What Current writes back to Autotask (and when)
Every action in Current that pushes to Autotask, the two-way sync gate, retry and dead-letter rules, and what a push can never touch.
On this page · 10 sections
- When a push is refused, the message stays until you close it
- When Autotask needs one more thing, you answer it in Current
- What triggers a push, by entity
- The two-way sync setting
- CRM writes have their own gate
- Companies can wait for an opportunity
- Read-back and confirmation
- Retry and dead-letter behavior
- Building a project in Autotask, the one irreversible push
- What a push can never touch
Current pulls a lot from Autotask, but it also writes back, task schedules, time entries, ticket status, and CRM activity all flow the other direction under the right conditions. This page lists exactly what triggers a push, what's included, how failures are retried, and the hard boundaries Current never crosses. For the full pull-side field reference, see "Autotask sync: the complete field-mapping reference". (On ConnectWise? The same rules have their own page: "What Current writes back to ConnectWise (and when)".)
When a push is refused, the message stays until you close it
Current refuses a push on purpose in a few cases: CRM writes are off for the workspace, test mode is on and the company isn't a test record, the opportunity's column isn't mapped to a PSA stage, or the company itself hasn't been pushed yet. Your change is always saved in Current either way. The message that explains it stays on screen until you close it with the X, so it can't disappear while you're still reading, and where there is something to change it carries a button straight to that screen: the write setting in Integrations, the column editor on the opportunities board, or the company record. If the setting is one you can't change yourself, the message names who to ask instead of offering a button that would turn you away.
When Autotask needs one more thing, you answer it in Current
Some Autotask setups ask for something before they take a change, and Current asks you for it here instead of sending you to Autotask. Two cases come up:
- A reason for completion. Some Autotask workspaces won't mark a project or task Complete without one. Current finds your Autotask's own reason field (a text box, or its pick list when it is one) and asks you for it, then sends it with the completion.
- A priority, or another pick list value, that Autotask no longer offers. Autotask checks the whole task on every change, so a task still holding a value that was made inactive refuses everything, even a status change. Current shows Autotask's current choices and you pick one. It is sent together with your change, and nothing is picked for you.
When you change a task's status, the question opens right away and names the task. Answer it and Current sends your change again with the answer; choose Not now and nothing is sent. When you change several tasks at once, the questions come one at a time (“2 of 5”), you can use one answer for the other tasks that ask the same thing, and Not now stops the rest of that change. When the change was waiting in the queue (a project you marked complete, or a task change sent in the background), the task's drawer or the project's completion banner shows Autotask needs one more thing with an Answer button. Answer there and Current sends the change with your answer within a few minutes. Only the people who could make the change in the first place can answer.
What triggers a push, by entity
| Your action in Current | What's pushed to Autotask |
|---|---|
| Drag a task to a new date on the Timeline or Schedule | The task's new start and end dates, and any service calls already booked against that task move with it |
| Change a task's status (Kanban or task drawer) | The task's status |
| Rename a task from its drawer | The task's title, sent on its own and read back. A name that didn't land is reported rather than folded into the rest of the save |
| Drag a task onto a different phase on the Overview | The task's phase. A move into General, or into a phase Autotask doesn't have yet, stays in Current and the toast says so |
| Add a phase, or rename one, on the Overview | A new Autotask phase, or the new title, read back to confirm Autotask stored it. A phase that didn't reach Autotask carries a "Not in Autotask" chip you click to send again |
| Change a task's Type, Department, or Priority dropdown | That picklist field's new value |
| Reassign a task, or add/remove a secondary assignee | The primary assignee (with a valid role), and the full secondary-assignee list reconciled to match |
| Edit a task's description, estimated hours, or priority order (with two-way sync on) | That field's new value, if your edit is newer than Autotask's last change to it |
| Change a ticket's status | The ticket's status |
| Save a time entry | A new Autotask time entry |
| Create or edit a CRM company | A new or updated Autotask company (gated twice, see CRM write mode below, and "Companies can wait for an opportunity" if that setting is on) |
| Add a new CRM contact | A new Autotask contact under that company |
| A new lead arrives (website form or added by hand) | A new Autotask company marked a Prospect, plus its contact. Unless the lead matched a company you already have, in which case it's linked and nothing new is created. A lead imported from a saved list is never pushed. With "companies wait for an opportunity" on, the lead stays in Current until it has one |
| Log a CRM note | A new Autotask company note (created as internal only, never partner-visible) |
| Create an opportunity or move it to a new pipeline stage | A new or updated Autotask opportunity |
| Create or complete a CRM to-do | A new or updated Autotask company to-do |
| Drag an opportunity on the pipeline board | The opportunity's stage |
| Click "Build in Autotask" on a Current-native project or playbook | A brand-new Autotask project, with its phases and tasks |
| Build a project from a template | Same as above. Templates are native by construction, so there's no conversion prompt |
The two-way sync setting
Two-way sync defaults to ON (since July 2026. It used to default off, and a workspace that has never saved any sync settings still reads as off until the first save). You can turn it off any time under Settings → Integrations → Autotask. The switch covers the task fields Current can edit on both sides (status, name, which phase the task sits in, description, task type, department, estimated hours, and priority) plus adding and renaming a phase, and it enables field-by-field conflict resolution for those, based on whichever side changed the field more recently. With it off, a rename or a phase move is saved in Current and Current tells you the edit wasn't written to Autotask. It does not affect the always-on pushes described above, like task dates, ticket status, or time entries. Those already push independently of this setting.
CRM writes have their own gate
Every CRM push to Autotask (companies, contacts, notes, opportunities, to-dos) passes through a separate tenant-level CRM write mode, independent of the two-way task setting. In test mode, CRM writes are restricted to a designated test company in Autotask so your team can safely try the flow without touching real accounts; in live mode, they apply to real companies. Your tenant admin controls this setting; see "Our methodology: your PSA stays the source of truth" for the reasoning behind it.
Companies can wait for an opportunity
A second setting decides which companies reach Autotask at all. With "Companies: create in Autotask only with an opportunity" on, Current is where you work your prospects: a company you save here is created in Autotask once it has an opportunity, or if it is already an Autotask company. Turn it off and any company saved in Current can be created in Autotask, which is how the push worked before this setting existed.
A company waiting on an opportunity is not a failed push. It keeps its contacts, notes, and to-dos in Current, it does not appear on the sync health dashboard, and nobody has to retry it, adding its first opportunity sends the company across, and its contacts and notes follow. Saving one shows a note that it will reach Autotask when an opportunity is added.
Read-back and confirmation
- 1Time entry approval status is read back automaticallyAfter a time entry syncs, Current periodically checks whether it's been approved and posted in Autotask, and updates the entry's approval status in Current to match. This only ever moves an entry toward approved. Current never reverses an approval that's already landed.
- 2A failed task push is flagged, not silently droppedIf pushing a task's dates fails, Current records it as an unresolved sync issue you can see on the sync health dashboard.
- 3The next successful push clears the flagIf the same task syncs successfully afterward, the earlier failure is automatically marked resolved. You don't have to clear it by hand.
- 4A CRM write can partially succeedIf a new company is created in Autotask but Current fails to record the link back, that row is flagged for a human to reconcile rather than silently creating a duplicate on the next attempt.
See "Reading the sync health dashboard" for where all of this shows up, and "Fix a sync conflict between Current and your PSA" for resolving a flagged item.
Retry and dead-letter behavior
Current distinguishes between a failure worth retrying and one that needs a human. A rate limit or a temporary Autotask outage is retried automatically with increasing delays; a validation error (bad data), or a permissions error is not retried automatically. Retrying it would just fail the same way again.
- Retryable (rate limits, timeouts, temporary Autotask errors): retried automatically with increasing delays between attempts.
- After 5 failed attempts, a job is marked dead-letter and stops retrying on its own. It needs a person to look at it.
- CRM pushes specifically notify your sales leadership once a push has failed 5 times, so it doesn't sit silently.
- Validation errors, permission errors, and conflicts are never auto-retried. These need a fix, not a delay.
See "PSA rate limits and dead-letter jobs" for the full detail on how rate limits are handled and where dead-lettered jobs surface.
Building a project in Autotask, the one irreversible push
Converting a Current-native project into a synced Autotask project is permanent once it happens, Autotask doesn't let you un-create a project. Because of that, Current requires you to explicitly confirm the conversion before it will build a native project in Autotask; it will not do this as a side effect of any other action. Building directly from a template or a won quote skips this confirmation only because those projects are freshly created and native by construction. There's nothing to accidentally convert. See "Project modes: PSA-synced or Current-native" and "Building projects in your PSA from a template or won quote" for when to choose each path.
What a push can never touch
Some fields are Autotask's alone, no matter what happens in Current. Current never overwrites:
- Billing codes, work types, or contract assignments on a time entry beyond what you explicitly set when logging it
- Hours that have already been approved and posted in Autotask
- Contract terms, pricing, or service unit counts. Contracts are read-only from Autotask in every direction
- A company's core identity fields once it's a real (non-test) Autotask company, outside the specific CRM write flows above
- Anything on a ticket or task that Autotask marks read-only for your zone's configuration
- The order of phases and tasks. Autotask has no sort field for either, so Current owns the order outright and never pushes it
This boundary is intentional: billing accuracy depends on Autotask staying the single source of truth for anything that touches an invoice. See "The partner financial firewall" for the related rule that keeps financial data away from partner viewers entirely, and "Logging time and how it reaches your PSA's billing" for the full time-entry lifecycle.