Introducing Custom Task Types & Statuses!

We are excited to announce Custom Task Types and Custom Task Statuses, both highly requested features.

Creating Custom Task Types allows your team to differentiate between different types of tasks your team work with. For example, you might create separate Task Types for  Issues, Bugs, Change Requests, Campaigns, Leads, Ideas and so forth.

Each of these Task Types can have their own workflow of Custom Task Statuses.

For instance, if you have two types of tasks (Features & Bugs) that follow a different status workflow then simply create two task types with the list of specific statuses for each type and you are good to go.

Initially your account starts with one Task Type called “Task” created with three statuses “Not Started”, “In Progress”, “Complete” that reflect a basic status lifecycle. However, your account Administrator can create new Task Types and configure custom task statuses to suit your business by navigating to Settings > Project Management Settings page.

Figure: Configure custom Task Types for your business

To create a new Task Type click the “Add Task Type” button. Enter a unique name and an appropriate icon. The task type icon is displayed in multiple areas of the app to visually differentiate between task types. By default, the three default task statuses are included in the newly created task type however they can be updated and new statuses added as required.

Figure: Add a new Task Type

Click an existing Task Type record to open the Task Type Details popup. You can update the Task Type Name, Icon, set it to be the default task type for your account and customise the list of statuses.

Figure: Set an icon for your Task Type, and configure the Status workflow

Each Status record has a Name, Code, Color, Allowed Destination Statuses, Complete flag and Display order. 

  • Name is the value that is displayed in the app and reports. 
  • Code is the internal name for the task status that you don’t change, for use by developers making API calls.
  • Color is used to visually identify the status of the task. We suggest selecting a distinctly separate color for each status to easily distinguish between them.
  • Allowed Destination Statuses can be optionally used to enforce a workflow sequence for statuses based on currently assigned status. Leave this field blank if you don’t want to enforce any restrictions. 
  • Is a Complete state should be checked for statuses whose tasks are considered Complete. Tasks linked to a complete state are filtered from some views by default.
  • Display order is used to order the list of statuses as they appear in dropdowns & grouped Screens/Reports

Each status belongs to one of the three following stages.

  1. Not Started – there is only one predefined status in this stage called Not Started. You can edit the Name, Color & Allowed Destination Statuses for this status.
  2. In Progress – statuses where “Is Complete” checkbox is not checked are part of In Progress stage.
  3. Complete – statuses where “Is Complete” checkbox is checked are part of Complete stage.

How are the new Task Type & Statuses used?

Task Create

You will notice a new Task Type dropdown when creating a new task. It is set to the default task type for the account but can be changed to any of the available task types.

Figure: Select a Task Type when you create a new Task. This field is only visible if your account has more than one Task Type configured

The same task type option is also available while creating inline tasks. Choose from the list of available task types.

Figure: Select a Task Type when you quickly create Tasks in-line in the task list

Inline Status Update

You will notice the task type icon with a filled circle in the task status color while viewing task list. Click the task type icon to select from the list of available statuses.

Figure: Use the Task Status dropdown available on each task to quickly update Task Statuses. The dropdown displays the available statuses for the current Task’s Task Type

Task Edit Popup

The Task Edit popup displays the task type name and icon next to the customer name. The status dropdown only displays the list of available statuses for the associated task type.

Figure: See at a glance the Task Type of a task when viewing the Task Details Popup

Task Group by Status

All Projects & My Tasks views (List, KanBan, Gantt) support grouping tasks list by Status. User can drag and drop between allowed statuses and order the tasks.

Tasks can’t be dragged between task types.

Figure: Drag dropping tasks between the custom status workflow you have configured

Task Status Filtering

All task lists support filtering by status field. By default, Outstanding filter option is selected. It includes all statuses that have not yet reached the Complete stage. User can uncheck “all Oustanding” checkbox and select one or more statuses from the dropdown to filter for specific statuses.

Figure: Filter tasks by Task Type – Status

Task Status in Gantt View

The Gantt bar is colored based on the color of the status assigned to the task.

Figure: Gantt chart tasks are colored based on your configured Task Status colors

Project Summary Page

The Task Progress graph displays statistics for the list of configured statuses grouped by task type.

Figure: Project Dashboards with a summary of task progress for each Task Type

Account Dashboard

There are currently two dashboard widgets that support filtering the widget by Task Type. 

  • Account Dashboard Task Summary Widget
  • Account Dashboard Task Project Breakdown

By default, these two widgets report the task statistics by default task type configured for the account however you can filter each instance of the widget to use one of the task types by clicking the settings cog.

Figure: Configure Task Summary widgets on your personal Account Dashboard for each Task Type
Figure: Change Task Summary widget settings to select the filtered Task Type

Task Related APIs

Task API’s now support task type and custom statuses.

Task Import

Task Import now supports task type and custom statuses.

Reports

All existing reports that support filtering or grouping by task status are now being upgraded to support filtering and grouping by Task Type and Status.

Figure: Task Types & Statuses are available as filters in relevant reports

Custom Task Status Inspiration

We leave you with a few examples of Task Types and associated statuses to get you thinking.

Task TypeIconStatuses
Marketing ContentLightbulb Idea, Copy, Editing, Pending Approval, Published
AdvertisingVideo PlusResearch, Content, Running, Reporting, Done
Development Code Design, Develop, Test, Deploy, Done
Sales Dollar Contacted, Meeting Arranged, Demo Done, Won, Lost, Contact Later

We hope you enjoy this new feature, and look forward to your feedback!

Best wishes,
The Avaza Team

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