Task Management

With the task management capabilities of MYOB Advanced, you can do the right things at the right time, so you can improve your performance and efficiency. You can do the following:

Create tasks
Keep personal to-do lists
Configure reminders for all tasks or only the most important ones
Track tasks assigned to you
Assign tasks to other users

Tasks

Each task has a creator and an owner: The task's creator is the employee who created the task, and its owner is the employee to whom the task is assigned. (The creator and owner may be the same employee.) Before saving a task, the creator should make sure the needed owner is assigned. By default, the system inserts the creator's employee name in the Owner box of the Task (CR306020) form, but the creator can select a different owner.

A task can be associated with an entity (that is, a record of a particular type) in the system or not associated with an entity. A task can be associated with any of the following entities: leads, contacts, opportunities, business accounts, cases, employees, and projects. You can create such an association by using one of the following methods:

Specifying a related entity by using the Task form when you create a new task or edit an existing one. To do this, on the Details tab, you first select the entity type in the Related Entity Type box. The system displays the records of that type in the Related Entity box, and you select the one to be associated with the task.
Creating a task on the Activities tab of the data entry form corresponding to the entity type. For instance, to create a task that will be associated with a certain case, you would use this tab on the Cases (CR306000) form.

Tasks can also be created as associated with no specific entity. You create a standalone task in any of the following ways:

From the Time and Expenses workspace, by clicking the New button right of the Tasks link, which is under the Tasks category.
For more information, see Learning About the MYOB Advanced UI: General Information
By clicking New Record on the form toolbar of the Tasks (EP4040PL) list of records or the Task form.
By using the Clipboard menu on the form toolbar of the Task form. The system copies to the new task the value or state of the following elements of the Details tab for the task you were viewing:
- Summary
- Owner
- Workgroup
- Internal
- Related Entity Type
- Related Entity
- Project
- Project Task
- Cost Code
- Priority
- Category
- Service
- Task description area
Note: If the user role does not have the rights to access the related entity in the selected task, the system displays the following error message next to the Related Entity box of a new task: You have insufficient rights to access the object.
For more information, see Copy-and-Paste Options and Record Templates in the MYOB Advanced Getting Started Guide.
By clicking Complete and Follow Up on the form toolbar of the Task form for the selected task. The created task has the Not Started status and contains the same details as the completed task. Also, in the Parent Activity box of the created task, the system inserts a link to the completed task (that is, the current task) .

Task Reminders

When creating a task, the creator can configure a reminder for it and specify on what day and time before the due date the owner should receive the reminder. On the specified date, the reminder will appear in the info area of the owner's screen and will be blinking or highlighted in red until either the creator or the owner completes the task or changes its status.

Attention: Before you can start using reminders, you must ask your system administrator to enable the reminder functionality. For more information, see To Enable Reminders in the MYOB Advanced Installation Guide.

Task Tracking Options

You can view a list of tasks on the Tasks (EP4040PL) list of records, which you open in the Time and Expenses workspace under the Tasks category.

On the following tabs of this list of records, you can view the described tasks:

All Records tab: All tasks created in the system that are available for review, based on the role or roles assigned to your user account.
My Tasks tab: Tasks to which you have been assigned as owner.
My Workgroup Tasks tab: Tasks assigned to the users in your workgroup and any workgroups in the company tree that are positioned on levels lower than your workgroup, but in the same node.
Due Today and Overdue Tasks tab: Tasks for which the due date is the current date or sooner (that is, overdue tasks) with the Open or Processing status.
Open Tasks tab: Active tasks with the Draft, Open, or Processing status.

In the Tasks (EP4040PL) list of records, you can quickly see the following key settings of every task:

Summary
Status
Start Date
Due Date
Category
Related Entity
Contact (of the related entity)
Phone 1 (of the related contact)
Email (of the related contact)
Completed At
Owner

To make the most important tasks noticeable to you at a glance, you can use the Event and Task Categories (EP204040) form to associate different colors with different categories of tasks. For example, if you select red for the most important tasks, yellow for less important tasks, and green for normal tasks, you will see the tasks marked by exclamation marks (in the column with the ! heading) highlighted with the respective colors.

In the Tasks list of records, you can easily see if the task is overdue. A task is overdue if the Due Date of the task is earlier than the current date. The due date of overdue tasks is indicated in red type.

To see all details of a selected task (that is, one that you have clicked on a tab) without opening the task in a new window, you can use the Task tab on the side panel of the Tasks (EP4040PL) list of records. In the side panel, the system displays the opened task on the Task (CR306020) form.

Note: You can hide a task from external users by selecting the Internal check box on the Task (CR306020), Event (CR306030), or Activity (CR306010) form, respectively.

Tasks do not require approvals; they are completed by the owners or canceled by the creators.