Items List - Tasks

Tasks are activities or work efforts against which employees track their time. Tasks are mandatory components required for time tracking. Before employees can begin tracking time, tasks must first be assigned to projects and then employees must be assigned to tasks.

Special note about the different types of tasks in Dovico Planning & Timesheet:

Projects/Tasks created directly in the Project Assignments view are the types of projects/tasks that require accurate tracking for time and costs, but do not need to be scheduled for a certain date, or scheduled based on other work being completed (dependencies). Tasks created in the Project Assignments view are normally administrative or 'on-going' projects and tasks.

The Project Planning tool is the area of the software where you create projects/tasks that need to be scheduled based on resource availability, dates or dependency related factors. Although both called tasks, the tasks created for the Project Planning tool have technical differences for managers and administrative users when it comes to assignments and reporting. For time entry users, there are no differences.

In general terms, tasks created in the Project Planning tool are not available in the Project Assignments view and vice versa. They may appear when viewing assignments, but they cannot be edited in any way. A full list of differences can be found in the All about Tasks topic.

This topic describes how to add a task using the Items List view. Tasks can also be added using the Project Assignments view.

To add a task using the Items List view:

Select Items List from the menu (Menu > Views tab > Employees & Projects > Items List).
Select Tasks in the drop-down list at the upper left corner of the view.
Click the New button located in the toolbar.

A task properties window opens.
Enter a unique task Name (up to 250 characters).
Click Done to save the information and close the window, or click New to save the information and create a new task.

OPTIONAL INSTRUCTIONS:
Select a task group from the Group by drop-down list.

The More button can be ignored when you are creating a new Task. The More button is used when you are changing the ‘Group by’ selection for an existing task and you want to backdate assignments already made using the task group.
From the Limited Access field, select which managers or Access Groups can access this task. Only the selected managers (or members of the selected access groups) are permitted to view and report on this task.

Depending on which limited access operating mode is enabled, either a list of manager names or a hierarchical tree of access groups is displayed in the limited access drop-down list. See Notes that follow.

Check the managers (or access groups) who require access to this item. Click the "check all" icon to select all. Clicking the “unselect all” icon removes all check marks except for one manager (or one access group). This is to guarantee that at least one person can access the item.
Click anywhere outside the Limited Access window to close the list.

Notes:

If the Limited Access list displays user names then Manager-level limited access mode is likely enabled. Otherwise, Hierarchy-based limited access mode is likely enabled.
When an access group is checked, any parent access group is automatically checked.

Enter a Description for the task (up to 250 characters). This description can be seen by those entering time against this task as the 'Task Description'. The task description is also used as the default entry for the 'Time Entry Description' field in the time entry tool, and can be modified by the employee for each time entry.

(Optional) Check the Required for time entry box to force the time entry user to enter a Time Entry Description when entering time against this task. With this option checked, the task’s description is not entered as the default Time Entry Description as described above.

Tip: When using the ‘Required’ option described above, you should remove the ability from users to hide the Time Entry Description field (see Timesheet Options).

Enter a Prorating for this task. The prorating value is used to assign a proportionate value to this task when billing clients on time spent on this task. When editing a prorating, a 'More' button is displayed to offer more options. When creating a new task prorating, this button can be ignored.

Example: The task called MEETING has a prorating of 2 and Jane’s hourly rate charged is $100 per hour. The client cost for this task is calculated as follows: $100 x 2 x the number of hours worked.
Check the Global box if you want this task to be assigned to all projects that do not have specific assignments. For projects that have no specific assignments, global tasks are automatically assigned to the project and all employees are assigned to the global task.
Check the Flag for archive box if you want to remove this task from the database the next time the Archive Database function is run.
Click Done to save the information and close the window, or click New to save the information and create a new task.

Note: The number of tasks displayed in the view is limited by the Paging setting. You may need to click the paging buttons or (at the top of the screen) to view additional pages.

Tips:

Additional tabs are available at the bottom of the task properties window to add Notes, Phone Numbers and Addresses.
To view or edit details for more than one task, open a task properties window and use the Next Record button (or Previous) to browse to other tasks. Clicking the Next (or Previous) button automatically saves any changes made.
Use the Show/Hide column function to personalize what information is displayed in the task list view's grid.
Double click an item in the grid to see that item's properties .
You can add fields to track extra task information by using Custom fields .
Use the Filter function to view only those tasks assigned to a specific task group.
Use the Find function to locate a specific task by name.
The term "Task" can also be customized to better fit your company's terminology.
Use the Limited Access Group filter to only view those items assigned to specific Access Groups.

Warning: If a task is deleted, all the hours worked for that task are also deleted. All project costs and estimates associated with the task are also deleted. Instead, consider using the Archive function as it will effectively accomplish the same as delete, but the task and all associated information will be stored in a separate, archive database.