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Automate task assignments

Assignment actions explained

Want tasks to automatically route to the right people? That’s what assignment actions do - they change who’s responsible for a task when certain conditions happen in your workflow. Simple.

You’ve got three options:

  • Add assignees: Keeps everyone who’s already assigned and adds new people to the mix
  • Replace assignees: Clears out current assignees and starts fresh with only the people you specify
  • Clear assignees: Removes everyone (yes, the task becomes unassigned until someone picks it up)

Here’s where it gets interesting. You can assign to specific people or groups, or you can use an “Assignee Picker1” form field to let someone choose the assignee when they’re filling out the form. Want both? No problem - assign the person from the field plus add their manager automatically.

Watch out for unintended assignees

Remember that tasks without assignees default to the process launcher2 (unless “Assign launcher automatically” is OFF). If your automation uses “Add assignees”, the launcher stays assigned along with your new assignees. Use “Replace assignees” to assign only the people you want.

Examples of assignment actions

Example 1: Assign based on location

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

What happens? When someone selects Toronto as their office, Jane automatically gets added to mentor them. The original assignee stays on too.

Example 2: Replace assignees based on department

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

This one’s different - it completely replaces whoever was assigned before. Now only the Legal Team handles contract reviews for legal department 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)

Here you’re letting someone pick the project manager in a form field. For urgent projects, that chosen person becomes the sole approver.

Example 4: Fixing unintended launcher assignment

Problem: Task has no assignees → Process launcher gets it → Automation adds Kassie → Both are now assigned
Solution: Use "Replace assignees" instead of "Add assignees" to assign only Kassie

This happens because unassigned tasks default to the launcher. “Add” keeps the launcher, “Replace” removes them.

Assignment example

Important: Don’t forget the “Apply To” setting - it tells Tallyfy exactly which task step should get these new assignments. Otherwise your automation won’t know where to apply the changes.

Automations > Actions

Automation actions in Tallyfy serve as the “THEN” component of conditional rules that automatically execute specific behaviors like task assignments deadline modifications status changes and step visibility when predefined conditions are met to streamline workflows and eliminate manual interventions.

Examples > Dynamic member assignment from kick-off forms

This automation enables dynamic task assignment by using assignee picker fields in kick-off forms to let process launchers select specific team members for different roles which then automatically assigns tasks to the chosen people through conditional automation rules.

Edit Templates > Assign steps in the Tallyfy template builder

Tallyfy enables step assignment through multiple methods including specific members groups job titles guests or leaving steps unassigned with options for automation rules to dynamically adjust assignments based on process conditions and workflow requirements.

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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