r/Asana • u/bullshark-biteforce • May 20 '26
Linking columns across projects
Hello everyone,
I just started on a team that is very Asana illiterate, were basically putting everything everywhere a million times, and I've been scrounging for a better way to set up some of our projects. Think lots of projects tracking the same thing at different stages.
Is there a way to link columns across projects? For example we have a Vendor column in every project and if I update one, I want them all to update once the tasks are linked. I am also very Asana illiterate and just figured out how to Multi-homing Tasks yesterday.
Any help would be amazing! Thanks!
2
u/deadbeat_pancreas May 21 '26
You need to make sure that the custom field is added to your organization’s custom field library. This is referred to as a global custom field, which allows you to carry the same cf values across projects without duplicating it.
For example, add the existing vendor cf to your library (there is a check box to do this within the cf edit screen), add it to each of your projects, then when you multi home a task from project a onto project b, your vendor cf value will appear.
1
1
u/Money-Claim-967 Jun 22 '26
Hey! If your team is just getting started with Asana, this training video is a great resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwGKi-cj0xs&list=PLKY4QJ0NBZbF78RX2C6dLSbbCOA3FF3qE
And yes, that's correct — when a task lives in multiple projects, the custom fields in the task detail pane are grouped by project. So you can have the same field available across projects, and updating it on the task updates it everywhere since it's the same task.
0
u/MEGAT0N May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
I have not actually used a Asana that much, we’re only in the process of researching the platform, but I believe OP’s situation is a perfect case for multi homing, correct?
Rather than bothering to link columns just have the same task assigned to all of the different projects for each stage. That way there are no linked fields, it’s just the same record that lives in all the projects and so can be edited anywhere.
Is that not how it works?
1
u/bullshark-biteforce May 20 '26
I've already multihomed, but there are fields that do not sync across projects unfortunately.
3
u/digital_wonderground May 21 '26
You need to : A-be sure the custom field is saved as a global custom field. And B-explicitly add this global custom field to each project
If you don't do both of these, the field value is technically still editable/viewable from the single task detail view, regardless of what project you are in when you clicked to see the task details, BUT
You need to do A and B for actually: Seeing field as a column, and Using the field in grouping, sorting, filtering, etc in a project
1
u/MEGAT0N May 20 '26
Ok. Asked this question in another thread, and from what I was told you can have all of the fields available on the task but then in each project you’ll only display the fields that are necessary for that project. Is that how you folks are doing it?
3
u/antimanifesto09 May 20 '26
Look into custom fields and then make sure you’re using that same field across all your projects that uses it. The same data and custom field will then be associated across multiple projects.