A task encapsulates:
- The activity that has been delegated/started/recently-completed
- The item (file, contact, document, transaction, etc) to which the task relates
- The progress of the activity (i.e. the step of the workflow that must be completed)
- The member/group responsible for carrying out the work
- Priority, start/due dates and managerial options
- A series of notes or remarks from the member who completed the previous step
While a task is attached to an item in the system, only the members with direct involvement in the activity (or those with sufficient permissions) will be allowed to perform work on the item. Upon completing the work (usually by saving changes to a screen or capture form within the application), the task is updated and advanced to the next step. When all steps are finished, the task moves into the completed state (where it will either be removed from the system or moved to the 'completed tasks' view on the portal and/or file).
During the lifespan of a task, it is possible to delegate the work to another member or group, optionally preventing further delegation from occuring; this empowers the member with the necessary permissions to complete the work. If the task arrives in error or cannot be completed, the member can repudiate the task, reverting to the previous step and returning it to the originating member. Tasks that are completed or uncommenced can be deleted as desired. Tasks cannot be delegated to service accounts.
As a task moves through the steps of the workflow, it may be imbued with commands/properties that will influence the behaviour of the subsequent steps. These are called directives.
Tasks can be created in the following ways in ContactsLaw:
Appointment-style tasks
You can choose whether to create a normal task or an appointment. While normal tasks have optional start and due dates, appointments mandate the start date and have a duration (expressed in whole and fractional hours). 'All day' events start at midnight and run for 24 hours. You can also create 'multi-day' events, whereby an independent copy of the appointment is created on each of the days you specify.
In addition to the member to whom the task is delegated, an appointment may have additional attendees; you can mark each attendee as required or optional.
As you add attendees and schedule the appointment time, ContactsLaw will check to see whether any conflicting appointments exist for the members and/or venue. Included are tools to resolve conflicts by finding the next available appointment time.
Appointment-style tasks appear on the Calendar view of the
task list.
Task reminders
You can configure 2 types of reminders when creating tasks (tasks which are created automatically will use the default settings for these):
- Desktop reminders - These appear as popup ("toast") notifications on the member's desktop when a task is about to become overdue, or when an appointment is about to begin.
- Reminder documents - For appointments only, this mechanism uses the ContactsLaw Daemon to send a document (typically an e-mail or SMS) a certain time before the appointment starts.
The default settings for task reminders can be managed via The Practice, Management tab.
A separate recurring scheduled task must be configured in the daemon to create and send reminder documents. In the options for this job, you can choose the document template and specify criteria for which contact(s) will receive the reminder.
Recurring tasks
The task composer can be used to set a recurring task; when marked as complete, the a copy of the task will be made and dated appropriately into the future, according to the recurrence pattern. Appointments with a recurrence pattern will appear multiple times on the calendar.
Exporting tasks
If appropriate
plug-ins are installed, tasks in ContactsLaw can be copied to external applications (such as Microsoft Outlook). The task composer provides the option to copy a new task to an external source.