Aptify's Tasks functionality provides a method for tracking progress on assignments or projects. The Tasks service integrates closely with Aptify's Process Pipeline technology to automatically move the task along as its status changes.
The following is an overview of how an organization might use Tasks to create workflows for day-to-day activities:
- The organization identifies a need to track a particular set of items as tasks.
- An administrator creates a new Task Type for these tasks. This includes defining any actions that can assist with automating the workflow.
- Task Actions fire process flows when a user changes a task's status from one value to another and saves the record.
- See Creating a Task Type for details.
- A user creates a new top-level Tasks record for a workflow item. If applicable, the user also creates sub-tasks for specific assignments that can be broken out from the main task.
- When creating new Tasks, the user can estimate the amount of time required to complete the assignment.
- See Creating a Task for details.
- As the Task progresses towards completion, a user modifies the Status field to reflect the current status of the item.
- Depending on the configuration of the task's type, changing a task's status can automatically fire a process flow to automate the workflow of the task.
- For example, if a user changes a task's Status from Under Development to Pending Approval, Aptify can automatically send an email message to the user's supervisor notifying him or her that the item is ready for management review.
- When the task is finished, the user updates the Tasks record with the relevant metrics (such as how much time it actually took to complete the task) and changes the task's Status to Closed, which prevents further modification to the task's details.
This topic contains the following sub-topics related to Tasks:
Creating a Task Type
The Task Types service is used to categorize different tasks. Characteristics from a Task Type automatically flow down to Tasks that use that type, including the available Status options. A Task Type defines automated actions that can occur as users change the status of a task through its lifecycle from initiation to completion.
Follow these steps to create a Task Type:
- Open a new record from the Task Types service.
- This service appears in the Administration - CRM application by default.
- Enter a name for the task type.
- Enter an optional description for the task type.
- Select a Status for the task type: Active or Inactive.
- Only Active task types can be assigned to new Tasks.
- If this task type is a sub-category of another task type, enter the name of the parent type in the Parent field.
- Save the record.
- Define the task type's Status options. See Defining Task Type Statuses.
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Define the task type's Actions. See Defining Task Type Actions for details.
The Task Type's Attributes functionality is not available in this version of Aptify. This includes the Attributes tab and the Attribute Display Object and Class fields.
Defining Task Type Statuses
A Task receives its Status options from its assigned Task Type. You define the status options on the Task Type's Status tab. Follow these steps to add a status option to the Task Type:
- Open the Task Type record, if not already opened.
- Click the Status tab.
- Click the New button in the toolbar to open a new Status record.
- Enter the name of the status.
- Enter an optional description.
- If this status indicates a closed state (that is, no more work is required on a task), select the Closed check box.
- When a user sets a task to a status that indicates a closed state, the fields on a Task record's General tab become unavailable and can no longer be updated.
- When a task is saved with % Complete of 100 percent (that is, the work is complete and the task should be closed), Aptify automatically sets the status of the task to the first status that indicates a closed state on the Status tab. Keep this in mind when adding more than one closed state status option to a particular type of task.
- Click OK to save and close the record.
- Repeat Steps 3 to 7 to add additional status types.
- Alternatively, you can select the OK and New option and click to save the current record and open a new Status record in one step.
- Alternatively, you can select the OK and New option and click to save the current record and open a new Status record in one step.
- Click the General tab and enter the name of a status type in the Default Status field.
- This is the status that new tasks of this type will use by default.
- Save the record.
Defining Task Type Actions
You can define actions that occur when a user changes a task's status. For example, if a user changes a task's status from Open to Closed, you can define an action that sends an email notification that the task has been finished.
Follow these steps:
- Open the Task Types record, if not already opened.
- Click the Actions tab.
- Click the New button in the toolbar to open a new Actions record.
- Select the new status for a task that will trigger the action from the Status drop-down menu (this menu contains a list of the type's configured statuses).
- Select the original status of the task from the Prior Status drop-down menu (this menu contains a list of the type's configured statuses).
- Enter the name of a Process Flow that the action will execute in the Process Flow field.
- When a user updates a task that has the Prior Status to the new Status, the specified Process Flow will execute. For example, changing the Status of a task from Under Development to Pending Approval can trigger one Process Flow and changing Status from Pending Approval to Complete can trigger a second Process Flow.
- The Input Map tab for the specified Process Flow appears in the Actions record automatically.
- Complete the Input Map for the process flow.
- For example, if the change in status fires an email, you probably need to specify the recipient for that email in the Input Map.
- Contact your system administrator if you need assistance. Alternatively, see Managing Process Pipelines for information on using process flows and event handlers. A Task Type Action is another type of Event Handler.
- Click the Comments tab and enter any additional information about this action.
- Click OK to save and close the record.
- Repeat Steps 3 to 9 to add additional actions.
- Save and Close the record.
Creating a Task
Follow these steps to create a new Tasks record:
- Open a new record from the Tasks service.
- Enter the task name.
- Enter the task type in the Type link box.
- You must create one or more Task Types before you can create a task.
- Only active task types are available for selection.
- The Task Type's Default Status populates the Task's Status field.
- Enter a description of the task (this step is optional).
- Change the task's Status, if necessary.
- The available Status options flow down from the selected Task Type.
- Set the task's Priority (Low, Normal, or High).
- If this is a sub-task, enter the name of the parent task in the Parent field.
- On the General tab, configure the task's Dates, as necessary.
- The Assigned field automatically populates with today's date.
- Enter the name of the employee that assigned the task in the Assigned By field.
- Enter the name of the employee who will perform the task in the Assigned To field.
- If applicable, estimate what percentage of the task is complete in the % Complete field.
- If desired, enter an estimate for how many hours are needed to complete the task.
- See Reviewing Task Hours for information on how an organization can use a Tasks form to analyze the time estimated and spent on a particular task.
- Save the record.
- Click the Links tab and add links to existing records, as necessary.
- Select a service from the Link Type drop-down menu.
- Enter the name of the selected service's record to which you want to link this task in the link box.
- Click Add.
For Persons, Companies, and Employees, the link information includes the record ID, contact name, phone number, and email address. For all other services, the link information shows the record name and record ID.
- Click the Predecessors tab and create entries to track any existing tasks that need to be completed before this task can be started.
- Click the Sub-Tasks tab and create new Task records for any related sub-tasks.
- Click the Attributes tab and specify attributes for the task, if necessary.
- Attributes are generic features that allow the implementation of organization-specific logic and are not commonly used in Aptify.
- Attributes are generic features that allow the implementation of organization-specific logic and are not commonly used in Aptify.
- Save and Close the Tasks record.
Closing a Task
As a Tasks moves along its various stages, users change the task's Status to reflect its current progress. Changing the status can fire process flows that improve the task's workflow (such as by sending notification emails).
When a task is complete, a user opens the Task record and updates the following fields:
- Completed date
- If left blank, Aptify inserts the current date and time in this field when the task is closed.
- If left blank, Aptify inserts the current date and time in this field when the task is closed.
- % Complete
- Note that Aptify automatically sets this field to 100% when the task is closed.
- Note that Aptify automatically sets this field to 100% when the task is closed.
- Number of Hours it took to complete the task
- If an estimated number of hours has been previously entered, Aptify automatically calculates the variance between the original estimate and the actual time required when a user closes and reopens the Tasks form.
- See Reviewing Task Hours for information on how an organization can use a Tasks form to analyse the time estimated and spent on a particular task.
- Task Status (to a status that indicates a closed state)
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- When a task is saved with % Complete of 100 percent (that is, the work is complete and the task should be closed), Aptify automatically sets the status of the task to the first closed state status for the particular task type. See Defining Task Type for more information.
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The user then saves the record and the General tab on the Tasks form becomes disabled to prevent any future updates.
Depending on the configuration of the task's type, changing the task's Status may trigger a Process Flow. See "Defining Task Type" for details.
Reviewing Task Hours
The bottom of the Tasks form's General tab includes an Hours section that tracks the estimated and actual number of hours spent on a task. Also, if a particular task is a parent for one or more sub-tasks, the estimated and actual hours from those sub-tasks are added together and displayed in the Rollup fields on the parent's Tasks form.
When a user creates a Task for a particular assignment, he or she enters the estimated number of hours to complete this discrete task in the Estimated Hours field. If this task is a sub-task for a larger task, the sub-task's estimated hours automatically roll up to the parent task's Hours information.
When tracking a large assignment that is being broken down into a number of sub-tasks, the parent task might not have any time associated with it directly but all of its hours may roll-up from its sub-tasks. In this case, the Estimated Hours field for the parent task would remain as 0 but the Estimated Rollup is the sum of the individual estimates from each sub-task. For example, if a task has three sub-tasks with an estimate of 4, 6, and 8 hours, then the parent's task Estimated Rollup is 18 hours. If the parent task has estimated hours of its own, then the Total Estimated Hours display the sum of those hours plus the rollup from sub-tasks.
When working with Tasks records, you may need to close and reopen a Tasks form before it displays any updated calculated information, such as Rollups, Totals, or Variances.
As tasks are completed, a user enters the actual time it took to complete the task in the Actual Hours field. The system then automatically calculates a Variance, which is the difference between the actual and estimated hours. If it took less time than estimated to complete the task, the variance is positive (Actual is less than estimated). If it took more time than estimated to complete the task, the variance is negative (Actual is greater than Estimate).
As users specify Actual Hours information for sub-tasks, this information automatically rolls up to the parent task. As tasks are completed, the Actual Rollup field on a parent task is updated automatically, adding together the Actual Hours specified on each sub-task. The system also calculates the Rollup Variance and overall Total for the parent task.
Note that in addition to appearing on the Hours section of a Tasks form, these fields are also available for use in views so an employee or manager can generate charts, pivot tables, and reports that summarize and analyze task hours. See Using the Viewing System and Using Reporting Tools for information on working with views and reports in Aptify.
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