Creating Tasks

You can create tasks in a route or route template that determine the activities required ro complete the route. You can create the tasks when creating the route or template, or add them later.

Follow this procedure for each task you want to create.

Before you begin: Perform one of these activities:
  • Start creating a route template and click the Tasks tab.
  • Start creating a route and click the Tasks tab.
  • Open an existing route and view the Tasks.

Do the following:

  1. Click Add Task.
    Note: You can click > Delete to delete any task.
  2. Double-click the undefined task or click > Open .

  1. Enter these details:

    Field Name Description
    Title Enter a short name to let the assignee know what the task is about.
    Expected Action Choose the type of tasks you want the task assignee to perform. The action does not affect the person's access to the route's content.

    Action Description
    Approve Task assignee must fill in the Comment box and choose an approval status: Approved, Rejected, or Abstained. If the task assignee chooses Approved or Abstained and then completes the task, the route continues as usual. If the task assignee chooses Rejected and then completes the task, the route is stopped and the route creator is notified. The system does not create the next task in the route until the route creator resumes the route.
    On premises only: Your Business Administrator can choose to hide the Comments field when approving routes.
    Comment The recipient must enter a comment before completing the task.
    Notify Only The task is automatically completed without the recipient taking any actions.

    Needs Owner Review Select this check box if you want to review a task after the assignee completes it.

    After the assignee completes the task, the system notifies you. After reviewing the task, you must enter a review comment and then either promote the task to indicate approval or demote it to indicate rejection. The system does not create the next task in the route until you promote the task. Demoting the task changes its state back to To Do and the assignee must redo the task based on your comments. When demoting the task, you can reassign it to someone else to work on.

    Instructions Provide a detailed description of what the person must do to complete the task. For example, you may want to indicate which file or section they must review or comment on.
    Order The numerical order in which you want the tasks to be performed. For concurrent tasks (tasks that do not depend on the completion of other tasks), choose the same order number for each task.

    For example, suppose you want one person to complete a task and then you want two people to work on a task simultaneously. You choose an order number of 1 for the first task. The other two tasks would have order number 2.

    For a route that has already been started, if you add a task at the current order value, the task is started or activated as soon as you save the task.
    Assignee Click to choose the person or user group to assign the task to.

    If you assign the task to a user group, any one in that group can accept and complete the task.

    Note: Route Management does not support assigning the task to "None."

    If you create a route template that has a task assignee set to Ask Route Owner for task assignment, your name shows as the assignee and cannot be changed. When you complete defining the route, you can view the task graph and select Select Assignee to choose an available resource.
    Allow Delegation Allows the assignee to delegate the task to another person.

    If a task allows delegation, the assignee can delegate the task to another member to complete.

    This check box retains the choice from when the last route task was created. If this check box was selected the last time you created a route task, it is shown selected automatically when you create the next route task.
    Due Date You can enter the same date for different order tasks, but you cannot define due dates for higher order tasks earlier than lower-order tasks. There is no restriction or defined time limit between the tasks of different orders. Choose the date by clicking the Calendar icon and choose the time from the list.

    The calendar shows the current date as the default. If you open the calendar again within the same session, the default date is the last date you selected. For instructions on using the calendar.

    You can select the Assignee-Set Due Date check box to let the task assignee enter a due date, although the system does not require one. If no due date is entered, the system does not display a status for the task.

    If the assignee does not complete the task by the due date/time, the task is marked as late.

    On premises only: If late task notifications have been set up, the system sends out notifications to the appropriate people if the task becomes late.

  2. Click Apply.
  3. To add additional tasks, click the + sign in the location where you want to add the task (above, below, before, or after). Define the task as above. Adding a task above or below a task creates the new task at the same order. Adding a task before or after a task inserts a new order level and renumbers the existing task orders.

    For any column of tasks (tasks created with the same order level), choose Any or All from the drop down leading to that column to define whether any single task or all tasks must be completed before the next tasks becomes pending.

    Action Description
    Any When one person completes a task in the set of concurrent tasks, the next order level tasks become active (in the To do state) and the remaining incomplete tasks in the current order level are automatically completed. For example, if you assign three concurrent tasks to three people to approve a document in the route, but you only need approval from one of them, then as soon as one of them completes the task, the other tasks do not need to be completed by the assignees and the next task in the route can proceed.

    If a person completes a task defined to Any, the other tasks at that level are automatically completed. If the route is later stopped or a task is rejected, those other tasks no longer exist. When the route is restarted, all tasks are recreated with the next revision level.
    All All tasks in the set of concurrent tasks must be complete before the next order level tasks become pending.