Forum Discussion
Planner tasks "template" for same tasks monthly
The finance department would like to have month end tasks to accomplish, pay xyz, update finance, etc. A lot of the tasks are the same and they'd like to have a Planner task / plan that has a few hundred tasks and assigned to people and have them assigned "March 2021" and then "April 2021" etc. Same tasks, just a Template of the past tasks.
They will fill out the tasks and know "Matt updated" "Jane is in progress" etc. Just need to have it recreated over and over again.
They plan to try to use this in Teams and have a new channel for each month so 03-2021 and 04-2021 (for example) and then have a brand new Planner plan each month to know the status of the work people are performing.
We are looking for a solution. If this is NOT the BEST solution. Please let me / us know. We have M365 E3 license so we can be flexible.
I am thinking as I type. I don't know if we could create a Planner plan and have it as the "template" and then maybe have Power Automate "grab" and copy the Planner plan and put it into the new group?
Maybe use Power Apps to say "what is the team and the name of the 'new channel' and then Power Automate would create the new Planner from one....maybe a "Planner Teams template team" and then have a General tab, obviously, and a "template channel" with the "generic Planner plan" in it as a tab, that they can update as needed. Can add Jane or remove Rick, or add Jannell, etc.?
We are not new to the products, yet not major developers and so it will be tough to just "make it happen." .... which is why we are asking here!
Thank you!
Matt
- Hello, Matthew!
You're right about using Power Automate for this reason. For example, in our company, we've created a manually triggered flow connecting Forms, Microsoft Planner, and Teams. And now, each time when we need to create some content around, for example, a new product update, we just need to submit the form, and then, all repetitive tasks will appear in a needed channel's Planner tab (with all content including assigned to, check-lists, etc) By the way, I can share more details if you're interested
One more good solution is to build Teams Templates with a pre-built Planner tab. Thus, each time when you create a new team from the template, channels with pre-configured tabs will be copied (including Planner Tab). Here is a link that can be helpful:
https://www.salestim.com/microsoft-teams-for-finance-professionals/- Is there an update on this? It's been several long years since planner release and no custom templates option. Ms teams creates a planner tab, but it is of no use if all tasks have to be created manually every time.
No. Planner is among the worst project or task management tools available. It fails to handle basic task management functions effectively. Power Automate is another disappointment. Microsoft's offerings lag significantly behind competitors like Zapier or Make. It seems like Microsoft's development team is delivering only the bare minimum, and now that I'm using their tools, the shortcomings are glaringly obvious.
- I too would prefer to have the simple template approach... as a very small team with no dedicated IT, or even a real 365 expert among us, nor the time to learn and experiment (and not much budget to be hiring lots of external consultants), Planner templates would be ideal.
For now, I've been thinking of creating a plan that we won't use except to copy it when we need a "new" version of it. What I'm not sure of is whether there may be any particular downsides to this approach.
