Recurring tasks

Michele D

We have a monthly board meeting. I am responsible for getting lunch orders, ordering, and picking up the lunch.

I would like to set up recurring tasks for:

Decide on the restaurant

Create the order form

Send an email to the Board

There are more, but that will do for now. I do not see an easy automation that will create a new duplicate task when one is marked complete (preferably with a new date on the second Wednesday of the next month).

Is this possible?

jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp

Hi @Michele D

I created a demo solution.😀

The solution duplicates a recurring task by copying the row when complete is checked to another sheet and moving the row back to the original sheet with automation at each sheet.

Calculating a new date on the second Wednesday of the following month was complex; handling December(12)'s next month is January(1), for example.

Please check the published dashboard for details.

How task recurring works

• After each task is checked, check Complete.
• Once Complete is checked, copy it to another sheet.
• When a row is added to the other sheet, move the row to the original sheet.
• The original sheet clears the check for each task once the row has been added

Mechanism for setting the date for the second Wednesday of the next month (fairly complicated)

• When a row is added to the original sheet, record that day.
• Calculate the next first day of the month to which that date belongs For example, if November 7, December 1
  • If it is December, the next month will be January of the following year using the following logic
    • Year
      • =YEAR([Added Date]@row) + IF(MONTH([Added Date]@row) = 12, 1, 0)
    • Month
      • =IF(MONTH([Added Date]@row) = 11, 12, MOD(MONTH([Added Date]@row) + 1, 12))
    • Day = 1
• Get the day number of the first day of the next weekday, WEEKDAY (e.g., December 1 is Friday, 6)
  • Week Day=WEEKDAY([First Date Next Month]@row)
• Add the following number of days to the first day of the next month (e.g., December 1) to get the second Wednesday
  • Second Wed Next Month=IF([Week Day]@row = 7, 14, 7) + 4 - [Week Day]@row

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=9711f95c36524ee5a92748f2a318c7df

Michele D

Thank you; I will try it. It does seem complicated.

jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp

@Michele D

The setting of the "new date on the second Wednesday of the next month" part is a challenge. There may be some more straightforward way, but the above was what I could think of.

Joey135

It seems that this recurring tasks ask has been recurring for some time now. Please tell me that Smartsheets has this on their roadmap? I have worked in other project planners and the functionality is built into the calendar picker much like Outlook. I have seen all of the help provided and it seems to work but it is so complicated (I need a video walkthrough, it is over my head). Please move this up in priority.

Tony Platts

Sorry, let me see if I'm understanding this right? Smartsheet doesn't let you create recurring tasks?

I run 5 to 8 projects at any given time. Each week there is

1. an internal meeting
2. a meeting with the client
3. roughly 3 hours of project management time.

How on earth is Resource Management going to be accurate if we can't create recurring meetings like this?

I'm sorry but this is absolutely crazy.

jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp

I left a somewhat related comment on recurring tasks here.

Torsten Rich-Wimmer

@jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp Is there any chance you could share screenshots of the workflows from the edit screen?

jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp

Hi @Torsten Rich-Wimmer

Recurring tasks Sheet

Copier Sheet