Recurring Task Help

[Lana]

Hello! I am a fairly new Workfront System Admin (7 weeks in now) and having some trouble setting up recurring tasks, so hoping someone can help.

A few different users within my organisation are having issues with recurring tasks, and there doesn't seem to be any logical reason as to why - even when seemingly copying the set up of a recurring task that has previously worked within the same project, we're seeing issues.

The issues seem to differ based on the task constraint;

• When selecting either 'As late as possible', 'As soon as possible', 'Must start on', or 'Must finish on', even when setting the start time of the task on the task to 09:00, when the task is created it seems to put the planned start time as 16:00. This then pushes the task over 2 working days (the task is 1hour, and shows in workload balancer as 1hour on the first day, then 0 hours on the second day). I can't seem to figure out why the time is changing?
• When selecting 'Fixed Dates', the task appears to set up correctly, but then doesn't appear in the Workload Balancer on the project. Even if assigning users to this particular task that are new to the project, their names appear on the Workload Balancer, but the project doesn't appear under them, and so neither do the tasks.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what's happening or why? I'm sure (hopeful) it's something simple I'm missing!

Thank you, Lana

[Sven-iX]

Hi @Lana 

Welcome  
Can you post a screenshot of the recurring tasks in question that show constraint, predecessors, start/end times with hours?

[Lana]

Hi, hope the attached helps. It's s test project I've set up to test various ways of setting up recurring tasks.

Thank you, Lana

[Sven-iX]

Thanks @Lana 

So the recurring tasks don't really have predecessors. Must Start On should be just fine. 

When you replicate a task, do you right-click and select "duplicate"?

Let's try this for the 121 tasks

• Check to make sure the project schedule is in the correct timezone (ie YOUR time zone)
• Set child tasks to "Must start on", and to the same date & time (9am)
• Set the child tasks 2,3,4 to the correct planned start date

Once they have the correct start dates and all show 9am, you should be able to right-click, select "duplicate". This will add copies of the selected tasks, and you can then rename them and set their start dates. 

Let me know what it looks like? 

[Lana]

Hi @Sven-iX 

When I mentioned copying a previous recurring task that had previously worked, I meant just manually copying the set up of the task.

Thanks for the tips;

• Schedule timezone is showing correctly (I believe - I've checked this in the project settings under Schedule, not sure if there's anywhere else to check)
• Changed the child tasks to "Must start on"
• Changed the start time to 9am, and this task is now showing on the Workload balancer as expected

I have then duplicated this task, which has created another 1-2-1 task that looked like the first one before I made the above changes to the "Task Constraint" and to the task start times (see screenshot)

Could I also ask the reason behind changing the Task Constraint to "Must start on"? I expected this to be "Must finish on" as this is the Task Constraint that child tasks are set to by default when the project Schedule Mode is by "Completion Date", and hoping to get these tasks set up without manual intervention.

Thank you, Lana

[Sven-atClient]

Hi @Lana 

So - in the screenshot all tasks are MustFinishOn - so I take it you duplicating the task worked as expected. 

I suggested Must Start On because I assumed your projects are scheduled from startDate - and you're right in your case, use Must Finish On. 

So are things working as expected now? I can't tell from the screenshot.  

[Lana]

Hi @Sven-atClient 

No they're not working as expected unfortunately. The screenshot showed the original 1-2-1 task which looked correct as I'd manually amended it, and then the duplicated 1-2-1 task which I'd duplicated after making the manual amends, but it duplicated with the incorrect times.

I'm still facing the same issue where I can only get these recurring tasks set up correctly with manual intervention - defeating the point of the 'Recurring task' feature.

Thank you

Lana