Create Multiple Tasks Based on Date Given in Form Answer (workflows)

Question

Thanks for taking the time to read this and maybe help out!

I have a form with 2 questions

1. Sale Date
2. Selling To

Based on the Sale Date given, I need to create about 10 tasks that are due within certain date ranges of the Sale Date (ie Sale Date -30 days, Sale Date - 15 Days, etc). I'll also have annoying things to deal with like weekends, but one thing at a time :)

I have access to sharepoint designer if needed... I basically just need pointed in the right direction to solve this. I'm uncertain of how to create the workflows to make the tasks based on the form date given. Any help at all would be appreciated. Workflows are a bit confusing to me. Thanks again in advance!

Answer 1

A workflow is triggered either by:

• new item (in your case a form) being created
• or the item being modified

The workflow can be configured to create a new task or send an email to the user or both things. It would be a matter of hooking up your 'Sales Form List' to a Task List - then when new tasks are created, Sharepoint will add the tasks to the Task List.

Getting a workflow to create a task from a date is tricky (I'd say best avoided), I'm not sure if this is what you intended? Remember the trigger that starts the workflow, that in turn creates the task.

The tasks can be added to a 'Sales Task List' with a Due Date for each item. The users just have to check when tasks are due. It seems you know when each type of task should be completed by - a command in the Designer workflow that does something like [Today]+15days = DueDate1, for another task [Today]+30days = DueDate2

A workflow also needs to be associated to your 'Sales List', so that Sharepoint knows which list to use the workflow on, it also needs to know which task list to use to add the new task.

That leaves making your workflow in SP Designer. Here is a Microsoft link on workflows to get you started link1. You can always post additional questions here if you get stuck on something.

Answer 2

Expanding on @tally's answer, and without going into the basics of how to create lists or workflows, you can calculate a workflow variable date by adding days/hours/minutes to your "Sale Date," and then create a task list item using that variable. Repeat for additional tasks. (Or if you want to get fancy, you could do it in a loop, but then you'd have to figure out how to calculate your task title, and other field data.)

Example: