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Set an exact date on a task

Why templates hold relative deadlines and tasks hold real dates

Section titled “Why templates hold relative deadlines and tasks hold real dates”

A template is a pattern you reuse, so it can’t hold a calendar date. The same onboarding template runs in March and in November, and no single date would be right for both. Template steps carry a rule instead, like “3 days after launch”.

Real dates arrive when you launch a process. Tallyfy reads every rule, does the arithmetic, and gives each task an actual date on the calendar. From that point on the date belongs to that one process, and you can change it to whatever you want.

So there are three places to set a deadline on a task inside a process, and only the last one takes a date you pick by hand.

Deadlines in a template are always relative

Section titled “Deadlines in a template are always relative”
  1. Open your template in edit mode and click the step.
  2. On the Basics tab, expand the Timings row.
  3. Set a number and a unit, then choose after or before, then choose what it counts from: launch, or another step in the template.
  4. Tallyfy saves the change straight away.

That last dropdown is the whole model. A step is due so many days after the process starts, so many after another step, or so many before a later step. There’s no calendar in here, and that’s deliberate.

One detail is worth knowing, because it changes partway through a run. A step counting from another step counts from that step’s due date while the other step is still open, then switches to counting from the time it was actually completed once it’s done. Full detail is in how a step deadline is worked out.

Adjust a deadline while you launch

Section titled “Adjust a deadline while you launch”

The launch screen shows the real date each task will get, and lets you change it for that one run without touching the template.

  1. Click Launch Process on the template card.
  2. Work through the launch screens and pick Review & edit before launching.
  3. Change the deadline on any task you want to shift.
  4. Click Launch.

Your template stays exactly as it was. See edit before launch for everything else you can change at this point.

Set an exact date on a task in a running process

Section titled “Set an exact date on a task in a running process”

This is the one that takes a real date and time.

  1. Open the running process from Tracker.
  2. Find the task you want to move.
  3. Click the menu icon (…) on the task card and choose Edit Deadline.
  4. Pick the date and the time you want.

That date belongs to this process only, so the template is untouched and future launches still use its rule.

Tasks that depend on this one move too

Section titled “Tasks that depend on this one move too”

If other tasks in the process count their deadline from the one you just changed, each of them is worked out again from its own rule against the new date. A task due 2 days after this one is now due 2 days after the date you picked. That’s the point of building the chain in the template: move one date and the rest follow, instead of editing twenty tasks by hand.

Only tasks that aren’t finished yet get moved. Your organization’s working days apply as well, so a recalculated date that lands on a non-working day gets moved to one that works. See adjust task deadlines to your work week.

When the date comes from a form field

Section titled “When the date comes from a form field”

Editing a task by hand is fine once. If every run needs its dates to follow a date somebody types in, like a hire date or an event date, don’t edit tasks one at a time. Use an automation instead.

Add a Date field to your kick-off form, then write a rule such as “set the deadline for Send welcome email to 3 days before Hire Date”. It has to be a Date field: Tallyfy won’t save a deadline action pointed at a text or number field. Worked examples are in countdown deadline automation.

One limit to plan around. An automation runs at most once per process, so if the hire date changes after the automation has already run, the deadlines it set stay where they are and you’re back to editing tasks by hand. See when an automation runs.

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