Level Up Your Workspace Recap

Hi - Below are questions and answers from our session yesterday. Feel free to ask additional questions in this forum.

Custom Workflows

Q: What if I delete a Custom Workflow, and there are tasks using statuses from that workflow?

A: When you delete a Custom Workflow: if a task is currently in a status from the deleted workflow, then it remains in that status. However, you cannot apply statuses from deleted workflows to additional tasks and you can’t filter by statuses which belong to deleted workflows.

Q: I setup a Custom Workflow, but assigned my steps poorly. Can I move statuses to another stage?

A: Custom Workflows are very easy to edit - you can rename, change color, and drag and drop statuses. You should be able to edit the Workflow to meet your needs, but please let us if you’re not able to edit in the way you want.

Custom Fields

Q: Can you color code a Custom Field. If not, is that on the roadmap?

A: You can't color code a Custom Field but it’s a great idea! If you’re interested in seeing something like this add a +1 to Kevin’s thread.

Q: Can you track when Custom Field values have been changed?

A: This isn’t something you can do right now, but we’ve been improving tracking related to Custom Fields and we do have a request for it in our forums.

Q: Do Custom Fields only show up in the main project level or can you also use Custom Fields at the task level?

A: Custom Fields work at both the Project and task level.

Templates

Q: How do you set tasks in a template to "template status" and what the benefit is of this?

A: We recommend using the deferred status for tasks in a template, because that helps keep the tasks out of views where you may be tracking/monitoring your work. Check out our templates page for more best practices.

Q: How do you duplicate a template into a project without turning it into active?

A: The default behaviour currently is for task status to change from deferred to active upon duplication (if your template tasks are set to deferred). If you would like to see functionality that let’s you have keep a duplicated template inactive until you decide to activate it, take a look at Megan’s post and add a +1.

User Groups

Q: Can we use User Groups to share tasks with specific people only?

A: Yes! This is a great application for User Groups. You can share a task with or @mention a group on a task to quickly get information to multiple people at the same time. Just remember, sharing works top down in Wrike. For example, if you share a Folder with a group, all tasks in that Folder are also shared with the group. If you just want to share a task within a Folder, share that particular task without sharing the Folder.

Additional Questions

Q: How do you decide if you should use a Folder or Project? What is the difference between the two or between tasks/Projects and subtasks?

A: Folders and Projects are similar, but one key difference is that you can assign an owner, status, and start/end dates to Projects. Use Folders if you just need to group work together and Projects if need to Report on what you’re working on or if it’s an initiative with a clear end point. Subtasks are for smaller pieces of work (action items that can be assigned to one person and are part of completing a bigger task). Subprojects are much bigger. Instead of being an individual action item, it's something that requires more work. Check out our Building Blocks page for more details on the different item types within Wrike and when to use each one.

Q: Can we see a monthly calendar of active tasks assigned to one person?

A: Dashboards (or Reports if you prefer) are a great way to do this. Create a Dashboard which looks at all the tasks from a particular Folder, or create a Dashboard which looks at all tasks assigned to you across your account. Our Dashboard widgets page goes through how to create a widget, but if you have any questions just start a thread in the forums!

Q: How do you schedule a dependency?

A: The Timeline View is the best place to create dependencies. Check out step by step instructions on our Help Center page.

Q: Can we roll up total time by task and total time by project? Can time roll up from subtasks to parent task?

A: The Timelog View can show you the total time tracked for tasks in a task or Project. First select the Project and switch to the Timelog View. To see time tracked by task click the dropdown arrow on the “Task title” column and select “Group By This Field”. To see time tracked by Project, click the dropdown arrow on the “Folder” column, and select “Group By This Field”. You’ll see the total time spent at the bottom of the view. We don’t have a way to roll up time from subtasks, but it is a request in our forums.

Q: Is there a way to use milestones that stay static so that we can show the impact on a timeline if a milestone is missed?  For example: if a review date is missed, we want to show that in the Timeline View and show the impact visually if the project slipped due to that?

A: Milestone tasks stay static (unless you manually move them). It sounds like it might be helpful to create a Dashboard which shows you your overdue milestone tasks. You can do that by creating a custom widget and filtering for overdue milestones. In terms of the Timeline View, when you shift dependent tasks so that they end after a milestone, you’ll see a red line appear on the view to highlight that things are falling behind. If you want to talk more about this, just let us know by starting a thread on the forums.

Kamini Patel Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Learn about Wrike’s killer features and best practices with our Online Training Webinars

Kamini Patel Wrike Team member Learn about Wrike’s killer features and best practices with our Online Training Webinars