Adding dependencies to tasks without assigning dates
To start, I know there has been a somewhat popular post about this from back in 2017. And as confirmed by Wrike Support, this simple feature still isn't implemented. I am hoping to resurrect this new conversation and gain enough traction to get a Wrike developer to seriously consider implementing this feature in Wrike.
Original post: [Status: Backburner ⌛️]Adding Dependencies to tasks with no Date field – Wrike Help Center
There's a lot of small simple features that I wish Wrike had or am sometimes surprised it doesn't. But this to me is probably the most important one and has the biggest use case for our massive company especially when using more advanced features in Wrike and doing advanced reporting.
Let's begin.
Our Use Case / Challenge
We rely heavily on blueprints with many interconnected tasks and dependencies. However, in our workflows, we often do not have confirmed start or end dates at the time a blueprint or workplan of ours is created. In many cases, the workplan is initiated and tasks are logically connected before official dates are established—sometimes days or even weeks later.
Currently, when we add predecessors or dependencies in Wrike:
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Wrike automatically assigns dates (often using the blueprint creation date or the current date).
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These auto-populated dates are not meaningful or accurate for us at that stage.
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We want the dependencies to exist, but we want the dates to remain blank until we manually populate them once real dates are confirmed.
Why This Is a Problem for Us
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The auto-populated dates cause visual clutter in the table view.
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Stakeholders reviewing the workplan often assume these dates are intentional or final, which leads to confusion and unnecessary questions.
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Clearing dates later is problematic because removing a date also removes the predecessor, which we do not want—we only want to clear the date, not the dependency logic.
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We ultimately end up having to revisit and rework large portions of the plan once real dates are known, which is inefficient.
Comparison to Smartsheet
In Smartsheet, predecessors can be fully defined while start and end dates remain blank until the user manually enters them. This allows us to:
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Pre-build clean, logical workflows
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Keep plans uncluttered
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Apply dates only when they are truly known
This behavior aligns much better with how our organization (health care) plans work, especially when timelines are variable or externally driven.
This feels like a crucial missing link in dependency management—especially for teams that receive approval to begin planning before dates are finalized. We strongly believe this type of functionality would be beneficial not only for our organization, but for many Wrike users with dynamic or evolving timelines.
Thank you!
~ Allen G. -
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Hi Allen Garcia!
I support your request, but I also try to understand why Wrike doesn't have this feature at the moment.
Maybe it is because dependencies originate in the Gannt chart, and it wouldn't be possible to view tasks without dates in Gannt chart. So currently there's no graphic visualisation for dependencies without dates. I guess that's why you even need dates in blueprints, although they they don't affect anything.
You can select predecessors manually in other views also, but the comfortable editing and viewing of dependencies just belongs to the Gannt chart.
That said - let's see if the Wrike development team will figure out a way to use dependencies even without dates!
On the other side I would suggest a workaround for your use case. If you don't want to create confusion by not yet planned due dates, you could use a special initiative status for your tasks, maybe called "unplanned" or "not planned yet" or something like that. So everyone can see by the status if the due date is real or not. You could even use an automation rule to change the status to "New" or "scheduled" etc. if the due date changes the first time. Automation has become very powerful recently!
Blessings for the new year!
Florian
Welcome to the Community, Allen Garcia. I’m passing your feedback on to the product team right away 👍🏽. Also, thank you, Florian Kislich, for sharing your input on this and for the workaround - really useful. Thanks so much! 😊
Basudha Sakshyarika Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Basudha Sakshyarika Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
We have the same use cases for this! We are using Wrike for request intake and processing. We pull in blueprints based on the request type that have multiple tasks that need to be completed in a specific order, but the duration of the tasks isn't known until after the team meets to discuss the complexity of the request. We utilize a "future task" status to denote that the task is not ready to start and there is an automation that changes the status to "ready to start" when the predecessor is complete. Right now, we are leaving the dates blank for the same reasons noted above (Stakeholders thinking the dates are valid), then adding the dates in when reviewing the request, then adding in the dependencies so that the automations would work. This is a ton of additional work.
Thank you for sharing your use case, Ashley Fischer. It makes sense. I will pass this along to our product team. 👍🏽
Basudha Sakshyarika Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Basudha Sakshyarika Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Hi,
I had already upvoted the former thread and I would have upvoted this one a hundred times if I could.
The described use case is classic in project management, tasks can be organized logically even if dates are not set yet