Tasks, or units of work, are an important part of the BigTime workflow. Tasks make up a project and set a project budget. Plus, tasks benefit both staffers and project managers because:
- Staffers can keep track of their work. Assigned tasks appear on their Task Dashboard.
- Project managers can keep up-to-date of project statuses for their team, ensuring projects and tasks are progressing as intended.
Given the importance of tasks, this article will explain who can assign them and where.
Note: Instead of “tasks,” your firm may refer to these units of work as “budget items,” “phases,” “work items,” or “engagements.” It’s easy to update the lexicon settings in BigTime so that the verbiage is firm-relevant.
Takeaways
- Tasks are units of work that make up a project. Firms may refer to these units of work as something other than “tasks.” The verbiage can be updated in BigTime’s lexicon settings.
- The Task Dashboard and the Task Editor in the Project Dashboard are two features where tasks can be entered and assigned.
- Tasks can be added one at a time or in bulk.
Who Can Assign Tasks?
You need to have managerial status in BigTime to assign tasks to staffers. In order to obtain these rights, your system admin needs to grant you security rights (MY COMPANY...USER RIGHTS; select a user group and turn on the right “Act as a task/activity administrator”).
When assigning a task to a staffer, the manager can only select from staffers that he has managerial rights over. For example, manager Bob has managerial rights over staffers Sally, Bill, and Vicky. Then, Bob can choose from these three staffers when assigning tasks. These staffers will appear in the task assignment picklist.
However, all of a company's staffers will appear in the picklist if the manager has the user right setting 'View/Manage any Staff Member' turned on.
Note: The staffer’s USER RIGHTS tab is where you give a staffer management authority over staff departments.
Where Are Tasks Assigned?
There are two locations to assign tasks in BigTime: on the Task Dashboard and Project Dashboard, using the Task Editor. We’ll describe both options next.
Task Dashboard
Navigate to WORKFLOW...TASK DASHBOARD to assign tasks. You can assign new or existing tasks to one or more staffers. Plus, you can assign multiple tasks to one or more staffers at a given time.
Note: You can edit, remove, or delete a task at any time.
Task Editor
The Task Editor, located on the Project Dashboard, is the second way to add tasks and subtasks. Similar to the Task Dashboard, you can assign new or existing tasks to one or more staffers with the Task Editor. Plus, you can assign multiple tasks to one or more staffers at once.
However, a point of distinction with the Task Editor is the ability to assign tasks and view all task-related details all within the same window. By contrast, you have several more mouse clicks and pop up window to navigate through if you use the Task Dashboard.
Whether you use the Task Dashboard or Task Editor, your task assignments and all task details will populate in both locations in BigTime. So if you assign tasks in the Task Editor, they’ll also appear in the Task Dashboard.