Use Board View Triggers to Update Tasks

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What	Create (board view) triggers to automatically update tasks' properties when the task cards are moved to a particular column.
Why	Save time by automating steps in your workflow. You don't need to remember to update key details as tasks move through the board columns. Teamwork can do that for you! Streamline communication by using notify triggers when tasks move to a key phase (i.e. column).
Who	Site admins and project admins
When	You use Board view to manage your content calendar. Each column represents a key phase of your content creation process and you have cards for each piece of content being worked on. Examples: Create a trigger on your "Content Review" column to send a custom notification to specific project members responsible for reviewing content, alerting them that a task is ready for review. Create an autocomplete trigger on your "Published" column to automatically complete task cards once they land in the column.

What	Create (board view) triggers to automatically update tasks' properties when the task cards are moved to a particular column.
Why	Save time by automating steps in your workflow. You don't need to remember to update key details as tasks move through the board columns. Teamwork can do that for you! Streamline communication by using notify triggers when tasks move to a key phase (i.e. column).
Who	Site admins and project admins
When	You use Board view to manage your content calendar. Each column represents a key phase of your content creation process and you have cards for each piece of content being worked on. Examples: Create a trigger on your "Content Review" column to send a custom notification to specific project members responsible for reviewing content, alerting them that a task is ready for review. Create an autocomplete trigger on your "Published" column to automatically complete task cards once they land in the column.

Before you start

Board view must be turned on for the project. Don't see it? Check your project's feature settings.

Triggers are specific to individual columns in the board, so you'll need to create some columns first.

Create a trigger

Click Jump to in Teamwork's left navigation menu.
Search for and select a project.
Switch to the Board view. The Board tab might be hidden under the More... section.
Go to the column you want to add the trigger to.
Click the ... (ellipsis) to the right of the column name. This is the column you're adding the trigger to, so when a task is moved here, the trigger action occurs.
Select Column Settings from the dropdown.
Click + Add Trigger at the top of the column settings panel.
Click the Choose trigger type field.
Select the trigger type you want to add to the column. We've provided a detailed list of the trigger options later in this article.
Set any details relating to the chosen trigger. The options change depending on the trigger you select.
Click Add Trigger to save the trigger to the column.
Next:

Stop there: Click Update to return to the Board view.
Keep going: Add another trigger to the column. Psst! You can add multiple triggers to a column. The only condition is each trigger type can only be used once per column.

Click + Add Trigger at the top of the column settings panel and repeat steps 8 to 10, then click Update.

The trigger is applied to the Board column and will run each time a project member moves a task card to the column.

💡 Want to see which triggers are already set up for a column? You'll see a trigger icon at the bottom of a column that has active triggers. Hover over it to see which ones are set up!

Board view triggers

Set any of the following supported triggers on columns in your project's Board view.

📝 You can apply multiple triggers on each column. Each trigger type can only be used once per column, though!

Add subtasks	Add subtasks to a task when the task moves to the column. You can set a custom group of subtasks or apply subtasks from a task list template.
Modify properties	Choose to modify any of the following properties: Priority - set a specific priority level (none, low, medium, or high) on a task when it is moved to the column. Progress - update a task's progress % when the task is moved to the column. Notify assignees - email a task's assignees when the task is moved to the column.
Modify assignees	Update task assignees: Replace assignees - choose new assignees for the task. Add/remove assignees - add additional assignees or remove individual assignees.
Auto complete	Automatically complete tasks moved to the column and choose who should be marked as the completer of the task: User moving the card Current task assignee Choose from users on the project
Modify dates	Update tasks' start and end dates. You can update one or both! For either the start or end date, you can choose: Don't change - leave the date as it is. Use this if you only want to update the other date. Remove date - set the date as 'no date.' Some tasks inherit dates which can't be removed. Push date - add a number of days to the original date. If there's no due date, the new date is the date the card moved into the column plus the specified number of push days. Current day - set the date to the date the card is moved. Current day + 1...+14 - set the date to a number of days after the date the card is moved.
Modify tags	Adjust the tags applied to the task. Set specific tags - replace any existing tags with one or more new tags. Add tags - apply new tags (and keep any existing tags). Remove tags - remove specific tags (if currently applied).
Modify estimated time	Adjust the task's estimated time (in hours and minutes). Set - set a new estimated time total for the task. Increase - increase the estimated time by a certain amount. Reduce - decrease the estimated time by a certain amount.
Auto archive completed cards	Archive any completed tasks in the column. This moves the cards out of the column to an Archived area.
Modify task list	Move tasks to a specified task list when they are moved to the column. This trigger overrides the default task list setting.
Send custom notification	Send a custom notification when tasks are moved to the column. Choose to notify: Task assignees Change followers Comment followers Specific people

Add subtasks	Add subtasks to a task when the task moves to the column. You can set a custom group of subtasks or apply subtasks from a task list template.
Modify properties	Choose to modify any of the following properties: Priority - set a specific priority level (none, low, medium, or high) on a task when it is moved to the column. Progress - update a task's progress % when the task is moved to the column. Notify assignees - email a task's assignees when the task is moved to the column.
Modify assignees	Update task assignees: Replace assignees - choose new assignees for the task. Add/remove assignees - add additional assignees or remove individual assignees.
Auto complete	Automatically complete tasks moved to the column and choose who should be marked as the completer of the task: User moving the card Current task assignee Choose from users on the project
Modify dates	Update tasks' start and end dates. You can update one or both! For either the start or end date, you can choose: Don't change - leave the date as it is. Use this if you only want to update the other date. Remove date - set the date as 'no date.' Some tasks inherit dates which can't be removed. Push date - add a number of days to the original date. If there's no due date, the new date is the date the card moved into the column plus the specified number of push days. Current day - set the date to the date the card is moved. Current day + 1...+14 - set the date to a number of days after the date the card is moved.
Modify tags	Adjust the tags applied to the task. Set specific tags - replace any existing tags with one or more new tags. Add tags - apply new tags (and keep any existing tags). Remove tags - remove specific tags (if currently applied).
Modify estimated time	Adjust the task's estimated time (in hours and minutes). Set - set a new estimated time total for the task. Increase - increase the estimated time by a certain amount. Reduce - decrease the estimated time by a certain amount.
Auto archive completed cards	Archive any completed tasks in the column. This moves the cards out of the column to an Archived area.
Modify task list	Move tasks to a specified task list when they are moved to the column. This trigger overrides the default task list setting.
Send custom notification	Send a custom notification when tasks are moved to the column. Choose to notify: Task assignees Change followers Comment followers Specific people

Edit or delete a trigger

You can edit and delete existing triggers from the column settings.

Click Jump to in Teamwork's left navigation menu.

Search for and select a project.
Switch to the Board view. The Board tab might be hidden under the More... section.
Click the trigger icon at the bottom of a board column. This is visible on columns with active triggers.
Go to the Triggers section at the top of the column settings panel.
Hover over an existing trigger to reveal the manage options.

Edit - update the trigger's conditions:

Click the pencil icon to open the trigger details.
Update the conditions associated with the selected trigger type. These differ for each trigger type.
Click Update Trigger.

Delete - delete the trigger from the column:

Click the X option. The trigger is immediately removed from the list.

Click Update to return to the Board view.

Best practices

Tell your team: Make sure to tell your team which column to move tasks to when they're finished work (and let them know which automated updates will be applied)...and then make sure everyone is actually moving tasks.
Combine triggers: Create more sophisticated automation by adding multiple triggers to a column. Need some ideas? Set an Auto complete trigger and an Auto archive completed cards trigger on your "Completed" column. Task cards moved here are automatically completed and archived (i.e. hidden from your board so you can focus on active work!)
Templatize triggers: Save time by creating triggers on project templates. That way, projects launched from the template automatically have the trigger added.

Put it into practice

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