Tasks FAQ
Answers to common setup and operating questions about Tasks.
For what the app is and how to set it up from scratch, see the
Tasks Overview.
Setup
Do I need to configure anything before tasks start working?
Enable the Tasks app from Admin → Apps → All Apps — it is disabled by default and requires a licence. Once enabled, the defaults let managers and admins create, assign, and complete tasks immediately. Optional features — smart assignment, SMS alerts, daily digests, overdue escalation, and completion verification — are all off by default and must be turned on in the Tasks settings page. Recurring tasks need no setting: any task or template can be set to repeat.
Who can access which parts of Tasks?
There are four levels of access:
- Admins and super admins can do everything, including deleting tasks, managing templates, accessing analytics, importing tasks, and changing settings.
- Tasks app administrators (designated per user in Admin → Apps → All Apps) have the same capabilities as admins, including changing settings. An HR admin role on its own adds nothing in Tasks — HR admins get the access of their admin, manager, or employee role.
- Managers can create and assign tasks (unless Who can create tasks for other people is set to Administrators — the default is Managers and administrators), and can view team analytics for their locations, their reporting line and the tasks they assigned. Whether managers can author templates depends on the Who can create & edit task templates setting — the default is Administrators (Tasks app admins always can).
- Employees can view and work on their own assigned tasks in the My Tasks view, create personal tasks (when Allow employees to add personal tasks is on, which it is by default), and see their personal analytics. When Who can create tasks for other people is set to Everyone with access to Tasks, employees can also assign tasks to colleagues.
Permissions and access
Why can’t a manager assign tasks to other people?
The Who can create tasks for other people setting is Managers and administrators by default, but an admin may have set it to Administrators. Then only admins and Tasks app administrators can assign, and a manager can’t cancel or escalate a task they did not create, assign or receive, or reopen it from Manage (a manager of its assignee can still reopen it from its page in My Tasks). Check the Tasks settings page under Permission Settings and set it back to Managers and administrators if needed. The manager is told that only administrators and Tasks app admins can assign tasks to other people here, and who can let managers assign.
Why can’t a manager create or edit templates?
Template management is controlled by the Who can create & edit task templates setting, which defaults to Administrators. Change it to Managers and administrators in the Tasks settings page under Permission Settings to let managers author and edit templates. Tasks app admins can always manage templates.
Can employees create their own tasks?
Yes, when the Allow employees to add personal tasks setting is on (the default) — it is what gives them New Personal Task on My Tasks. When off, employees can’t add tasks for themselves (no New Personal Task, copy or subtask); they can still create tasks for colleagues if Who can create tasks for other people is set to Everyone with access to Tasks. Employees always see and work on tasks assigned to them, regardless of this setting.
Day-to-day
How do recurring tasks work?
Set a task’s or template’s recurrence to Daily (every few days, or weekdays only), Weekly (on chosen days, every few weeks), or Monthly (every few months, such as quarterly). A background job runs every 15 minutes, checks for recurring tasks whose next occurrence is due, and creates a new task instance from the parent — copying its fields and checklist items, for the same assignee while they are still active. Each repeat is due on a day the schedule names, counted on from the first task’s due date, and appears as far ahead of its due date as the first task was created ahead of its own. The original task stays open as the recurring parent; each generated instance is independent and tracks its own status.
How does smart assignment decide who gets the task?
When Enable smart task assignment is turned on in settings (off by default), a task created on the Manage page with no assignee goes to the person with the fewest open tasks (To Do, In Progress, or Overdue) among people already given tasks. If the task has a location, users who have been assigned tasks at that location are preferred. If you set a Maximum concurrent tasks per user cap (options: 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20), anyone at or above the cap is skipped. If no one has capacity, the task stays unassigned.
What can the AI Tasks agent do?
From Ask AI, in plain language, the agent can list your tasks (or, for a manager, the whole business’s or one named person’s) and the tasks you assigned to other people, find a task from a description of it, count tasks by status, priority, location, assignee or category, show a task’s full detail, list the task templates (managers), and create, assign, update, complete, decline, cancel, reopen and escalate tasks. Every answer links the task’s page.
A task you create for yourself is created at once. Every other change — a task created for someone else, an assignment, an edit, a status change, a completion, and declining, cancelling, reopening or escalating — shows what will change and waits for you to confirm. Reading needs no confirmation.
The agent follows the same permission rules as the Tasks pages: employees act only on their own tasks, assigning to others needs the manager/admin permission, and cancelling, reopening and escalating are for managers and Tasks administrators (an employee can still cancel their own task). Ask AI cannot delete tasks — see below. An admin can turn the agent off entirely from the Tasks Agent card in Tasks settings.
Can I delete a task?
Yes, if it is a to-do you created for yourself, or you are an administrator or Tasks app administrator. A task someone assigned — even one you assigned to someone else — can only be deleted by an administrator. Open the task and delete it, or delete several at once from My Tasks in the List view: tick the tasks and choose Delete (tasks someone else assigned to you are skipped). Administrators and Tasks app administrators can also switch the Manage board to List, tick tasks, choose Delete Selected and click Apply. Deleting cannot be undone. If someone else gave you a task that isn’t yours, decline it instead — see the next question. Ask AI does not delete tasks.
How do I change a task’s due date without opening it?
On My Tasks, open the task’s ⋮ menu — in the List or the Kanban view — and under Move the due date to choose Tomorrow, This weekend or Next week, or choose Pick a date…, pick the day and click Move. To move several tasks at once, switch to the List view (or open Assigned by Me), tick the tasks, pick the new date in the bar at the top of the list and click Set due date; completed and cancelled tasks are skipped. Either way the task becomes due any time on that day, and it stays on your list.
Someone gave me a task that isn’t mine. How do I get it off my list?
Decline it. Open the task and choose Decline Task from the ⋮ menu (on a phone, tap Decline Task above the task’s main action), or ask Ask AI to decline it. Say why — a reason is required, up to 500 characters, and the person the task goes to reads it. It goes to whoever answers for the work — the ticket’s handler, whoever raised the corrective action, or the form’s owner (a form task with no owner who can take it is closed as declined) — or else back to the person who assigned it, with your reason, and leaves your list; nothing is deleted. If no one is on record to hand it back to — nobody assigned it, or that person has left or can’t open Tasks — the task is closed as declined with your reason, and a Tasks manager can still find and reopen it.
Work that another app owns is handed off in that app instead: a contract obligation, Frontline Execution work, or an onboarding step that nobody else handed you. The task page says where, in place of Decline Task, and links there when you can open that page. A task you assigned to yourself can’t be declined — cancel or delete it instead.
Can I delegate a task to someone else?
Yes, if the admin has enabled the Allow task delegation setting (off by default) in the Permission Settings card. When enabled, an assignee can delegate their task to another team member from the task detail view. Completed and cancelled tasks cannot be delegated.
What happens when a task is escalated?
When a task is escalated it is flagged and the escalation reason is recorded. A manual escalation (or an assignee’s I’m blocked) notifies the assignee’s manager — or, when that is you, your own manager — or the person who assigned the task if no manager is set, by in-app notification and email — governed by Notify the escalation target when someone escalates a task. Automatic escalation is a separate setting: turn on Escalate overdue tasks to managers and choose how long a task must be overdue first (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 1 day, 2 days, or 3 days; default is 1 hour). It notifies the assignee’s manager and the managers at the task’s location, plus the group in Send escalations & verification requests to this group if one is picked. Every overdue task is escalated unless you also turn on Only escalate Critical-priority tasks.
An escalation shows on the task page for everyone who opens the task, and as Escalated in Assigned by Me, My Tasks and the Manage board (its Escalated filter lists them); the person it is escalated to reads Escalated to you, and its notice waits for them under Needs you, counted on the bell, until the escalation is cleared, the task is reassigned or it is finished. Once the work can carry on, the assignee clears their own flag with I’m no longer blocked, and the person it was escalated to, whoever escalated it or the assigner can press Clear escalation. Reassigning or reopening the task clears it too.
When something looks wrong
“I completed the task but my manager says it is still awaiting verification”
If Enable manager verification is turned on in settings, completing a task triggers a verification request to the manager — the task shows as Completed, marked awaiting manager verification until the manager verifies it. This is distinct from the task status itself; check whether verification is enabled and whether the manager still has the verification request in their notifications.
“I can’t complete this checklist task — the button is greyed out”
A checklist task auto-completes only when every checklist item is checked off. If individual items require a photo or notes (set per item when the task or template was created), those must be provided before the item can be checked. Look at which items are still incomplete and whether they have a photo or notes requirement icon.
“My employee says they can’t see their tasks”
Three things to check: (1) the Tasks app must be enabled for your business; (2) if you use Access Management audience rules on the Tasks app, the employee must be in the included audience; (3) for personal task creation specifically, the Allow employees to add personal tasks setting must be on.
“An overdue task didn’t trigger an SMS”
SMS alerts go only to the assignee of a Critical-priority task — when it is assigned to them and when it goes overdue (escalations are never texted) — and only when all of these are true: your business has SMS set up, Send SMS for critical tasks is turned on in Tasks settings (off by default), the assignee has a verified phone number on their profile, and they have not opted out of SMS for tasks in their notification preferences.
Templates and imports
How do industry starter templates work?
Go to Templates and choose Load Industry Defaults. Pick from 11 industries: Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing, Hospitality, Food & Beverage, Education, Technology, Finance, Transportation, Construction, and Professional Services. Each pack creates a set of ready-to-use templates with checklist items, priority levels, and recurrence patterns pre-filled. Existing templates with the same title and category are skipped — your customisations are never overwritten.
Can I import tasks in bulk?
Yes. The Import tab (visible to managers, admins, and Tasks app administrators) uses the Smart Import engine — upload a spreadsheet (Excel or CSV) or paste rows to create tasks in bulk. Each assignee gets one in-app notice listing the tasks imported for them (not one per task), while Send notifications when tasks are assigned is on in Tasks settings; due-date reminders and overdue notices follow your Tasks settings as usual.
Integrations
Can tasks be created automatically from a Forms submission?
Yes. A form template can include task rules that fire when a submission reaches a specified status (submitted, approved, or rejected). Rules can evaluate field values, submitter role, department, and location. The generated task’s title and description support field placeholders (e.g. {{field_name}}), and assignment can route to the submitter, their manager, the form owner, a department head, a location manager, a specific user, or a role-based pool. Both the Tasks app and the form’s Tasks integration toggle must be enabled.
How do AI Notepad meeting action items become tasks?
When AI Notepad finishes a note, nothing becomes a task on its own: the note’s action items wait for the note’s owner to OK them. Above the action items, the note tells its owner how many are ready to send as tasks. Review and send opens the note’s Create tasks picker with those items ticked (untick any you don’t want sent), and Don’t send leaves them all as action items. On a phone the note lists them, ticked, with Send as tasks and Don’t send. Each task goes to the person the item is assigned to, with the action text as the title and any mentioned deadline as the due date, and that person gets the usual new-task notice. An owner who wants tasks made without being asked can choose Send action items as tasks without asking from the ⋯ menu on the AI Notepad list, or at the foot of the list on a phone. Then each open commitment owned by someone who was in the meeting, or by the owner, becomes a task as soon as the notes are ready, and everyone but the owner is told in a chat message from them, or with the usual new-task notice where chat can’t reach them. A task deleted in Tasks is not sent or offered again. Notes linked to a workspace are not sent this way. The Create tasks automation also makes tasks from action items.
Licensing and limits
Does Tasks require a licence?
Yes. Tasks requires a licence and is opt-in per tenant. An administrator enables it from Admin → Apps → All Apps; it is disabled by default until then.
Are there limits I should know about?
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Task title | 255 characters |
| Category name | 100 characters |
| Document attachment size | 10 MB per file |
| Allowed document formats | PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, plain text, CSV, and images (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP) |
| Comment length | 5,000 characters |
| Escalation reason | 500 characters |
| Decline reason | 500 characters |
| Concurrent task cap per user | No limit, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20 (admin-configurable) |
| Auto-archive window | 7, 14, 30, 60, or 90 days after completion (default 30) |
| Due-date reminder lead time | 1, 2, 4, 8, 24, or 48 hours before due (default 2) |
| Digest delivery time | 6:00 AM, 8:00 AM, 9:00 AM, 12:00 PM, 5:00 PM, or 6:00 PM in your organization’s time zone, or UTC if none is set (default 8:00 AM) |
More help
- Tasks Overview
- Ask AI — the assistant answers Tasks questions from these articles.