[Status: Launched 🚀] Custom date in request forms

Our team was also looking to set up specific project durations. As part of this, can you also explore not allowing the requestor's start date to be set in the past (i.e..requestor can only choose from today's date and beyond)?

Hi Quinn, we'll bring that up with the team as well! 

Thanks for the post, Stephen! While that is a good solution for setting up the requests once they've been submitted, what would really be helpful is having specific custom dates for each request so that the request submitter realizes that a design request actually takes a minimum of 3 weeks or that a video request takes a minimum of four weeks, etc. Even though each request states, "This request requires a minimum of x days/weeks," everyone ignores it and then gets frustrated when we tell them that they can't get a video in a week or a logo designed in two days. It's definitely a culture shift that needs to happen here, but until I can magically change people, having custom dates would at least bring a better awareness that projects take time to be completed.

Here's how our process works:

1. Jay (not a real person here) submits a request for a graphic design due three days from today, even though graphic design requests are 3 weeks minimum.

2. Rachel gets the request and laughs hysterically. 😂 Due to other projects that are due in 1–3 days, which were submitted in a timely manner, it won't be possible to get Jay's request done.

3. Rachel emails Jay: "Jay, graphic design requests require a minimum of 3 weeks. Due to many other projects, we will be able to complete your request by DATE (3 weeks from today)."

4. Jay is annoyed 😡because he can't get what he wants when he wants it. The calendar allowed him to pick a date that was 3 days from now—why can't it be done by then?

5. Rachel finishes setting up the request and gives it a due date of 3 weeks from today, as there are many other projects that need to be done before that project.

6. Rachel then deals with an annoyed Jay 😡 in the hallway.

The problem is not so much in setting up the dates on my end—I schedule the tasks so that we can get all of our projects done on time. My team knows that the date a requestor wants may not be accurate or possible to get done and that they should base their work off the date I schedule.

Guys, what is the eta on this actually getting added?

I am also adding to this request as I came across the same issue. 
If I am asking people to fill out the form, they can choose a date (in the past) and once that is linked to the template - makes everything already overdue. Therefore not really helpful. 

I suggest : 

• Customized Calendars (that allows to input a forced start date i.e. 4 business days after the request) 
• Remove the possibility to put a date in the past. 

Adding a workaround by asking the Project Start date is not ideal. 
Please make this on your top priority list. 

thanks! 

Hi guys, I have no new information to share on this request at the moment. It's not currently in our Product Team's short-term roadmap but our team have been made aware of this post and are interested in the use-cases and feedback posted here.

@Rachel, thank you so much a for the detailed use-case story 🙂It really paints a picture of the pain-points you're experiencing which is hugely valuable to the Product Team.

@Kelly, I really like the idea of a Custom Calendar with defined and 'required' choices 👌

Thanks to you all for your input! 👍

Thank you Stephen for passing this thread along to me in response to my identical request. It is a workaround that helps with dates (sort of) but creates additional work in other ways for us...

When we have our staff enter a production request currently we have the request create a task that flows into our New Requests Folder so our production manager can monitor incoming requests and workload when assigning out new tasks. The request allows for the info we want and the correct title to flow through, just not the correct dates. Then our production manager assigns and moves the task to the appropriate folder for our team members based on workload.

When I tested this work around it turns everything into a project with a list of tasks (based on how you set up the project). When I first tested this I didn't add a task, jut the project with the dates selected but the dates didn't flow in properly. Then I added a task and it worked but creates additional work to process this request.

Extra work steps:

1. EXTRA: I would have to go into the Project that was created and rename the task(s) as it puts my desired task name [in brackets] as a prefix and adds the Project template name which just makes the title extra-long and isn't necessary.
2. SAME: Then I would still need to assign and move the task to the appropriate folder for that type of request.
3. EXTRA: Additionally I would need to delete the Project that it creates as this isn't a project but one task that needs to be completed.

Real life example: When we have someone request Business Cards it is not a Project it is only a Task that our in-house designer takes and puts into our order system. So all we need from the staff member requesting the form is the information that will flow into their card so we can order properly. From the time we get the request it takes 10 business days to get the cards ordered, printed and back in the office. Once we place the order we mark the task complete as the cards are delivered directly to the staff member requesting the card.

We do not feel the need to create a project that lists every task (order, print, delivery) as it is a very simple process and one task is sufficient to get this completed. With the work around we would have to create a Project and task. Then follow the steps above: Rename (extra step), assign and move the task (only similar step), delete the unnecessary project that was created just so I could get the dates set as I need (extra step). And until the Start Date field doesn’t allow someone to select a date in the past this still may not work properly as the end date is solely based on an accurate Start Date.

As I read the comments above we too have a headline in each request that says something like ALLOW 2 WEEKS FOR BUSINESS CARD PROJECTS but people do not read it and when they are able to select any date they think they can get their business cards back to them by the date they have request and also get angry with us when we have to turn around and tell them that their request is going to take 2 weeks and not 2 days. Our old system allowed for the block-out dates and this would be our preferred option, not the workaround option.

One additional thought we had would be to allow us to select another color such as RED for the headline sections so it stands out more from the rest of the text on the request form.

Hi Trish, thanks for reading this recommended request.

And, thank you for the detailed use-case, it really helps me understand how you're using Wrike and Requests. I completely understand now that a Project Template for your smaller Requests (like the business card example you outlined) would eventually over-clutter your Workspace.

For now, I would recommend trying to set as much expectation in the available fields in the Request form as possible. Perhaps to add more visibility you could add some Help Text to the form outlining the minimum delivery time for the task.

Otherwise, I think having the dates in the past optionally unavailable is a great idea, so please make sure you have upvoted the original post here. You can also click 'follow' at the top of this page so you'll be notified when the task has a new comment. The Product Team have been made aware of this thread so any updates I have I'll be posting back here 👍

Just starting my first foray into Wrike forms and, even though it's early days, I am hitting lots of roadblocks to using them in a practical way. The lack of being able to adequately deal with dates is one.

My usage is for publishing requests. User submits form to get approval to publish material. I have a form that gathers the relevant info and then creates a task. 

The issue is, I want to deal with requests on a 'first come, first served' basis. So I need to know and be able to sort by the date (and preferably the time as well) that the form is submitted. It seems a bit silly to have to ask the person submitting the form to manually enter the current date as a field in the form (which I could then map to the start date), but I can't see any other way of exposing the submission date in a usable way.

The submission date is noted as the task creation date at the top of the task details, but there's no way to use this date directly.

Also, I have a date field in the form, the publication date, that I've mapped to the end date of the task. But I'm having the same issue as others that I have a three day turnaround on approvals, but no way of stopping people entering a publishing date closer than three days away from the current date.

My suggestions is to add the ability to:

1. set restrictions on date fields in the form, e.g. a check box to limit entry of dates to only those starting from X days in the future, with X defaulting to 0 (meaning 'today')
2. automatically create the start and end dates of a task created by a form based on formulae that use the current date and date fields in the form.

I could then, for example, set Start Date = Today and End Date = Today + 3. Or Start Date = Today and End Date = Form Field(Publishing Date), with the Publishing Date restricted to being 3 or more days in the future.

Has any progress been made on this being added?  Started to wonder what the point of community requests are?

My team has ran into majority of the issues on this thread. Since we allow external clients to request graphic design from us, it creates issues when the client is allowed to select when something is due either by start date or by end date. One of the main interests my team has in Wrike is the ability for automation. When a client is allowed to change due dates that are meant to be a specific amount of turn around, it creates major headaches for those who handle the requests. 

Here is my use case:  A client submits a Request for graphic design, if they put in a date different than "today" then it changes when the Project, created by the Request, is due. If they accidentally put a date different than the current date, their Project may be delayed as it will schedule too far into the future, or it may cheat the system by scheduling the Project with the start date in the past. To prevent these issues, it would be beneficial for an option to select that the Request automatically aligns a Project template "Start Date" to the date the  client submitted the request, rather than the client selecting the start date or end date of the project. 

The other issue is that they can put in a "Start Date" that is in the past, rather than the system forcing the current date or a date in the future. 

Rachel Bebee said it best, as this is exactly what my team is experiencing: 

Here's how our process works:

1. Jay (not a real person here) submits a request for a graphic design due three days from today, even though graphic design requests are 3 weeks minimum.

2. Rachel gets the request and laughs hysterically. 😂 Due to other projects that are due in 1–3 days, which were submitted in a timely manner, it won't be possible to get Jay's request done.

3. Rachel emails Jay: "Jay, graphic design requests require a minimum of 3 weeks. Due to many other projects, we will be able to complete your request by DATE (3 weeks from today)."

4. Jay is annoyed 😡because he can't get what he wants when he wants it. The calendar allowed him to pick a date that was 3 days from now—why can't it be done by then?

5. Rachel finishes setting up the request and gives it a due date of 3 weeks from today, as there are many other projects that need to be done before that project.

6. Rachel then deals with an annoyed Jay 😡 in the hallway.

Any updates on this? This feature would be incredibly helpful to my team. 

Can we please make this update happen? It would be incredibly helpful to be able to block a calendar and control due dates in this way. For example, we require a 10 business day turnaround, so it would make life so much easier if the calendar actually does not make any date before that 10 day window available for selection. 

Please let us know if this is being discussed or better yet, something that might be underway. 

Thank you!

Bumping this up once again.  Can we please get a status update on where this is at?

Adding to this as we are coming across the same issue - we have SLAs attached to different channels so would like to be able to restrict what dates can be selected or at least flag a date as being out of SLA.

Hey Wrike, has there been any updates on this request? Any discussion about adding this feature to Wrike? It would be SO helpful to be able to block out dates so that my coworkers have appropriate expectations of when their projects will be delivered. 

Hey Wrike, 

I realise there are workarounds for making this happen one way or another, but I really believe it shouldn't be too hard to add a piece to the forms module where a due date is automatically added to a set amount of time added to the date and time of submitting a request.

This thread alone has been open and running for a bit over a year and I think we should be able to at least get a hint of when this could happen? 

Best regards,

I have the same issue as Rachel outlines above; I often have staff collaborators from other departments (people who make one or 2 requests a year) submit requests asking for design projects returned to them the same day. This is impossible, as I am a one-designer department. I often don't have time to read the requests until a few days after they are submitted. I need to be able to restrict it so people can't select a due date that's fewer than 2 weeks in the future so they are given realistic expectations from the start; any other way this turn around time has been communicated has been ignored.

Hey Wrike! Has there been any progress made on my request? I would LOVE to be able to have custom dates for all my request forms!!

Hey everyone, sorry we haven't been able to provide updates; this suggestion is not on the short-term roadmap at the moment.

I completely understand where you're coming from with this request and I can see how this feature would be useful for your teams. What will help now is getting more votes on the suggestion; our Product team assesses the popularity of requests by the number of +1s. Once it reaches 60 votes, we'll add a Product status here. So please upvote if you haven't already, and I'll make sure to refer Community members here when someone asks for a similar feature in the forums. 

If you're interested in what happens with Product feedback, please check out this post.

Thanks for posting, all your feedback is being passed to the relevant team! 

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Hi, our company just started using the request forms for marketing requests and I'm already running into issues that could be solved with this potential feature.

We have three heavily used forms: marketing campaign requests, new assets requests, and events requests. Each of these requests have vastly different turnaround/lead time. I've added those lead times in the description but we're still receiving submissions that violate them (over 500 reps have access to them). The current workaround is to actually call/email those reps leading to a chain of communication and extra work I was hoping Wrike would spare me.

I've upvoted the original request in this thread, but after reading the above comment, I'm gathering the request have to reach 60 votes to be seriously considered? It took over a year to reach 26 votes. This is not promising at all. I honestly expected more from a tool designed for marketers first, because this one the biggest problems facing any marketing team.

Hello. I just wanted to add that our team also really needs this date restriction ability as well. It would be great if this could be added for request forms for tasks.

hi Lisa and other Wrike folks-- understand the voting process, but this issue has been open for nearly two years. your team should try creating forms on JotForm [https://www.jotform.com] because this functionality would be what most people want.

Block dates, or limit to X days from now. This has been stated by multiple teams above, in different capacities.

Customize both the form and the email that are created.

Have the project name appear in the email by default when enabled in the form -- Clients have reached out regarding "408140419" -- which is generated by the system -- and I have no way to search for this ID since it doesn't display when a task/project is renamed.

Hi, 

I think blocking dates would be great. I think an additional useful feature would be a form of integration with approvals. In our case it would be great to block dates off or if they do not select a date that meets the timeline (using Rachel's example of the 3 weeks for graphic design). If they submitted a request under 3 weeks it would then prompt a manager for approval since it is a rush request.

Hey everyone, thank you for all of your feedback. It has all been passed on to our Product team. I don't have an update for you at the moment, as soon as I have one, I'll let you know 😊

I'll pile on to this one as well.

Need to set a date in the request form that maps to a custom date field.

Hey everyone! I'm checking with the team now to see if there's an update for this; I'll get back to you here if there is 👍

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

Hi folks, 

I wanted to let you know that the Product team has this on their radar, but that there are no plans to add this at the moment. They will however keep it in mind for future updates and we'll continue to pass on your feedback in relation to this ask here. 

Thanks for your continued support of this suggestion 👍

Elaine Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Aprenda sobre as funcionalidades e melhores práticas em Wrike com o nosso Treinamento Webinar Online

Elaine Wrike Team member Aprenda sobre as funcionalidades e melhores práticas em Wrike com o nosso Treinamento Webinar Online