Automate task assignments

Assignment actions explained

Assignment actions change who’s responsible for a task when conditions are met in your workflow. You’ve got three options:

• Add assignees - keeps everyone already assigned and adds new people
• Replace assignees - clears current assignees and sets only the people you specify
• Clear assignees - removes everyone, leaving the task unassigned

You can assign specific members, guests, or groups. You can also use an Assignee Picker¹ form field so someone picks the assignee while filling out the form. If the picker field is empty, Tallyfy falls back to any manually specified assignees in the same action.

Watch out for unintended assignees

Tasks without assignees default to the process launcher² unless the step’s auto-assign launcher setting is turned off. If your automation uses Add assignees, the launcher stays assigned alongside your new people. Use Replace assignees to assign only who you want.

Examples

Example 1: Assign based on location

IF (Office Location field) is "Toronto"
THEN Add assignee "Jane Doe" to task "Mentor Meeting"

Jane gets added when someone selects Toronto. The original assignee stays on too.

Example 2: Replace assignees by department

IF (Department field) is "Legal"
THEN Replace all assignees for task "Contract Review" with "Legal Team" group

This completely replaces whoever was assigned. Only the Legal Team handles contract reviews for legal requests.

Example 3: Using an Assignee Picker field

IF (Project Type field) is "Urgent"
THEN Replace all assignees for task "Approval" with (Project Manager field)

Someone picks the project manager in a form field. For urgent projects, that person becomes the sole approver.

Example 4: Fixing unintended launcher assignment

Problem: Task has no assignees → launcher gets it → automation adds Kassie → both assigned
Solution: Use "Replace assignees" instead of "Add assignees" to assign only Kassie

Unassigned tasks default to the launcher. “Add” keeps the launcher; “Replace” removes them.

Every assignment action needs the Apply to setting - it tells Tallyfy which step should get the new assignments. Assignment actions won’t apply to already-completed tasks.

Related articles

Examples > Dynamic member assignment from kick-off forms

Use assignee picker fields in kick-off forms so process launchers can pick who handles each task - then automation rules assign the right people.

Automations > Actions

Automation actions in Tallyfy are the “THEN” part of IF-THEN rules - they automatically assign tasks, adjust deadlines, change status, control step visibility, or trigger webhooks when conditions are met.

Edit Templates > Assign steps in the Tallyfy template builder

Assign steps in Tallyfy templates to specific members, groups, job titles, or guests - with automation rules for dynamic routing.

Examples > Automatically assign a step to the original process requestor

Capture who started a process using an Assignee Picker field, then auto-assign a final step to that person through a template automation rule.

Footnotes

1. A special form field type allowing dynamic selection of task assignees during process execution rather than pre-defining them ↩

2. The user who initially starts a process run from a template; automatically becomes default assignee for unassigned tasks ↩

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