Migrate from Productive to Asana

Productive Projects map directly to Asana Projects. We preserve the project name, description, start and end dates, status, and project-level custom fields. The Asana project is created first as the parent container for all tasks, milestones, and section relationships. Projects with no tasks still migrate as empty project records to preserve the workspace structure.

Productive Lists are group-level containers inside Projects that hold Tasks. In Asana, Lists map to either Sections (within a project, using the Sections API to preserve ordering) or Tags (cross-project labels using the Tags API). We choose the mapping during scoping based on how the customer uses Lists: if Lists are primarily organizational within a project, we use Sections; if Lists represent cross-project categorization, we use Tags. Tags require the Asana API to create before task import because tags do not exist in advance.

Productive Tasks map directly to Asana Tasks. We preserve the task name, description (as notes), assignee (mapped via member email to Asana User), due date, and custom field values. Subtasks migrate as Asana subtasks using the parent_task parameter. Task status in Productive maps to completion status in Asana (completed vs not completed). Productive's task priority flag migrates to an Asana custom field or to the Notes field if no custom field is desired.

Productive Milestones map to Asana Milestones on the Starter+ tier. We preserve the milestone name, due date, and associated project. If the Asana destination is on the Personal (free) tier, Milestones are not available and we convert Milestones to Tasks with a milestone_flag custom field set to true. Milestones without a due date are converted to Tasks in all cases.

Productive Members map to Asana Users by email address. We extract all members referenced on Projects and Tasks, resolve them by email against the Asana workspace, and assign tasks to the resolved User. Any Productive member without a matching Asana User goes to a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to provision. Active and inactive status is preserved as a task-assignment note for the admin.

Productive Teams (Professional+ feature) group members for resource planning. Asana Teams serve a similar grouping function. We preserve team memberships and map them directly. If the source Productive workspace is on Essential tier, no Teams data exists and this object is skipped. If the Asana destination does not use Teams, we convert team memberships to Tags on member-assigned tasks.

Productive time entries include user, date, duration, billable flag, and task association. Asana has native time tracking only on the Advanced tier ($24.99/user/month). We migrate time entries to Asana as follows: on Advanced tier, we create time entries linked to tasks using the Asana time tracking API; on Starter or Personal tiers, we preserve the duration and billable flag as custom fields on the task record. We explicitly flag unrecognized time entries (billable but not recognized in an invoice) as a migration concern documented for the customer.

Productive recurring and one-time budgets have no direct Asana equivalent. We extract budget amounts, types, and periods and document them in a written inventory for the customer's admin to recreate in a budgeting tool outside Asana (such as a spreadsheet, Airtable, or a dedicated financial platform). We also migrate budget data as numeric custom fields on the Project record if the customer requests it, noting that no budget-vs-actual reporting will be active without a rebuild.

Productive invoices are generated from tracked time and expenses and have no equivalent in Asana's object model. We extract invoice headers, line items, totals, and payment status as a written inventory. The customer's admin decides whether to close out open invoices in Productive before cutover or export them as PDF records for archival. We do not recreate invoices in Asana because Asana has no invoice object.

Productive expense records include amount, date, description, category, and billable flag linked to a Project or Task. Asana has no native expense object. We migrate expense data as structured custom fields on the relevant Project or Task (amount, date, category, billable flag). Receipt attachments migrate as Asana attachments linked to the task or project. The customer documents open expenses for handling outside Asana.

Productive rate cards define per-role or per-person billing rates tied to tracked time. Asana has no rate card object. We extract rate card entries and deliver them as a written inventory documenting the rate structure, roles, and amounts. The customer's admin recreates these in their preferred billing or quoting tool. We note that rate cards tied to active invoicing workflows should be resolved in Productive before cutover.

Productive Skills (Ultimate-tier feature) tag members with competencies for resource matching. Asana has no native Skills object. We extract skill assignments and convert them to Tags on the member record. If the source workspace is on a lower tier where Skills does not exist, this object is skipped. Skills used for resource planning are documented separately for the customer's admin to handle as a lookup table outside Asana.

Productive account-level custom fields (5 on Essential, 15 on Professional, more on Ultimate) map to Asana Custom Fields per project via the Custom Field Settings object. We extract the field definition (name, type, and options for picklist fields), create the corresponding Asana custom field in the destination project, and migrate values to each task. Asana's custom field model differs from Productive's: fields are created per project, not at account level, so the customer may need to create common custom fields across multiple projects. We flag any values that exceed the destination's picklist option set and resolve them with the customer during scoping.