Adding Subtasks & Client Requests

In this article:

• Subtasks
• Client Requests

 

Add Subtasks

Let’s start creating a subtask for an existing Task in our workspace.

To get to an existing task, go to the Task tab for a particular client and select a task to add a subtask to.

Within the task workspace, navigate to the bottom of the Task and select Add Subtask.

The subtask menu looks similar to the overall Task, just a little more simplified.

Recall that subtask is simply a stage or step within the main or parent task. With that in mind, your subtasks are most effective when they make a step that needs to happen to complete your work in a sequence.

For example, this task is for a monthly Bookkeeping job. So possible subtasks could be:

1. Gather info
2. Manage Monthly Transactions
3. Reconcile Accounts

And so on. So let’s name this one “Gather Info”.

Next add any other info you need, like assigning this to a specific team member in your firm.

Note that all you need to create a subtask is a name. This way, you could set up multiple subtasks and then go back and edit them. You might find this easier when initially setting up your sequence.

Click Create subtask when finished.

Let’s add a few more subtasks:

• Manage Transactions
• Reconcile Accounts

Now, you have a list of subtasks! You may view the contents of the subtask simply selecting the subtask box.

You can think about the subtasks as an ordered sequence. You can move these around by clicking and dragging the icons next to the subtask box. If things change in your process along the way, moving these around helps you stay organized.

The nice thing about setting it up this way is now you can create relative due dates that interact with each other. Let’s go into one of these subtasks.

Relative dates can be used to trigger tasks or subtasks dates due after a previous one is set to a certain status. This way, subtask due dates are “initiated” after a certain condition is met.

In this example, let’s set up our relative date rules, starting with the parent task:

1. A due date
2. A relative date
3. Let’s set it to days and say 3
4. After
5. Now, I’m going to choose the Status change event
6. choose my sub-task “Reconcile Accounts”
7. Then choose when it’s completed
8. Finish by clicking add relative date

Now this task’s deadline is set for 3 weeks after the Reconcile Accounts sub-task is completed. Now I can go through and add subsequent due dates for each of my sub-tasks. 

Now, the parent task and subtasks are all connected in a workflow based on certain conditions set here.

Having these sub-tasks created ahead of time, it makes creating relative due dates a lot easier to connect.

You can easily change the status and priority of subtasks in your task by clicking them. You can make this even more dynamic by adding automation rules, which are discussed in another video.

Add Client Requests

You can also add client requests under this parent task as well. 

You’ll likely need information from your client to begin the process. So you can create a request here to send them an explanation of what you need and a description.

1. Click Add Client Request.
2. Add a name for the request.
3. And optionally, you can add a priority and a description.
4. Add a due date and frequency for a reminder until the request is finished.

Then click send now - this will send an email request to your client. You can save it as draft if you prefer to wait.

Either way, you’ll see that a client request box is added to your task.

View Active Tasks

Let’s take a step back and see what this looks like from the client record.

For this task, you’ll see that it has a dropdown and a number of the subtasks and client requests nested under it. Click on the dropdown to see the subtasks listed below.

You can alter the view by selecting show all subtasks and back again to just the high-level tasks.

To edit the start and due dates, team members assigned, and priority, you can do all that from this menu. Just click on the column you want to edit and you’ll be able to do so.