Set up tasks to recur annually

[Genevieve Lariviere]

Hi,

I'm working to put a project that we run annually into Jira. I'd like to set tasks to recur annually. Basically, I'd like to see the task duplicated upon completion with start date and due date adjusted one year forward. I've worked with other project management platforms and have been able to do this, but Jira Cloud is new to me. (I'm working in the free version). I'd appreciate any assistance that you all might be able to offer. Thanks!

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Genevieve - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Here is an article that will walk you through how to do that. 

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-articles/Creating-a-Flexible-Recurring-Task-Issue/ba-p/2040862

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Genevieve Lariviere 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

You can use the Automation Rules functionality for that. Here is a link to the documentation:

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-cloud-automation/

You can also find free, on-demand training on the topic in the Community Learning area. Here is a link to one such course:

https://community.atlassian.com/learning/course/make-life-easier-with-automation

Automation Rules have a trigger that identifies when the rule will run. You would use the Work Item Transitioned trigger.

You may want to add Conditions to check the Type of the work item that triggered the rule, so that it will only run for specific types of work items.

You can then use the Clone Work Item action to make a copy of the work item. It will be set to the initial status specified for that type of work item.

You can adjust the dates in the new issue using Smart values to specify a new date relative to the date in the issue that triggered the rule; i.e.

{{triggerIssue.Due date.plusYears(1)}}

Smart values a case and space sensitive when you are specifying field names.

Note, though, that there are limits on how many Automation Rules you can execute per month. When you hit the limit, no rules will execute after that until you get to the next month. For information on those limits refer to:

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/how-is-my-usage-calculated/

Alternately you might want to explore a new feature that started rolling out in March for creating recurring items. Refer to this article:

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Automation-articles/Save-time-by-scheduling-work-in-Jira/ba-p/2983946

[Genevieve Lariviere]

Thank you Judy, that helped quite a bit. Just going to take me a minute to get used to the syntax, etc. I'm using the Work item transition (To Status: Done) trigger to clone tasks, and the rule has been validated, but it does not appear to run when I update the status to "Done". In fact, nothing shows in the audit log at all (no failure, etc.). Do I need to apply the rule individually to each task? I thought by selecting the Project when setting up the Clone work item action, this automation would apply to all tasks? Still struggling a little unfortunately.

[Trudy Claspill]

Is the rule Enabled?

What have you specified as the Project Scope on the Rule's Details page? Rules may be for an individual project, for multiple specified projects, or Global (for all projects). The Project Scope on the Rule Details page is what determines in which projects the trigger event will be recognized.

If you specified Multiple Projects, did you transition an issue that is within that list?

If you specified Multiple Projects or Global, what is the Type of the project where you transitioned the issue? Get that information from the View All Projects page under the Projects menu. Find your project in the list and tell us what it says in the Type column.

Can you provide screen images that show the entire automation rule?

[Trudy Claspill]

There is also an active incident that was causing delays with running Automation rules.

https://jira-software.status.atlassian.com/

[Genevieve Lariviere]

The rule is enabled. The project scope is the project within which the tasks live that I'd like to clone, which is the only one that I need the rule to apply to. I've added screen shots showing the details. Thank you so much for attempting to help a newbie like me!

[Trudy Claspill]

And you have published the rule, correct?

And you are transitioning a Task issue to Done in the project specified in the rule's Project Scope, correct?

If the answer to those questions is Yes, then the rule should be getting triggered under normal circumstances.

Can you show us what appears in the rule's Audit Log after you transition a Task to Done?

It could be that the rule was not getting triggered due to the incident that was occurring across Jira Cloud instances.

[Genevieve Lariviere]

It's working now...and all of my tests from before came through! It must have been the incident/bug that you referenced that was causing the issue. Thank you so much Trudy! You saved me a lot of time of messing around with this. I appreciate your help very much!