Don't complete unmarked subtasks when I mark the parent task as completed | Voters

Don't complete unmarked subtasks when I mark the parent task as completed

Kelly Eidson

Sometimes, I decide not to do a subtask. I don't like it that when I mark the parent task as completed, it automatically marks the subtasks completed too, along with adding their planned time to the actual time, even though I didn't use that time.

September 27, 2022

Julie Davis

Sunsama initially attracted my team and I due to it's simplified and intuitive UI. I love the ability to time track for accountability, increasing efficiency, learning from past results, and planning details big and small.. That said, my team and I need this feature to clear up how scrambled things are getting without it. How are we to use Sunsama's time tracking for the above details, big and small, if false times or gaps in task completions are scrambling in with true times and fulfilled task completions. This is causing me to get overwhelmed and to want to go back to pen, paper, and timer. I think this one small change will really help us embrace the Toggl Track integration that seems to work so seamlessly otherwise.

Brian Davis

We are in dire need of this feature. Please allow an option in the workspace settings for “Prevent subtask auto-completion by parent.” This isn’t just a preference, but a showstopper when it comes to keeping the historical record for the task as a tracking tool. This issue blocks our plans to use Toggl Track as a true activity tracker to log actual time based on planned presets defined by optional subtasks completed or ignored. One of Sunsama’s greatest selling points is that it doesn’t force false due dates like say Motion App. So, we’d love some philosophical consistency here too. Anything we can do to avoid making false records of completed subtasks that were never actually completed would be greatly appreciated. I’m sure someday we’ll get tags and statuses to go along with the checkbox. But, for now, we’d be able to do so much more with this tool, if only we weren’t forced to check off the whole list just to make its parent proud.

Brian Davis

This issue led to an internal discussion about the key differences between Helicopter-parents and Tiger-parents. So, here is my conclusion…

The parent tasks themselves are like Tiger-parents to their subtasks as they force their subtasks to complete no matter what it costs. Forcing all parent tasks to behave this way at the workspace level makes us Helicopter-grandparents to these subtasks because we are forced to ignore the benefits of fallible subtasks when the parent is infallible.

Lauryn Stallings

Yes. I am a new user and was disappointed to see this happen especially since the reverse is not true (ie completing all subtasks does not complete the parent task)

Sometimes the subtasks become irrelevant as the task progresses and i want to preserve the record of that.

Vincent Le Pes III

I agree, I'd like to reflect on how far I got on a certain routine and what I didn't complete when I'm evaluating my day or week. I can't do that if the subtasks check off along with the task. But I'd also like to complete the overall task even if some subtasks were not completed. If I met my objective by completing my task, but want record that there wasn't time on a particular day for all planned subtasks, I currently can only seem to split it into a complete and incomplete task or not be able to track missed subtasks.