How to use Task tracking

The video tutorial, #2
Task tracking features overview
Task tracking global settings
Quick task editor
Corner situations

 

Task tracking features overview

In this post, we´re going to learn how to work with tasks. In task you have some basic attributes like author of the task, assignee of the task, start date, due date, estimated time, spent time, task priority, tracker, and status.

• Spent time = reported project time, always without subprojects
• Total spent time = reported project time, always with subprojects
• Estimated hours = estimated time from tasks, always without subprojects
• Total estimated hours = estimated time from tasks, subprojects are considered depending on "Display subprojects tasks on parent projects by default" setting (can be changed in Administration > Settings > Task tracking > Display)

If you hover over each attribute a pencil will show up, when you click it, you will be able to change any attribute if you are in a hurry.

Another way to change task attributes is via the "Update" button. You will be able to add a comment and change all the attributes you need to change at once.

You can also change additional attributes if needed. Those differ according to your settings of what fields you have in a task, or in custom fields.

There are more options of what you can do with a task in the right column after clicking the "More" button.

You can add a task as your favorite, with this, you will be able to access it quickly. You can watch the task so you will get updates even when you are not assigned or a co-worker. You can Copy the task if you click it a new task form will open, it will be prefilled according to this task and then you can just click save and the copy will be created. You can Move the task between projects.

Deleting the task is also possible, but we do not recommend it unless you really mean it. If you got to tasks that you want to merge into one task, use the merge button. You can add a related task, there are many task relations which you can find in the task relations post. If you need to do something that you need to differ from the original task purpose, you can add a subtask. Those tasks will be linked and you will see it here:

You can create a project based on a particular task. If you have a knowledge base plugin, you can create a knowledge post by clicking the "Knowledge" icon (bulb).

And of course, you can print the task by pressing Ctrl+P. You can also export it in many ways using the export options in the bottom right corner.

For each comment, the "Link to journal" button is available under its context menu (the sprocket icon) and enables to copy/paste the link directly to the particular comment in the journal. Just click on it with the left mouse button to make it copied in your clipboard instantly.

 

Task tracking global settings

Task tracking global settings can be found under Administration » Settings » Task tracking.

1) Display

Show task ID

This sets up, whether you see the task Id in the task title or not.

Display subprojects tasks on main projects by default

This allows you to set up whether you want to see subproject tasks on parent tasks main page or not.

Select related tasks on the new task form

If you turn this option on, you will be able to select a related task when creating a new task directly.

Display project selection on task

This turns on the option of selecting and changing project in line on a task.

Show sales activities on tasks

When turned on, sales activities from CRM cases will be shown directly on tasks.

Display created on as

With this, you can set how you want the Created on date displayed, with or without time.

Use color scheme for

Here you choose based on what is the color scheme used. It can be based on task priority, status, or task type.

2) Behaviour

Allow to set task due date after milestone date

This setting allows or prevents users from setting due date of a task after a milestone date. For example, if the milestone is on 1. 1. 2016, the user will be able to create a task with a due date on 1. 2. 2016 when the option is checked. If this isn´t allowed, the user will be only able to set the due date up until 1. 1. 2016. When a task is moved beyond the milestone in Easy Gantt, the milestone will be moved automatically to the point of task's due date because no tasks should actually stay beyond the milestone day, which represents a point in time when all associated tasks are done.

Enable private tasks

Sometimes, you might have an exclusive task that no one else should see, except author, assignee, and coworker(s) of the task. For this purpose, private tasks come handy. To be able to create private tasks, you have to activate this option on tasks. To do so, go to Administration » Settings » Task tracking where you need to check the option "Enable private tasks". Moreover, a permission called "Set tasks as private" is required for user's role to allow him to create private tasks. In addition to that, the "Private" standard field must be checked in the task type settings (Administration » Task types » select task types » Standard fields). Only after meeting these conditions can private tasks be used.

When creating a new task, the "Private" checkbox is available. When checked, the task will only be seen by author, assignee, and co-worker. No one else will be able to see it. To recognize private tasks easily, there is a clearly visible label and an icon next to the name of the task. Another way to make sure the tasks are seen by only certain users is to add them a role where they have only permission to see tasks where they are the assignee, coworker, or author.

Allow repeating tasks

This allows users to create repeating tasks. How to create repeating tasks can be found here.

Link tasks after copying

With this setting, you can choose if you want to link tasks that you copy, you set here if the system should ask you, or that the system can do this automatically.

Allow cross-project subtasks

You can set here if you want to enable cross-project sub-tasks, and if under what circumstances. You will have these options:

• Disabled
• With all projects
• With project tree
• With project hierarchy
• With subprojects

Allow cross-project tasks relations

You can set here if you want to enable cross project task relations. If have this disabled, task from project A cannot be related to a task from project B.

Allow task assignment to groups

With this turned on, you are able to assign tasks to groups of users. The group has to be set as a member of the project.

Use current date as the start date for new tasks

This setting automatically sets the current date as the start day of a task. the box will be pre-filled with the current date. If you turn this off, the start date box will be empty.

By closing parent task, close also subtasks

With this option checked in all the subtasks will be closed with parent task.

Calculate the task done ratio by

Here you choose how you want to calculate the done ratio of a task.

Set 100% done on closed tasks

When you choose this to be on, the percentage will automatically fill in 100% when you mark a task as closed.

Comments on tasks are private by default

All the notes added will be by default checked in as private.

Ignore workflow for administrators

With this option turned on, the administrator can basically do whatever they want, no matter what roles they have and what workflow settings are assigned to those roles. This option only applies to Task status transitions, not Task fields permissions or CRM fields permissions.

Tasks export limit

When exporting tasks, you can set how many task maximum may be exported. If you want to export more than for example 500 tasks at once, make sure you don´t have the limit set to 400 for example.

 

Quick task editor

Quick task editor enables to see and/or edit all important data related to a specific task in a single-screen pop-up window, eliminating the need for opening the task in a separate tab. So, it is like a compact view of everything that can usually be found under various tabs, columns or buttons of the normal task view. Most importantly, Quick task editor is extremely fast and easy to use and its main purpose is saving time while doing standard task management. To open Quick task editor of a specific task from the task list, click on the task name or select Open from the context menu.

Below is how Quick task editor looks like. As you can see, the sidebar menu contains buttons for quick navigation to required task attributes you would like to check or edit, namely details, description, comments, attachments, spent time, coworkers, tags, subtasks, parent task, and related tasks.

Of course, Quick task editor is definitely not a passive view but is fully interactive so you can quickly edit any of these visible task attributes or add missing text just by clicking to the respective area on the screen.

 

Corner situations

• When moving a task with a particular tracker into another project that does not allow this tracker in the project settings, the tracker of the task will be changed automatically to the first allowed one in the list.
• Task attribute called "Time in current status" is always calculated right away. On the other hand, task attributes called "Time in status XXX" are calculated via rake task "Compute tasks report", once a day by default. The value for a given status is calculated only when the status changes, otherwise, no data are shown in the column.
• HTML formatting in text fields (such as the task comment field) is not available in the mobile view. The text formatting toolbar is missing and paragraphs are not kept after saving. As a workaround, HTML formatting will be available again after switching to the desktop view in your mobile browser.
• If a new mandatory custom field is added to the task entity, existing tasks can still be edited without the need to fill in this mandatory field (unless we have already filled this field with a value and saved it). This behavior applies to editing tasks directly or via WBS or Easy Gantt.
• The situation when a task assignee is not a member of the project can occur in the following cases:
  • the assignee was removed from the project but the tasks remain assigned to him,
  • an automatic ticket updating process is set within the Helpdesk module in such a way that some tickets are automatically assigned to a former project member.
• Task duration field (which can be activated per task type) counts the value from Start date and Due date. However, the feature does not count with weekends, meaning that 1 week = 5-day duration and 1 month = 21-day duration.
• It may not be possible to export a large number of tasks with big attachments using the standard export tool as the server may not be adapted to such a workload. In case of a problem, the solution is to divide the export into smaller parts or use some other method of export. If necessary, we will be happy to prepare on your request a Dump database including files from where you can export tasks without any problem. However, it is not possible to say exactly how many tasks it is possible to export using the standard method of export as it depends on the server performance and its current load.
• If the % Done calculation method on tasks is changed (can be changed in Administration » Settings » Task tracking » Calculate the task done ratio by, resp. Parent tasks attributes), the current values of % Done on tasks are updated immediately, however, sorting and grouping of tasks by % Done are not automatically updated and remain at their original values. The reason is the time-consuming recalculation of sorting and grouping on all tasks in the system (however, the recalculation can be done manually in /easy_rake_tasks).