Asana’s custom fields let you customize your Asana workflows and data for very specific needs. With them, you can attach just about any data that you want to with any task that you want.
For example, you could use a “Hours” custom field to track how long each task took, or a “Client” custom field to track which task was done for which client.
However, once you have all of this valuable data in Asana, how do you actually make use of it?
After using custom fields for a short amount of time, most companies tend to want to start generating reports on them. If they have an “Hours” custom field, they may want to see trends in how much time is being spent on certain projects, or if they have a “Client” custom field, they may want to see the progress that’s being made on tasks for that client.
Creating Reports on Custom Fields
There are a million ways in which custom fields can be used, and there are just as many types of reports that can help your business make use of them.
One option for creating a custom field report is to use Asana’s built-in method for getting the sum of a custom field across multiple tasks. You can select multiple tasks with a number custom field, and Asana will show you the sum of them. For more details, see the “Costing” section in Asana’s custom fields documentation.
If you need something more flexible or visual than that, Velocity has very customizable custom field reporting. When you create a custom report in Velocity, you can use mathematical operations on number custom fields, and group and filter by any custom field.
Because Velocity’s reporting capabilities are very flexible, you can create charts and lists for almost any custom field reporting need. You can even combine multiple custom fields, like charting the sum of an “Hours” custom field by date, while grouping it by a “Client” text custom field. To read more about this, see Velocity’s Custom Fields help documentation.