Tasks

Give work to the people who have to do it, and see it come back. They upload whatever you asked for, in any file format, and you read it without downloading anything.

Overview

Tasks covers the whole round trip:

• Write a task once and give it to one person, a whole group, or both.
• They start it, tick off the steps, attach files and send it back.
• You read it inline, approve it or ask for changes, and record a mark if you use one.
• Every handover, deadline change and reopened item is kept on the record.
• Each person builds up a record you can look at, broken down by category.

Choose your wording

The same service is used by schools, hotels, agencies and offices, so the words on screen follow you rather than the other way round. Go to Tasks → Settings and pick the one that fits:

This only changes the words. Nothing you have already created is affected, and you can switch back at any time or change a single word on its own.

Categories and groups

Two pieces of setup make everything else easier. Tasks → Groups opens Setup, which has a Groups tab and a Categories tab (and a People tab for those who can see every task).

• A category is what a piece of work is about, and it decides how work in it is marked. Create one with New category.
• A group is a set of people. Create one with New group, then use Edit who is in it. Everyone in it is either a reviewer, who sees and decides on the group's work, or a member, who gets given it.

Create and give out work

1. Tasks → New Task. Give it a title and say what needs doing.
2. Pick a category, a priority and a deadline.
3. Under What has to come back, choose a note and at least one file, files only, a written note only, or nothing at all. You can also set Files they must send, Maximum attempts, and whether to Still accept work after the deadline (on by default).
4. Publish, then Give it to someone - choose a whole group, one person, or both, then Give it out.

Everyone you give it to gets their own copy, with their own deadline, attempts and history. Giving the same task to thirty people gives you thirty separate records.

Doing the work

Whoever it was given to opens it from Tasks, reads the brief, downloads anything you attached and presses Start work. They tick off the steps, write a note, attach files and press Send for review. This screen is built for a phone first, because it is often used away from a desk.

If the deadline has passed and you allowed late work, it still goes through and is clearly marked as late, so nothing is lost and nothing is hidden.

Reviewing it

Tasks → Waiting for you is a queue of everything that has come back and needs a decision. Open the top one, look at it, decide, and move to the next.

For each attempt you can Approve it or Request changes. Requesting changes asks what needs changing and sends it back so they can try again; each attempt is kept, so you can compare.

Group reviewers review work given out through their group. Work given to one person is reviewed by whoever wrote the task, or by someone who can see every task.

Marking

Marking is optional. Choose it when you create a category (How work here is marked), and any single task can do its own thing under How it is marked. The choices are:

Moving work and deadlines

Work moves around, and the record keeps up with it. Open one person's copy of the work to find these:

• Move to someone else - who had it before, who has it now and why is all kept.
• Pass on - if your role allows it, you can hand something you were given to a colleague. This is recorded differently from being given work by a manager.
• Change deadline - the deadline it started with is never overwritten, so you can always see how far something slipped.
• Call it off - cancels that one person's copy without touching anyone else's. You must give a reason.

When moving work or changing a deadline you can add a reason, and it shows up on the History tab of that piece of work.

To stop a task for everyone, open the task and press Pause. It disappears for the people it was given to without anything being deleted. Resume it and they pick up where they were.

Reopening finished work

Sometimes something is approved and later turns out to be wrong. Open it and choose Reopen this. You have to say why, the person is told, and its status becomes Reopened so they can work on it again. It also shows up in their record, so repeated rework is visible.

Email

People are emailed when work is given to them, when a deadline is close, and when their work is approved or sent back. It goes out from your own address, not ours, so it looks like it came from your organisation.

Set the address up once in Marketplace → Email sending; Tasks → Settings shows you whether it is done and links straight to it, and has an Email people about their tasks switch. Until an address is set up, nothing is emailed - people still see everything in the app and in their notifications, so no work goes missing.

The wording of each of those emails is yours to change under Marketplace → Email sending → Templates.

Performance and Analytics

Tasks → Performance shows everyone you review. Open any person for their full record, broken down by category:

• How much they were given and how much they finished.
• How much came in by the original deadline.
• How often work had to be redone, and how often finished work was reopened.
• How quickly reviewers responded to them - this measures your reviewers, not the person.
• Their average mark, where marking is used.

Use Download CSV to take the records away in a spreadsheet.

Tasks → Analytics is the overview for the whole team: how many people, how much is still open, how much is waiting for a decision and how much is past its deadline, with charts of where the work stands and a workload table you can split into everyone, members and reviewers.

Templates

For anything you do the same way each time - taking on a new starter, a monthly compliance round - build it once under Tasks → Templates. Each step gets a title and a number of days after the run date, so deadlines lay themselves out. Run the template against a group and every step is created and given out in one go.

Who can do what

Set on each role under Members & access → Roles:

By default, Admins have every Tasks permission, Managers have everything except seeing every task and deleting, and Users have only "Doing the work". Somebody with only "Doing the work" sees their own work and nothing belonging to anybody else.

Test it step by step

You need two people for this: one who hands out and reviews the work (an Admin), and one who does it (a User). Invite a colleague, or a second email address of your own, from Members & access.

1. Install the service. Open Marketplace, find Tasks and click Install. You need to be an owner or admin to install services.
2. Try it in the sandbox if you like. Open the menu under your name at the bottom of the sidebar and choose Switch to Sandbox mode. Your team is copied into the sandbox, so both people can test there without touching real work.
3. Create a category. As the Admin, go to Tasks → Groups, open the Categories tab, press New category, give it a name, choose How work here is marked and save.
4. Create a group. On the Groups tab press New group, give it a name and the category, and save. Press Edit who is in it, make the User a member and yourself a reviewer, and save.
5. Write the task. Go to Tasks → New Task. Add a title, instructions, the category and a deadline. Under What has to come back choose A note and at least one file. Press Publish; the task shows as Published.
6. Give it out. On the task press Give it to someone, choose your group under A whole group and press Give it out. A message says Given to 1 person and their copy shows as Assigned.
7. Do the work. Sign in as the User. Open the task from Tasks and press Start work (it becomes In progress). Write a note, attach any file and press Send for review. A message says Sent for review and the status becomes Submitted.
8. Review it. Sign back in as the Admin and open Tasks → Waiting for you. The work is there. Open it, check the file opens in the browser, and press Approve. The status becomes Completed. Try Request changes on a second attempt to see it go back as Changes requested.
9. Check the record. Open Tasks → Performance and click the User. The finished work is counted.
10. Check email. If you set up a sending address in Marketplace → Email sending, the User also gets an email when the work is given out and when it is approved. Without one, they only see it in the app.

For developers

Create a sandbox API key from Tasks → Developer with the Manage tasks permission, then create a draft task:

curl -X POST https://app.softsolz.uk/api/v1/services/tasks/tasks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_test_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Test task from the API", "instructions": "Upload one photo of the finished work.", "status": "draft"}'

A 201 reply with the new task means it worked, and the task appears in the sandbox under Tasks. See the Tasks developer guide for giving it out and reviewing work through the API.

If something goes wrong

Problems when sending work back show as a Could not send that message with a short reference code.

Common questions

• Can one person have several reviewers? Yes. Put them in more than one group, each with its own reviewers.
• Can I give the same task to two groups? Yes. Anybody already on it is skipped rather than given it twice.
• How do I stop a task that is already out? Press Pause on the task to hide it from everyone, or Call it off on one person's copy. Deleting the task removes it and every copy.
• Can somebody see another person's submission? No, unless they review that person's group or have workspace-wide access. The private thread on a piece of work is only between that person and their reviewers.
• Do we have to mark anything? No. Leave marking off and you still get completion, timeliness and rework figures.