Work with tasks

My work

Tasks opens on My work: everything waiting on you, in four lists by when it is due, Overdue, Today, This week and Later. Each list is counted and paged on its own, so a long overdue list never hides what is due today. Beside your own tasks it holds the work waiting for your review, the deadlines you hold and the approvals waiting on you, each marked with its kind. A walled matter's work never appears.

All, Team, Calendar, Workload and Reports are the other tabs. The calendar shows tasks by their due day in the month or week, as the diary does.

Make a task

1. Choose New task, or Add task on a matter's Tasks tab.
2. Choose the kind of work first, such as Draft or Attend court. It fills the estimate, the activity code, the checklist, the reminders and whether the work is reviewed; change any of them.
3. Give it a title and choose the matter, or leave the matter empty and choose a department for the firm's own work.
4. Under People, choose who does it. Several people may hold one task. You can also choose a part on the matter, such as its responsible lawyer, and the person in that part is put on it. Add watchers who are told when it changes.
5. Under Dates, give a start and a due day. A person on leave on the due day is named with their return, so you can choose somebody else.
6. Add reminders: a time before or after the due day, sent in the app, by email or by text. Without any, the kind of work's reminders apply, then the firm's.

A task can also be made from what started it: Make a task on a filed email in Mail, on a comment on a document, or on a client's portal message opens the form with the title, the matter and a link back to it. The task shows where it came from.

Repeat it

Repeats sets a task to come round daily, weekly on chosen days, monthly or yearly, every so many, until a day or for a number of times. Each occurrence is made a few days ahead with the same people, reminders and review. Someone who has left or is walled from the matter is dropped from the next occurrence; if nobody is left, the matter's responsible lawyer takes it and the task says why.

Editing an occurrence asks whether the change is for this one or for this one and those after it. The Repeats card on the task pauses, resumes or ends the series.

Review before done

Work that needs a review is not done when its holder finishes. Send for review passes it to its reviewer, who Approves it, which completes it, or Sends it back with what needs doing. Whoever sent it for review can never approve it. Only partners, or others the firm allows to govern reviews, may turn review on or off or change the reviewer, and not while the work waits for its review.

Time on a task

Start timer on a task records its time against it. The task shows the time recorded against its estimate, and the time entry shows the task.

Hand it over or move it

• Reassign gives the task to somebody else with a reason. The person taken off keeps their part on the task's history, and both are told.
• Move the due date shows the open tasks waiting on this one, each moved by the same number of working days, and moves them all on confirm, or this task only. A waiting task you cannot see is counted, never named, and then only this task can be moved.

Change many at once

On All or Team, tick open tasks and choose Reassign, Move the due dates, Change the priority, Complete or Cancel with one reason. It is all or nothing: where any task is refused, none changes, and each refused task is named with why.

Leave and cover

When leave is approved, the person's open tasks falling due while they are away are flagged, and they and their supervisor are told. Give the tasks due while they are away to cover on the leave, or the notice, opens the list: choose a cover for all of them or one for each, tick them, and confirm.

Overdue and escalation

A task overdue for the days the firm sets is escalated once, to the holder's supervisor or the matter's responsible lawyer, and the task says when and to whom. A task made from a template with a completion target counts as missed once past it.

Waiting, cancelling and reopening

A task waiting on open work shows as blocked; it is a signal, not a lock. Cancelling needs a reason. Reopening clears the completion and is recorded.