Use any field in formulas, e.g. dropdowns and text (not just number and date fields) | Voters

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?

December 2, 2021

Phoebe Emma

For what I thought a simple formula would be to create for "Vendor Confirmation %" as the sum of checkboxes divided by 10 vendors, multiplied by 100 but this formula does not seem to work due to the limitations of using checkboxes within the formula area.

Very disappointed.

Natalie Williams

This needs to be prioritized. Formulas are incredibly limited compared to other platforms like Notion and Airtable.
You can't check whether a date field is set, so instead you have to create extra fields and automations as workarounds. 
And the help chatbot continually recommends formulas that use dropdown, checkbox, and text fields, and functions that aren't supported...that's not exactly helpful.

netto.eth

Very much needed!!

Sarah Wills

Would love if formula fields could work with templates. I often create templates and then transfer them to other accounts for my clients to use, but the formula field does not carry across, even without data - column just fully disappears.

Faduma Idiris

This is much needed. Please prioritize this feature

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.

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

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)

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