting them up.

 

Q: Do you find that many organizations try to use Wrike for document control?

A: A lot of people do this in Wrike. The feature that can help with this are Document Editor, version control, Proofing and Approval and more. If you want to learn more about this topic, please register for the Ask the Expert session that is dedicated to it.

 

Q: Is it possible to add a User Group to a task?

A: No, it’s not possible. Thing work better when one person is assigned to a task. This way there is no confusion about who should be steering the task's progress. You can always @mention teams who need to do work on the task, but broadly speaking it's better to keep individuals as assignees rather than teams.

 

Q: What happens when you want to add a Folder in between a. and b. Folders?

A: Renaming all Folders could be one option, but if you have a lot of Folders it might be better to do something like a1, a2, just to keep the order logical.

 

Q: Is there a way to change the name of all the tasks in a project? For example, to add a client's name at the beginning?

A: It’s not possible to do this. But when you duplicate a project, you get an option to add prefix to the names of tasks.

 

Q: If an employee moves a task/Folder/Project out of a shared Folder to his personal Folder how do we see/find who has access to it? Or how to prevent this happening?

A: You can restrict an employee’s access level if you’re using Business or Enterprise by using Folder Permissions. Also, teaching people about cross-tagging may help. Once something is unshared from you, only the person who has access to that folder can recover this.

Q: If I need to delay a task and/or want to leave a comment on a recurring task. How is that done? For example, mark it complete but add a note regarding that monthly task.

A: Whenever you’re commenting on a recurrence or changing its status, it doesn’t affect future tasks. So, if you want to stick a note, you’d need to add it right into description. It’s not possible to «delay» a task, but you can always edit a recurrence and then change it back.

Q: How do we manage tasks or Projects that go through different departments and phases? How do we manage work that goes back if it was not perfomed correctly? Is there any way we can have a task approval process? i.e. if this task gets completed, a new task is assigned to a defined person.

A: To manage different phases of tasks we recommend using the Board View. It’s not possible to make a new task be auto-assigned.

 

Tasks and Subtasks

Q: Is there a way to share one subtask between two tasks?

A: Yes! Check out our Subtask page for details on how to do this.

 

Q: Is there a way that when you assign it, that all of the tasks then assigned are cascaded with that assigned person?

A: Subtasks aren't automatically assigned to the person assigned to the parent task (the idea being that you'll sometimes have different people who are responsible for pieces of the work in the subtasks.

 

Q: With subtasks; if you had three people responsible using the checkbox. How do I know that those tasks are complete without looking at the checkbox? Is there a Report that would show the checkbox description?

A: In this scenario, we are talking about small contributions that all assignees may have to the main task. So in this case checking the description would be the only option.

 

Q: How do you insert a checkbox?

A: While in the description, you will be given a text-format dialog box (beside 'Bold' etc.). One option there is to add bullet points of checkboxes.

 

Q: When should you use milestones vs. custom dates?

A: It really depends on your situation. Custom dates allows you to define start and due dates. So, if your tasks have specific dates that are not reflected by default options then go ahead and use custom dates. Milestones are there to reflect important events in your projects, they always have a one-day duration.

 

Q: Is there more information about checkboxes in the Help Center?

A: Yes, you here's an article about the entire description field which has information about Checkboxes. Any questions, the Wrike Community can help wrike.com/community.

 

Q: How do you recommend we create a task as a template?

A: Please read about task templates here:

 

Q: What's the best way to manage tasks with the Timeline?

A: It's really use case specific. Please sign up for any of the Ask the Expert sessions to discuss this with a Wrike guru.

 

Q: Can tasks within the same Project have individual Workflows?

A: Yes, you can change workflows per task. The default one will be based on the workflow applied to the Project but you can change it manually.

 

Q: Can you create sub-subtasks? Or is the checkbox list within a subtask the best way to do this?

A: Yes, you can add subtasks to subtasks and so on. However be careful as this could become messy quickly. If these 'sub-subtasks' don't require a lot of detail to understand or complete a checklist may be better.

 

Q: What if it's a collaborative effort and one person is lead but can't get the work done w/out others? How should assigning work then? Have others as followers, add in description?

A: We would recommend having the main responsible person be the assignee and then either specify others in the description field, or use Custom Fields to designate supporting teammates

 

Q: What if 3 different teams create Folders for their Requests, and all three are reviewed by management?

A: You could use tagging to ensure that tasks exist in all Folders, or a specific Folder for management.

 

Kamini Patel Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Erfahren Sie mehr über Wrikes leistungsstarke Funktionen und lernen Sie Anwendungsbeispiele kennen

Kamini Patel Wrike Team member Erfahren Sie mehr über Wrikes leistungsstarke Funktionen und lernen Sie Anwendungsbeispiele kennen

@Ronald - you can watch it here on the webinar page now. It will be in your inbox soon too 🙂

@Mary, we're delighted you found it so helpful!

Keep an eye here for more upcoming webinars 👍