Task

A task is a piece of work somebody has to finish: collect the clearance signatures, chase the missing medical certificates, get the new shift roster out. It has a priority, a due date and a status, and it can be broken into subtasks each with their own dates.

Where

Organization and Setup › Setup › Task

Who uses it

Anybody who needs work tracked, usually a supervisor

When

Any time

Needs first

Nothing

What it is for

Work that lives in somebody's head gets forgotten. A task gives it a name, an owner, a date and a status that somebody can look at.

The part worth knowing is the link back to a record. A task can be tied to the record it came out of - a particular resignation, a particular disciplinary case - by naming the screen and then the record. Pick the screen and the second field starts offering that screen's records. Clear the screen and the second field closes again. A task with that link on it can be read back from the record it belongs to instead of being hunted for.

Subtasks are for work that has steps. Each subtask carries its own dates and its own status, so a task that is half done looks half done rather than looking late.

A task is work. If what you want is a call or a meeting with a person, and you want that person actually told about it, use Create Activity instead, which sends them a notification. A task does not.

Every field, in plain words

Header

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Task No	Your reference for the task.	TSK-2026-0041	Required. It must be unique.
Task Name	What the task is called in a list.	Collect clearance signatures for March leavers	Required. Translated into each language the client has switched on.
Priority	How urgent it is.	High	Picked from a short list of High, Medium and Low.
Task Raised By	The user who raised the task.	The supervisor creating it	Picked from the user list.
Task Raised for	The user who has to do it.	The HR officer who owns the work	Picked from the user list.
Task Completed	Whether the whole task is finished.	Leave it off until it is.
Task Status	The state the task is in.	In Progress	Picked from the same list the subtasks use. See the values below.

Status takes one of six values, and the same list is used on the task and on each subtask:

• TOD TODO - written down and not started.
• INP IN PLAN - scheduled, with dates agreed.
• INPR IN PROGRESS - being worked on now.
• PAU PAUSED - started and stopped, usually waiting on somebody else.
• REV IN REVIEW - done and waiting to be checked.
• COM COMPLETED - finished and accepted.

Dates

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Allocate	The date the task is handed over to the person doing it.	05-01-2026
Due Date	The date it has to be finished by.	15-01-2026
Subject	A one line summary, which is what shows in a list.	Clearance signatures, 7 leavers

Transaction

Optional. Fill it in when the task came out of a particular record.

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Origin Process	The screen the task came from.	Resignation	Picked from the list of screens. Picking it is what opens the field below.
Origin Number	The actual record on that screen.	The resignation record the clearance is for	Only available once a screen is picked, and it then offers that screen's records. Clearing the screen closes this field again.
Details	The full description of the work.	Chase the department head, the store and IT for each of the seven leavers. Store signed forms in the employee file.

Subtask

One line per step.

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Sub task	What the step is.	Get store clearance
Date From	When the step starts.	05-01-2026
Date To	When the step is due.	08-01-2026
Status	The state the step is in, from the same six values as above.	IN PROGRESS

How to configure it

1. Open Task and create a record. Type your reference and a name.
2. Set the Priority, who raised it and who has to do it.
3. Set Allocate to the day the work is handed over, and Due Date to the day it is needed.
4. Write a one line Subject, and the detail in Details.
5. If the work came out of a particular record, pick the screen in Origin Process and then the record in Origin Number.
6. If the work has steps, add a Subtask line for each, with its own dates and status.
7. Set the status to TODO or IN PLAN and save.
8. As the work moves, open the task, move the statuses on, and tick Task Completed at the end.

Scenarios

"Clearance for the March leavers keeps slipping"

One task per leaver is too many. One task, Due Date the end of the month, and a subtask per leaver, each with its own dates and status. The supervisor sees at a glance which three of the seven are stuck.

"I want to see the tasks that came out of a disciplinary case"

Name the screen in Origin Process and the case in Origin Number when you create the task. The link is then on the task, and the task can be found from the case rather than from a list of everything.

"The person I assigned it to says they never knew"

A task does not tell anybody it exists. If the person must be told, raise it as a Create Activity instead, which sends them a notification and an email, or tell them yourself and use the task to track it.

What it is connected to

• Can be tied to a record on any screen through Origin Process and Origin Number.
• Nothing in PeopleNest calculates anything from a task. It is a record of work, not an input to payroll or performance.
• For work that has to be announced to the person doing it, see Create Activity.

If something looks wrong

• "The save says the task reference cannot be empty" - the Task No field is blank.
• "The save says it already exists" - that reference is already used. References must be unique.
• "The Origin Number field will not open" - no screen is picked in Origin Process. Pick it first.
• "The task is complete but still shows as open" - the status was moved to COMPLETED but Task Completed was not ticked, or the other way round. Set both.