Recurring tasks

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?

Answers

  • jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp
    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


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

  • jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp
    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.

  • Tony Platts
    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
    jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    I left a somewhat related comment on recurring tasks here.