Set Approval Process on Parent Task

[Caroline_Meek]

Is there a way that you can set an approval process on a Parent task so that when all the Sub-tasks (child tasks) are complete the approval process is automatically triggered?

For example there are a series of task which need to be completed before the approval process is triggered. Depending upon the scenario some tasks may get marked as 'Dead' but when all all sub-tasks are Complete/Dead I would like to automatically trigger the approvals process so that the sign-off team can confirm everything which needs to be actioned has been. 

[KatherineLa]

Well, Parent Tasks are the sum of their children, so the status for a Parent task could not be 'Complete' until all children are handled first. So you can know first that a status of 'Complete' can only exist once your criteria are met. From there, a Task approval path can be set to trigger when the status is set to Complete, so it seems like it would be pretty straight-forward. I would create the Approval Path you want, set it to trigger on a status of Complete, and assign it to your Parent tasks. 

[Caroline_Meek]

Hi Katherine,

That was exactly what I thought however the ability to add an approvals process does not exist on a parent task!

I tried cheating by adding the approval process to the task before attempting to make it a parent task but I got an error message saying I couldn’t make it a parent task as there was an approval process associated with it.

It seemed such a logical thing to do I wondered if I was missing something.

[KatherineLa]

Well that's aggravating! I got far enough to see that the field was there, but hadn't actually tried attaching one. 

In that case, I think I'd try creating another task that exists only to hold the approval process, set the Parent task in question as it's predecessor with enforced set to 'Yes'. Then update the task Tracking Mode to Auto Complete. 

It would probably take some playing with the Planned Completion/Fixed Date settings to get exactly the behavior you want, but it should get you closer.

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront/using/manage-work/tasks/task-information/task-trac....

[Caroline_Meek]

Hi Katherine,

Thanks for the advice I'll give it a go (fingers crossed)

[Caroline_Meek]

Hi Katherine, 

Unfortunately it appears that "Task in 'Auto Complete' tracking mode can not be an Approval Task". !