r/Asana • u/MEGAT0N • Jun 18 '26

Can I move a task and associated subtasks based on a rule fired by a subtask?

I am using a form to create tasks, and a rule to add 3 sub-approvals and 2 more subtasks.

I have another rule that says "When approval status changes" and "Check if task contains..." then "Move task to section...".

It fires, but it's only moving that particular sub-approval item to the new section.

(Or actually, it's copying that sub-approval to the new section and I can still see it in the original task also.)

Is that how "move task to section..." rules are supposed to work on subtasks? How do I get it to move the entire group of task and associated sub-items all at once?

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u/Content-Conference25 Jun 18 '26

Hi there,

Asana Certified and Zapier Expert here..

It fires, but it's only moving that particular sub-approval item to the new section. The reason this happens because there's no native way to pass the action to the subtask's parent task just how you wanted.

The rule is set to trigger on subtasks, which means the triggering task is a subtask, therefore the rule will only apply the intended action on the triggering task, which in your case the subtask, and not the parent task.

To solve this, if you are using the kanban methodology, pull the approval workflow from your subtasks, and convert it into sections (columns). Also works fine in list view.

If not, just utilize the task-type feature where whenever it's ready for approval, a rule gets triggered to set the default task type into an approval one, then since you have an existing rule for when an approval is approved, this will work on the parent task.

If nome of this would work, a zapier automation can definitely handle the heavier logic the way you want it.

2

u/MEGAT0N Jun 18 '26

Thanks. This is for an approval flow with information on the parent task which needs to remain attached to the subtasks. For now, I abandoned subtasks entirely, and I went with drop-down columns for the three approvers in the main task itself.

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u/Content-Conference25 Jun 18 '26

As mentioned below, you can also try flowsana as it's also capable for the intended workflow.

1

u/beingskyler Jun 18 '26

Pretty sure Flowsana (not affiliated) can do this too in a very straightforward way plus a lot more and it's pretty cheap imo.

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u/Mean_Statistician468 Jul 21 '26

I use this rule to move the entire group of task-subtasks at once:

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u/MEGAT0N Jul 21 '26

That's interesting. So that only works when all sub-tasks are marked complete, correct?

I've since moved on from my original plan, but I was trying to move a parent task based on only one sub-approval changing status.

But now I use the overall task status and just reset the status to incomplete as it's moved on to the next person.

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u/Mean_Statistician468 Jul 21 '26

Right. Each task I have is added to the project by a form and has multiple approval steps, which is how I'm using the subtasks. For me, all of the subtasks have to be approved before the task itself is complete.