Tasks
The smallest unit of work in a project — all fields, priority levels, and how tasks connect to timesheets and billing.
Tasks are the atomic units of work in a project. They belong to a project and, optionally, to a job. Time entries can reference a task — so tasks are the most granular level at which time and cost are tracked. Well-defined tasks lead to accurate timesheets, accurate billing, and meaningful variance data.
Accessing Tasks
Navigate to: Operations → Projects → Tasks view → New
Tasks can also be created from a project's page or a job's Tasks tab, where the Project (and Job) are pre-filled.
Task Fields
| Field | Required? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Project | Yes | The project this task belongs to. Pre-filled when creating from within a project. |
| Job | No | The job (phase) within the project this task falls under. Optional — a task can sit directly under the project. |
| Task Title | Yes | A specific, actionable description of the work. "Design database schema for invoice module" is better than "Database work". The title appears in the Tasks view and in timesheet dropdowns. |
| Description | No | Full task description, acceptance criteria, or technical specification. |
| Assigned To | No | The team member responsible for this task. Leave blank for unassigned. |
| Start Date | No | The planned date this task begins. |
| Due Date | No | The deadline for completing this task. Shown as the Due Date column in the Tasks view. |
| Start Time | No | An optional specific time of day for this task to begin, if scheduling is time-bound (e.g., a meeting-dependent task, a time-slot installation, a shift-based activity). |
| Estimated Hours | No | How long this task is expected to take in decimal hours (half-hour steps). Shown against Total Hours on the task page. |
| Priority | No | Low, Medium, High, or Urgent. A planning aid — it does not enforce any system behaviour. |
| Status | No | The current state of this task. See Task Status Options below. |
| Billable | No | Whether time logged against this task is billable, with an hourly rate when ticked. |
| Checklist | No | A list of sub-items within the task. Each checklist item can be ticked off on the task page. Useful for tasks with defined verification steps. |
Files are attached from the task page's Attachments panel after the task is created.
Task Status Options
A task has four states on the server — To Do, In Progress, Done, and Blocked. The picker offers five, and two of them do not line up:
- Choosing Review stores the task as Done.
- Choosing Done stores the task as Blocked.
- Choosing Cancelled stores a value the server has no state for.
The job page compounds it: its per-task "completed" test treats the code that means Blocked as done, so a blocked task is struck through and counted as finished. Until this is fixed, use only To Do and In Progress, and record completion in the description rather than the status.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| To Do | Task exists but work has not begun. Time can still be logged against it — the system does not enforce a status prerequisite — but this signals to the team that work should not have started yet. |
| In Progress | Work is actively underway. The assignee should be logging time against this task. |
| Review | Intended for work awaiting review. Picking it currently stores the task as Done — see the warning above. |
| Done | Intended for accepted, finished work. Picking it currently stores the task as Blocked — see the warning above. |
| Cancelled | Offered in the picker, but the server has no Cancelled state for a task. Historical time entries are retained either way. |
| Blocked | A real server state that the picker does not offer. A task can end up here only by choosing Done, which is why blocked and done are hard to tell apart. |
Estimated vs Actual Hours
The task page shows four cards:
- Total Hours — the sum of time entries referencing this task, with the estimate beneath ("Est: …") when one was set
- Billable Hours — the billable portion of those entries
- Billable Amount — the value of the billable entries at their rates
- Checklist — items ticked / total
Billable vs Non-Billable Tasks
Marking a task Non-Billable is appropriate when:
- The work is internal quality assurance not included in the client contract
- The task is rework caused by an internal error (client should not be billed for your mistakes)
- The work belongs to an internal project
- A specific scope of work was excluded from billing by agreement with the client
Non-billable time is fully tracked in the system — it appears in Total Hours on the task, job and project. It is simply excluded from Billable Hours and Billable Amount.
A clearly defined task with an explicit Due Date, assignee, Estimated Hours, and acceptance criteria in the Description is a mini-scope document. When clients ask what was delivered, the task list — with its completion status and actual hours — is the evidence. Projects that use tasks properly have fewer billing disputes than those that log time at the job level only.
Related
- Jobs — the job a task belongs to
- Projects — the project above it
- Timesheets — logging time against a task