Workfront

TracyPa2 · 10/24/19

I have a two part question regarding planned completion dates. First: We have a custom form that Requestors use to put in a job request. In that form we have a field labelled "Date Needed". We consider this our "Due on Date". But once the request is entered and shows up in the request queue when we click on it the far right side where we can assign the request it auto populates with the next days date. We have to manually change that to match the date needed date every time. Is there a way to have that date auto populate with the "date needed" supplied on the custom form? Second: We also have requestors that put in unrealistic due dates. Like 3 days for a job that needs to be designed/bid out and printed with an outside vendor. In those cases we add all of those steps in the project tasks but the planned completion date changes throughout the process based on printing/delivery dates. We end up having a realistic Planned completion date on the project but the requestors don't have access to our projects so their dashboards still show the original "request" planned completion date. Is there a way to link these two so that when the corresponding project planned completion date changes so does the Request planned completion date? I hope this all makes sense. I'm attaching a photo to help illustrate what I mean. Thanks Tracy Parmeter

Heather_Kulbacki · 10/25/19

There's not a way that I'm aware of to auto-update the request due date. We convert our requests to projects and the requests maintain that initial due date. We do however give the requestors View access to the project and we've trained them to use project dates once their request has been converted to a project.

TracyPa2 · 10/25/19

Yeah we don't want them to have view rights to our projects. As my boss would say "We don't want them seeing how the sausage is made" It's too much to manually change these dates on every project. But I know we will hear "It says on my screen the planned completion date is 10/10 and it's now 10/15, where is my stuff?" Hopefully we can find a better solution. Thanks Tracy

KatherineLa · 10/25/19

I'm not aware of any technical solution, but from an expectation management aspect, we have included explicit text notes in key forms that state 'The SLA for this work will be X days.' If you had a complex enough collection of options, I think you might be able to create a calculated field based on options chosen in the request form to show someone their SLA on the fly. Caveat, I've not actually DONE that, but it seems plausible from what I know of those fields. Alternatively, if you want them to be able to see rough timelines without actually viewing the project, you could build a 'My Requests' type report that only shows them the information and timing you want to disclose. And third alternative, it is possible to REALLY limit what people can see on a project through custom Access Levels. I have an External User type that can only see: 1. The project exists 2. Any updates they've been explicitly tagged in 3. Any documents they uploaded, but no others 4. Basic project detail tab with Planned Completion dates etc. Hope one of these sparks an idea, Katherine Katherine Stibley

Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore · 11/2/19

Hi Tracy, Rewinding to your original two questions: "Is there a way to have that [Request Planned Completion] date auto populate with the "date needed" supplied on the [Request's] custom form?", and "Is there a way to link these two so that when the corresponding project planned completion date changes so does the Request planned completion date?" Depending on the volume and velocity of the transactions, I invite you to consider: using our "https://store.atappstore.com/product/excel-updater/" Excel Updater solution to periodically (and manually) pull-then-push new Request's Date Needed into its Planned Completion Date (so that Projects can then "back into" that target, when the Request is converted into a Project); and Project Planned Completion Dates into originating Request's Date Needed (or perhaps a separate, protected "Date Expected", to preserve the former), or using our "https://store.atappstore.com/product/ubercalc/" UberCalc solution (with some one-time configuration to get the rules right) to do the same thing, but "on button click", rather than having to fuss with generating and modifying Excel Files Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore