Use any field in formulas, e.g. dropdowns and text (not just number and date fields)
future
Galen King
It appears it is only possible to reference numeric or date fields in formulas. I would love to be able to do something like if(field("Status") == "Urgent",2,1) in a formula field. Is that not possible?
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Faduma Idiris
This is much needed. Please prioritize this feature
A
Amanda Fye
Agree! This would really open up the possibilities and hope they prioritize this feature.
Jess Amaris Delgado
I agree with most of the comments here and am surprised this capability hasn’t been implemented yet.
D
David Koos
I agree with most comments here that in the year 2026 I am not able to reference other than Date and Number fields is hard to believe. But what strikes me most is that you offer string functions like lower, left , etc. What is the point if I cannot reference Text columns, to list those functions. I also did not find any mention in the documentation that only date and number columns are possible.
Juliana Stanisauskiene
Hi ClickUp Support Team,
I’m reaching out specifically about Formula Fields and their current limitations.
We need to build more advanced, multi-step calculations (pure math / logic), where:
- the result of one formula is used as an input in a second formula,
- then that result is used again in a third formula (and so on),
- essentially a “formula chaining” workflow (intermediate calculated values reused downstream).
Right now, ClickUp’s formula capabilities feel too limited for this. The restriction on how much we can reuse formula outputs across other formulas (and/or the limited complexity of formulas overall) forces us into workarounds.
The main issue is that the alternative—using AI Custom Fields for calculations—is not practical:
- AI fields consume credits even for simple math,
- AI outputs are not ideal for numeric reporting (and often can’t be used properly for dashboards/aggregations),
- and overall this becomes expensive and inefficient for what should be straightforward calculation logic.
Because of this, we’re struggling to build reliable dashboards and reporting on calculated values, and it’s pushing us to consider external tools/integrations outside ClickUp.
Could you please advise:
1) Are there plans to expand Formula Fields to support more complex formulas and formula chaining (reusing calculated results across multiple steps)?
2) Is there a recommended best-practice workaround today for multi-step calculations inside ClickUp (without AI)?
3) If this is already on your roadmap, is there any estimated timeframe or version target you can share?
Thanks in advance for any guidance — this is a major workflow blocker for us.
Best regards,
Juliana
J
Jen
Option to Sum custom field that contains formulas would be useful, we are using a formula custom field to calculate costs using cost estimate (time estimate x hourly rate fields) verus actual cost (actual hours x hourly rate fields)
Tasha Raynard
Use Case:
We use a Formula custom field in order calculate a month before the due date of a task which can be anywhere from 3 to 12 months away.
We need to be able to utilize the formula date field to either populate another custom field, and/or send a message or perform another action once that custom formulated date arrives.
Currently the "Date custom field arrives" trigger does not allow you to select a formula field, even if it's, a date.
Luci N.
marked this post as
future
Hey, everyone! We've updated the status of this request to reflect its roadmap status. The Product Manager will provide updates on this post when they have new details to share! For more details about our statuses, check out this post!
Idril Orden
Marking this as "Future" after 4 years of user requests is a concerning signal regarding product priorities.
We are trying to build robust business logic on your platform, but the inability to reference text-based dropdowns in formulas forces us to rely on brittle workarounds (like mapping integers to text) that degrade the user experience and data integrity.
It is difficult to justify why resources are being poured into Generative AI features when the platform's core logic engine still lacks basic string comparison capabilities—a fundamental requirement that competitors like Notion and Airtable solved years ago.
By deprioritizing this for another cycle ("won't be working on it for a while"), you are effectively telling business users that we cannot rely on ClickUp for complex workflows. Please reconsider prioritizing core stability over runaway feature expansion.
Christian Rigg
Luci N. Have to agree with others that it's extremely disappointing to see this not being prioritized. At 1.4k, it has more upvotes than most of the improvements already committed to production. ClickUp also styles itself as a "replacement" for Notion and Airtable, and yet you can't even concatenate two fields together? Such a frustrating and totally preventable shortcoming. ClickUp consistently falls behind on basic power-user features that make Monday.com, Notion, and Airtable very, very attractive alternatives.
E
Erra Faye Zabat
Hey, Christian! Appreciate you sharing this and for being so candid. I want to reassure you that this is very much on the team’s radar.
If there are any updates, our Product Manager will post them here. In the meantime, please keep sharing your thoughts and use cases. That kind of input genuinely helps guide the team on what to prioritize next.
Caroline Ginty
Merged in a post:
More formula variable compatibility
B
BALAORO, MIKE ANGELOU ROÑA
All types of fields should be allowed to be a variable in the formula.
Andy Donaldson
Frustrating that this feature is put on the sidelines given that ClickUp is meant to be a project management platform.
Recently, we have started to use a RICE score to prioritise our projects, similar to Canny's features. I was hoping to have this all in ClickUp, with everything being in one place.
As formula fields can't reference a dropdown (allowing me to use an IF function to replace the string with its respective numerical value), I'm now having to either use a separate platform (Google Sheets, Canny etc) or use ~23 automations to set the numerical value whilst having two fields for each individual RICE value.
Inefficient.
Aron Liedtke
Andy Donaldson you could prob just use the AI feature for that, calculations are pretty good now
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