Portfolios are available to all Business and Enterprise customers.
Portfolios provide a holistic view of all your important projects in one place. With project portfolio management you can organize your most important projects, monitor their health in real-time, and drill down for more information, while keeping your team updated on progress. You can also access portfolios on Android & iOS devices.
Learn how to leverage portfolios in our Gaining insights with Reporting virtual training. Register now.
You can also access workload through portfolios - Click Portfolios in the sidebar, select a portfolio and then navigate to the workload tab.
Create a portfolio
To create a portfolio:
- Click on Portfolios in the sidebar
- Click + Create button, or
- Click the New portfolio tile
Portfolio view
When you click on one of your portfolios, you will be able to see a holistic view of all the projects contained within.
From the portfolio view, you can:
- Add another project to the portfolio
- View the latest status of each project
- View the progress % of each project
- View or edit a project's due date or date range
- View or edit a project's priority
- View the custom field values for each project
- View the project owner
To add a project to a portfolio
You can add projects from within a portfolio in the following ways:
- Click Add work to search for an existing project
- Create a new project by clicking on the drop-down arrow beside + Add work and selecting Create new project
- Add a project from a project template by selecting a template from the drop-down arrow beside + Add work
You can remove a project from your portfolio at any time.
To remove a project from a portfolio:
- Click on the three dot icon that appears next to the name of the project
- Click Remove from portfolio
To add a project template to a portfolio
- Click on Customize
- Scroll down to Project templates
- Click on + Add project template
Once a project template has been added to the portfolio, it will appear in the drop down menu beside Add work and can be used to create new projects from within the portfolio.
To add new templates to your portfolio:
- From + Add project template select a template from the left bar and click the + Add to portfolio button.
To remove a template from your portfolio:
- To remove a template from the portfolio, click the Remove from portfolio button. The Remove from portfolio option will only appear for templates that have been added to the portfolio.
Project overview
Click on any project in your portfolio to view the project's overview.
From the project overview, you can:
- Select a project owner
- Add or edit a due date or date range
- Access the project directly to view its tasks, resources and timeline
- Add or edit a project's priority
- View the latest status of a project or update the project's status yourself
Status updates
The portfolio progress section gives you an in-depth snapshot into the status of any portfolio you’re working on. Status reports make it easy to create rich, repeatable, actionable status updates and share your work with key stakeholders.
Portfolio progress
When you click into the Progress tab in your portfolio, you’ll be presented with a snapshot of your portfolio’s current progress status.
From the Progress view, you can:
- Check if the portfolio is on track, at risk, off track, or on hold
- View the number of projects that are on track, at risk, off track, or the total number of projects
- Update your portfolio’s status
- View or change the portfolio owner, date range, or description
- View or change goals associated with the portfolio
- See the most recent status update
How to create a portfolio status update
You can update your portfolio's status at any time. The templatized block structure allows you to incorporate the actual work being done in Asana with narrative context to explain the status of work.
Creating your status update
To create a new status update:
- Click the Update status icon from your portfolio’s progress view
From the status update window, you can:
- Add a title
- Fill in your status update details, including progress, portfolio owner, and dates
- Show or hide custom fields
- Include a summary
- Highlight accomplishments
- Outline what's blocked
- Drag highlights into your update to help tell your story
- Once you've entered an update, click the blue Post button.
Please note that you must select a portfolio status of on track, at risk, off track, or on hold and at least one block of text before you can post a portfolio status update.
Adding highlights to your status update
You can drag and drop highlights such as projects that are on track or at risk into your status update to help tell your story. Adding these highlights gives a visual insight into recent achievements or potential blockers for your team.
Once you’ve added your highlights and published your status update, Asana will remember the block structure and ordering for future updates.
You can also reorder your What we’ve accomplished, What's blocked, and Next steps section by dragging and dropping them into place.
Adding charts to a status update
Adding charts to your status updates gives a visual insight into the work being done across your team. You can drag and drop your chart blocks into your status update.
Access controls
Users can add collaborators to a status update that might not have access to the project. If this happens, a user can see all of the content of the update, but if they click on a project highlight or element they don’t have access to, their access will be blocked.
For portfolios this means that public portfolio status updates will be fully visible in the progress tab, even if users don’t have access to all projects in the portfolio.
Portfolio view options and milestones
If there is a specific way you and your team prefers to sort portfolios, you can save it as the default view for everyone.
To change your portfolio view:
- Click on the slider icon on the upper right of your screen
- Choose either Tasks or Milestones as the progress type displayed
- Select to view your Portfolio by Status, Project owner, Due date, or Alphabetical
Milestones in portfolio view
Milestones are visible on a portfolio's timeline.
A blue diamond signifies a milestone. They show key events and map forward movement in the project plan. Milestones act as signposts through the course of your project, helping ensure you stay on track.
You can then click into the milestone symbol for more context on the task within the project.
A maximum of 12 milestones can be displayed in your portfolio view, before the list becomes truncated.
You can also view each project's milestones in the project overview by clicking on any project in a portfolio.
From a project overview in a portfolio, you can:
- Click the + icon to add a new milestone
- View the project's completed & incomplete milestones
You can also add custom fields directly from the drop down and then sort your portfolio by your chosen field.
How to manage custom fields
From the fields icon in Projects view a drop down menu will give you an option to click on +Add field
From here a pop up window will appear allowing you to add a custom field.
If the toggle button is blue, the field is enabled.
How to add a custom field:
- Click on Create new
- Type in your new custom field name in the Field title bar
- Click Create field to add your new field
Sort by fields
From the Sort slider in project view you can sort your workload by a range of field options.
You can now categorize, prioritize or diagnose work phases and sort based on your particular needs.
Custom field rollups
Portfolio rollups allow you to add view-only custom field columns to your portfolios. These columns sum up the numeric data of global custom fields or time tracking fields that are present in the portfolio's projects.
This means that you can keep track of underlying data in your projects without navigating away from the portfolio.
How to add a rollup to a portfolio
- Click the + Add field button in the top-right of your portfolio view
- Alternatively, click Customize, then + Add field
- Select Add rollup and choose from available numeric rollups
- The rollups are pulled from the numeric custom fields in the portfolio's projects
- This example shows the numeric custom fields Actual hours and Estimated hours, but any numeric custom field can become a portfolio rollup
- You can add or remove these fields like any other field in a portfolio
Export your portfolio to Google Sheets
Once you've created a portfolio, you can export it to Google Sheets at any time.
To export a portfolio to Google Sheets:
- Tap the three dot icon next to the portfolio title
- Hover over Export and select Google Sheets
Export your portfolio to CSV
You can also export your portfolio to CSV. Custom fields are also included in the CSV export.
To export a portfolio to CSV:
- Tap the three dot icon next to the Portfolio title
- Hover over Export and select CSV
Portfolio membership and sharing
You can share portfolios at any time with your teammates in Asana or add them as portfolio members.
When you click the Share button and access the portfolio membership screen, you can:
- Copy the portfolio link and share with colleagues
- Add portfolio members
- Set a member as the portfolio owner or remove them from the portfolio
When you have been added as a member of a portfolio, you will receive an inbox notification. You will also see a New icon next to the portfolio in question when accessing your portfolios page.
If you have been added as a member of a portfolio, you will receive a weekly report email provided you have your email notifications turned on.
If you share a portfolio containing some private projects, the person you've shared it with will see the above notification at the bottom of the screen.
Portfolio timeline
Portfolio timeline allows you to visualize, share, and adjust how initiatives are sequenced so you can best utilize your resources and hit your deadlines.
Accessing your portfolio timeline
To access your portfolio timeline, first click on the Portfolios tab and choose your desired portfolio.
Then click on the Timeline tab to view your portfolio timeline.
Portfolio timeline toolbar
From your portfolio toolbar, you can:
- Filter projects by day
- Filter your view by day, week, month, quarter, half-year or year
- Set color or choose custom fields with a particular color
Portfolio search
You can use your advanced search to search for information within a portfolio.
From your homepage:
- Click on Search
- Then click Advanced search
From here, fill out your search parameters and click Add filter then In portfolios to search within your portfolios.
You can also search for a portfolio by @mentioning the portfolio in any description or comment field in Asana. Please note that if the portfolio is private, you must have access to the portfolio in order for it to appear in your search results.
Portfolio dashboards
Click into the Dashboard tab in your portfolio to view charts and visualizations that let you zoom out from the day-to-day to understand your team’s progress quickly.
By default, portfolio dashboards include preset charts to get you started, but you can add, remove, or customize them as needed. The charts will automatically populate when you first land on the Dashboard tab—no need to set anything up. Portfolio dashboards will automatically update every time you visit the tab or refresh the page, so you know the information is up to date.
From the Dashboard tab, you can see:
- Task count cards (complete, incomplete, overdue, total)
- Four customizable charts
Portfolio dashboards are prefiltered to include only data from your selected portfolio, including tasks and data from nested portfolios.
Note: Portfolio dashboards show data based on the permissions of the viewer. This means that viewers without access to all the data in portfolios may see an incomplete data set on dashboards. Learn more about portfolio privacy settings.
Preset charts
Incomplete tasks by projects - Bar chart
View tasks by project to understand where efficiencies and potential bottlenecks are in your team’s process. Or swap in any of your custom fields to see how they compare.
All projects by project status - Donut chart
Get a quick pulse on your projects by status and each status slice's size. You can see if your incomplete projects are a tiny or large piece of the pie.
Upcoming tasks by assignee - Lollipop chart
Understand how work is distributed across your team. Quickly see who has been excelling and who might be overloaded.
Projects by owner - Lollipop
Get a quick overview of the number of projects each person on your team owns to gain visibility into their workload and bandwidth.
Learn more about the different types of charts you can use in our Reporting article.
Nested portfolios
Adding portfolios to portfolios allows you to integrate and track your work across multiple projects seamlessly. This enables you to monitor your work effortlessly and communicate progress to stakeholders.
Adding a portfolio to a portfolio
To add a portfolio to your current portfolio, click on the Add work icon and select or type a portfolio's name.
Timeline and workload view in nested portfolios
Portfolios that contain portfolios will have disabled timeline and workload tabs. This can be undone by removing any nested portfolios.
Portfolio privacy settings
The portfolio owner has the option to make a portfolio private or public.
Making the portfolio private, will mean that only portfolio members will have access to the content within the portfolio and it won't be discoverable across your organization or workspace. Making the portfolio public will mean it will be discoverable across your organization or workspace.
To toggle between public and private portfolio settings:
From within your portfolio:
- Click on the Share icon
From here choose to keep the portfolio private or make it public to your organization or workspace.
Portfolios FAQ
Frequently asked questions about portfolios.
Who can see my portfolio?
If your portfolio is set to public, anyone you share the url with in the organization will be able to access your portfolio. Once they visit the url, it will automatically show up in their recents section in portfolios view. If any of your projects in the portfolio are private, they will see a notification at the bottom of the screen letting them know some projects are private.
Private portfolios can only be accessed by portfolio members.
Does anything happen to the project when I add it to my portfolio?
Yes, you automatically become a project status follower for all of the projects. You will get notified when any of the projects in your portfolio have a status update.
How do I add a custom field to my portfolio?
If there is a specific way you and your team prefer to sort portfolios, you can save it as the default view for everyone. Alternatively, from the fields icon within the portfolio view, a drop down will give you an option to click on +Add field. From here a pop up window will appear allowing you to add a custom field.
From the Add field tab you can:
- Add a field title
- Select the field type
- Add a description
- Add the field to your organization's field library so that it can be reused across the organization.
How do I create a custom field from the toolbar?
To add a custom field from your toolbar, click on Customize and then +Add field.
From the Add field tab you can:
- Add a Field title
- Select the Field type
- Add a description
- Add the field to your organization's field library so that it can be reused across the organization.
You can add up to 20 fields per portfolio. 5 fields can also be shown in the portfolio view at any time.
What are the Portfolio Limits?
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How many portfolios can I create? There is no limit
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How many portfolios can appear in my Recents at the same time? A maximum of 20 portfolios and there is no time limit
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How many projects can I add to a portfolio? A maximum of 500 (including archived projects)
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How many custom fields can I add to a portfolio? A maximum of 30
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How many custom fields can be shown in portfolio view at one time? A maximum of 30
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How many portfolio Weekly Report email notifications can I receive per week? A maximum of 20
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How many projects are included in each weekly report email? A maximum of 50, however a link provided will allow you to view more.
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