Task Automation When Task is complete

Hi @ddettenmayer, thanks for posting! 

I’ve just done a test workflow automation for this - here’s the exact demo setup:

This setup was able to create that new Task when a previous one was completed and was tagged with “vip.”

I don’t know what your workflow automation looks like, so I can’t tell you just change XYZ. But if you post a screenshot I’m happy to provide more detailed instructions.

I will say, a very common mistake when using a Tag in the Trigger is setting it to “Equals” instead of “Contains.” “Equals” means it’s the only tag on that Task, so if you have a bunch of tags it won’t Trigger.

Let me know if that helps!

Hi @ddettenmayer, thank you for the screenshot! I took a look at some things under the hood, and here’s what I think is happening: in your Trigger, you have a condition for “Completed date - After - Standard - 07/06/2023.” However, the Tasks that you tested this automation on all have a Completion date of exactly 07/06/2023 and therefore did not meet the Trigger Condition.

My suggestion is to change the Completion Date trigger condition to an earlier date. In my example, I chose 01/01/2000 just to make sure the Completion Date never gets in the way.

Once you adjust that, you’ll need to test the automation on some different Tasks than before. Or, if you want to test it on the same Tasks, you’ll need to un-complete them and then mark them complete again to trigger the automation.

Let me know if that works!

@ddettenmayer Yes, that’s correct. They’re not associated with any Project or Person. You’ll be able to to see them if you go to your Task list and filter by Name is exactly “Q4 Check In Email”. And if you look at the “Related to” field for each of those Tasks, you’ll see that they’re blank.

@ddettenmayer glad we could get to the bottom of it! Feel free to post any time, or to join one of my weekly office hours if you ever wanna talk through your setup. I’m going to mark my previous response as “Best Answer” so that others can find it easily.

Hi @Sarah Mc! To answer your questions:

It seems from the answers above that there may not be a way to do this and still have the new task associated with the opportunity. Is this correct? Is there any workaround?

This is correct; if you have an automation rule that uses a Task as a Trigger, and it creates a new Task as the Action, that new Task will not be associated with any other records. We don’t have a workaround for this within the workflow automation tool, although if you create the Task through Zapier instead of workflow automation, it would be possible.

Related to this, I guess all automations are just one action, not a series or actual workflow of actions, correct?

Workflow automations can have multiple Actions. When you set up a new workflow automation rule, it’ll have one Action by default, but you can add more using the Add Action button below that.

Keep in mind, all those Actions happen when the Trigger is activated. So you can have one Trigger → multiple Actions.

I suspect you might be wondering more about a chain of Actions that depend on each other? As in, when Task 1 is completed, create Task 2. And when Task 2 is completed, create Task 3. The workflow automation tool doesn’t have a way to do that. In some cases, you can use multiple individual automation rules to set up a similar flow. However, as we discussed in this thread, if you’re doing this with Tasks, the resulting Task will not be associated with any other records.

Here’s an example of a workflow automation with multiple actions.

The trigger says: when an Opportunity in the New Sales Pipeline is Won, do the Actions.

 Action 1 creates a Task for the person in charge of invoicing (Michelle Lee), and sets it due for 1 day later.

Action 2 creates a separate Task for whoever owned that Opportunity to set up the kickoff meeting, and sets it due for 5 days later.

Both of these Tasks are created immediately based on that first Trigger.

Let me know if that helps!