Can I mass complete tasks on dead projects?

[CassieSt]

Hi - I am working on cleaning up an inherited instance. We have quite a few dead projects with tasks that are not completed. This shows in my overdue task report.. does anyone have any tips to clean this up? The tasks will remain open because the projects are dead and will not be picked back up.

[Madalyn_Destafney · Accepted solution]

Hi, I'd just make a task report that pulls in all the incomplete tasks in these dead projects (filter for incomplete status(es) or not 100%, projects in XYZ programs or however you'd target the dead projects or as much of them as you can, etc. and then select all > edit > change status to complete. Then you could do a project report pulling in all the dead projects that are now filled with the complete tasks and bulk edit them to Complete status unless you already have automatic completion set on them (in which case as soon as you bulk update all of the tasks to complete, then the project will turn to complete).

[Erika_Antkowiak]

Hi @CassieSt! I agree with @Madalyn_Destafney that you'll want to start by creating a task report to identify how many incomplete tasks roll up to dead projects, but you'll also want to confirm that your instance enables you to make edits to tasks that belong to dead projects while you do this work. I've outlined how to do both below. 

Identifying Incomplete Tasks via Report

Create a task report and make sure to pull in the following columns - 1) Project:Status and 2) Task:Status. Also, make sure to add the following filters - 1) Project:Status=Dead and 2) Task:Is Complete=False. This report will allow you to select all the tasks you want to update in bulk.

Enable Adding or Editing Tasks Aligned to Dead Projects

These steps will need to be taken if you receive an error message popup when trying to bulk update tasks.

1. Navigate to the Main Menu in top left corner > Setup.
2. In Setup, select Project Preference > Projects > Life After Death.
3. Check the box next to the "Add and edit tasks (while project is Pending Approval, tasks cannot be added)"

 

Let me know if this works and if you have any questions. I'm happy to help!

Best,

E

[CassieSt]

@Madalyn_Destafney @Erika_Antkowiak Thank you both! I will definitely use reporting for this. The only thing I am worried about is changing the project from "dead" to "complete" after all of the tasks are completed. I don't necessarily want to show these projects as completed now for reporting purposes. Any ideas?

[Erika_Antkowiak]

Hi @CassieSt! What are your statuses and what do they equate with? My first thought is that by marking a task complete it shouldn't change the status of the project unless you have a Fusion scenario or any automation set up. While you are looking up your status info. I'll take a look at the setup options to confirm that I'm not missing any additional options that would cause the projects to change status. I'll provide follow up shortly. 

[Erika_Antkowiak]

I've confirmed that a project status should stay the same when you adjust the status of a task belongs to it. I suggest doing a test on one task first and that way you will feel better about adjusting the rest of them in bulk. Let me know how it goes!

[Sven-iX]

Hi @CassieSt 
You already have great answers from Madalyn and Erika, so I am mostly curious: What is this "Overdue Task report"?

I ask because having incomplete tasks in DED projects should be totally fine. That's the truth - the project is cancelled and the tasks remain incomplete. In my mind I'd rather modify what shows my "incomplete tasks" than do surgery on dozens of tasks that involve altering history 😉 

E.g. To modify the "Incomplete" view of the tasks widget on the homepage, you can create a personal filter "Exclude DED projects"  (say on the project's TASK view, or in Setup) with 

project:status=DED
project:status_Mod=notin

 and in the widget filter, turn on "stack filters" and select both "incomplete tasks" as well as "exclude DED projects"