Boss

Votes

Recurring Tasks: Going Live

Tue, 8 Mar '11 @ 10:12 AM

In the professional services world (accounting, marketing, PR, virtual assistants, payroll companies, and ANY other ongoing client services) the ability to create a task (ToDo) that needs to be completed on a scheduled recurring basis is so absolutely basic and logical, that I’m totally confused as to why it’s so hard to find.

We have tested dozens of systems and Recurring Tasks (ToDo's) is hands down the most requested and least often provided feature.

PLEASE!!! Your program is so incredibly awesome; this is the only missing link and its mission critical for any client services companies.

A concierge service, cleaning companies, gardening, home maintenance, the list goes on and on...

This is THE major flaw in so many of your competitors systems as well, with one simple feature you will blow the market open to a world of possibilities.

Yes, there are decisions to make about how the tasks get listed, and how they re-generate… pick the best method for now and do SOMETHING, we can tweak it along the way based on user feedback.

Bence

Wed, 30 Mar '11 @ 10:16 AM

Daniel

Wed, 27 Apr '11 @ 12:39 PM

We agree or at least make an option for us to duplicate to do's and attach to a different project. Thanks!

Dan

Founder @WORKetc

Sat, 30 Apr '11 @ 2:37 AM

We'll be scheduling this shortly ...

Azi

Boss

Mon, 9 May '11 @ 12:03 PM

any news?

Kevin

Tue, 10 May '11 @ 5:13 AM

Hi Azi,

We are getting closer but have not finalized everything yet. You can also follow our blog to stay updated.

Thanks

Giles

Sun, 29 May '11 @ 2:39 PM

Hi Azi,

You're certainly right - it is a feature certainly lacking in many systems including our own. However, we've also seen it implemented poorly and we'd like not to make the same mistake. Having said that - our goal is to do something about it. Here is what we are planning:

Recurring To Dos will be set up as a template for the system to automatically generate actual To Dos

A Recurring To Do will support all the current fields for the existing To Do system and will populate into those fields directly (with the exception of progress, which has no relevance on a template)

Recurring To Dos are user specific (however, you could assign a To Do to another person)

Additionally, Recurring To Dos require recurrence schedule which can be defined as: Recur every X days/weeks/months

If a Start Date/Time is set this is the first time that the To Do will be generated - if no Start Date/Time is set, it is generated immediately

The next occurrence of the To Do will be generated once the time period elapses

If an End Date/Time is set, the next occurrence will have an End Date/Time that is extrapolated forward from its start date/time

If a Deadline is set, the next occurrence will have an Deadline that is extrapolated forward from its start date/time

The reminder functionality will remain the same

Recurring To Dos can be set as active or inactive - while inactive, a Recurring To Do will not generate new To Dos

Recurring To Dos do not track the completion state of the last generated To Do - i.e. it will still create a new one if the last one was not completed. It will not try to

Recurring To Dos do not track the completion date of the last generated To Do - i.e. it will not try to track elapsed time if the last one was not completed on time and attempt to calcuate a new start time based on a rolling schedule.

Kind regards,

Giles

Giles

Sun, 29 May '11 @ 8:09 PM

Hi Everyone,

Just a follow up to this topic. Put plainly it would mean something like this:

Scenario 1:

I set up a Recurring To Do called "Generate Department Performance Report" and assigned it to myself. I have set it so that it recurs every 1 month. I have set the start date to the 1st of June and put a deadline on the 8th of June.

This means that each month I will get a To Do on the 1st of the month that has a deadline on the 8th of the month. Next one after June being 1st of July and 8th of July respectively.

Scenario 2:

I set up a Recurring To Do called "Complete Timesheets" and assigned it to one of my employees. I didn't bother to put in a start date or time and I set it so that recurs every 7 days. It will create a To Do immediately for this employee. In another 7 days it will create another To Do for the same time for that employee.

Kind regards,

Giles

Barry

Technical Director

Mon, 30 May '11 @ 2:16 AM

Giles,

I have an issue with the implementation described.
If I have a fortnightly task that takes a long period of time (in my case client backups) and I schedule it fortnightly I would like to see future iterations of this not just the next one. The reason is that I schedule other tasks in advance and to manage my workload I would like to know when recurring task are due to happen.

In saying the above I wouldn't like to hold-up Recurring tasks as any functionality is better than none.

Giles

Mon, 30 May '11 @ 9:29 PM

Hi Barry,

Thanks for the suggestion - great idea. Sounds like an enhancement rather than a change of direction.

In which case, it would be likely that we implement something like an employee setting that has a "Recurring To Do Lead Time".

The question would be whether it actually generates the "To Dos" ahead of schedule or just forecasts them. If it just forecasts them , then there is the potential to be able to change that view dynamically.
For example
I normally view my Recurring To Dos for two weeks in advance ("Recurring To Do Lead Time"). However, I know I am about to start a project in a month and I want to see what other things I have at around the same time, so I change it to view the next 6 weeks so that I can see my workload during that time.

Please note that the above is not part of the current development phase - just throwing some ideas out there.

Kind regards,

Giles

Barry

Technical Director

Tue, 31 May '11 @ 2:23 AM

I think forecasting sounds like a good idea as it also removes clutter when look at your basic task list.
In terms of display it would be nice if forcasted tasks could be Dimmed (in a similar way to one of the Labs options in Google calender.

I look forward to seeing the initial release when it comes out.

John

Wed, 1 Jun '11 @ 2:09 PM

Giles, your forecasting suggestion is spot on. Being able to see workload for a month that includes recurring tasks is critical to resource allocation/figuring out if I have to much on my plate or my staff's plate, etc.

Mitch

Mon, 6 Jun '11 @ 2:07 PM

Can Worketc look at Oprius.com for ideas on recurring tasks?
and Call tracking? Also can someone call me on the use of Todos and
Timesheets and Projects? I am having a challange with seeing how I am reminded
of activities on the desktop and mobile uses.
Thanks

Aerin

Thu, 9 Jun '11 @ 12:24 AM

I absolutely coldn't agree more that this is a must have feature. Check out what the guys at Capsule CRM are doing with 'tracks', if you could do something as simple as that worketc would make our jobs much easier. One thing I like is how you don't get all of the tasks in a 'track' in your to do list, just the next task on the list.

Victor

Thu, 9 Jun '11 @ 7:29 AM

Just to chime in on the last comment about using something like "tracks" (sometimes called workflow) can be very helpful. You want to track all the tasks, including dependents, but you do not want them all to clog the task list.

Capsule has done a nice job of making it super simplistic and effective. It reminds me of doing the custom animation in PowerPoint. First action, then next action (start at same time, immediately after previous task ends, ___ time after the end of the previous action.... etc).

A side not that is not always considered with these workflow implementations. It would be very helpful for the task to have a "track" area in the configuration so it is visible. For example:

If I am on step two of the task, it would say task 2 of 5 in the track and have it be clickable to a modal window showing me the track. Also putting next to it, "Cancel Track" for this task would be great. This delicately ends an exception flow.

Even without all the bells and whistles, this is very helpful functionality. Thanks for bringing it up, Azi.

Azi

Boss

Thu, 7 Jul '11 @ 1:12 PM

any news? sounds like this is going to be ready any day?!?!?

VERY excited :)

Giles

Thu, 7 Jul '11 @ 3:27 PM

Hi Azi,

Yes - we are very close to releasing the public beta.

We will endeavour to contact those users that have been tracking the topic to let them know when it goes live (yourself included).

Thank you for your support.

Kind regards,

Giles

Glenneth

Tue, 19 Jul '11 @ 5:51 AM

We definitely need Recurring Tasks in our line of work. Anxiously waiting.

Glenneth

Fri, 12 Aug '11 @ 5:25 AM

Any update on recurring tasks? We have an urgent, immediate need for this feature. Thanks!

Dan

Founder @WORKetc

Fri, 12 Aug '11 @ 7:15 AM

Hi Glenneth - it is so close, I don't want to say next week, but maybe.

Part of the delay was we wanted to make it possible to customise individual instances of recurring tasks, for example, one week you’re on holiday and you want to delegate those tasks off to someone else and not have to create separate tasks. And then at the last minute we ran into some issues sync'ing recurring tasks with Google Calendar.

Glenneth

Wed, 17 Aug '11 @ 5:46 AM

Dan - Thanks for the update! Please note that we are definitely willing to be a beta tester. We have a task that we are having to do for a customer 4 times a day, 5 days a week and we would like for everyone to be on the task. Just let me know. Thank you!

Dan

Founder @WORKetc

Wed, 17 Aug '11 @ 11:46 PM

This is now live! See this blog post for more:
http://www.worketc.com/blog/Development/85

Jeremy

Wed, 17 Aug '11 @ 11:50 PM

Wow! that's awesome.

John

Fri, 26 Aug '11 @ 5:56 AM

Thank you!!!!

Sarah

Office Administrator