Tasks

A task is a type of activity, assigned to one or more users, that does not need to occur at a defined time. The Tasks workspace enables you to leverage search and filter capabilities, display more information in a larger working space, and manage tasks. For example, you can add a follow-up task on the Tasks workspace when further actions are required by one or more users after a meeting with a contact. You can then modify the task as required and, when the task is done, mark the task as completed.

Tasks workspace

The Tasks workspace

The Tasks workspace enables you to:

• Add quick to-do tasks without navigating away from the data table

• Add tasks with a variety of settings and details using the New Task dialog

• Delete tasks

• Add recurring tasks

• Change task properties

• Search for and find tasks using a text search field, filters, and filter chips

• View and add delegated tasks

• Assign tasks to different users and contacts

• Mark tasks as complete

• Preview summary information about a task

• Navigate to a detailed profile of a task

• Preview summary information about an entity associated with a task and then navigate to the entity's detailed profile

Searching and filtering the data table

You can use the text search field and filters to find entity records on the Tasks workspace. NexJ provides the following predefined filters that enable you to quickly find records that match the filter criteria:

• Tasks (all tasks assigned to the user)

• My Delegated Tasks

• My Tasks Due Today

• My Tasks Past Due

• My Approval Tasks

If you clear the value from the Assigned To filter chip, the Tasks workspace will be blank. This happens because the Assigned To value is mandatory.

When viewing a list of activities in a data table, you can see the full notes associated with each activity. The note is displayed as a new row, below the row with all other information about the activity. To include the notes rows in the data table, use the Select columns command in the More Actions menu to select the Note column.

For more information about searching and filtering functionality, see Searching and filtering in NexJ CRM.

For more information about sorting data tables, see Navigating the NexJ CRM user interface.

Viewing other users' tasks

To view tasks assigned to other users, select the Assigned To this user filter chip, and select the required user. The data table refreshes to show the results.

Previewing tasks and related entities

To preview a task record without opening the Edit dialog for the task, click the Preview button

You can also preview and navigate to entities related to the task. In the For or Assigned To  columns, click the contact, company, household, or user name. The summary information about the entity is displayed in the Preview sidebar. Click the View Details button on the Preview sidebar to open the detailed entity profile.

To determine whether a task is part of an activity plan, check whether there is a value in the Related Activity Plan column. If the column is not visible, you can add it to the data table by clicking More Actions > Select Columns.

Adding tasks

To quickly add a to-do task without specifying any additional details, enter the task description in the Type new task here… text field above the data table and click the Save button . The newly created task is displayed in the Preview sidebar on the right of the workspace. You can click the Edit button on the preview to make any changes to the task.

To add a task to the tasks data table, click the Add button

When adding a new task to the system, the New Task dialog includes the following fields:

Tab	Field name	Description	Required field
Detail	Add Attachment	Click the Add button to select a file from your computer. NexJ CRM supports the following file formats: Microsoft Word (all formats provided by Word except XPS), Excel file formats (all formats provided by Excel except SLK and DIF and those listed below as not supported), BMP, CSV, GIF, JPEG, PDF, PNG, TIFF, and TXT. The following file formats are also not supported: BAS, BIN, COM, CMD, CRT, CSH, DLL, EXE, HEIC, HLP, HTA, HTM, HTML, INS, ISP, JS, MDB, MHT, MHTML, NWS, SCT, SH, STM, VPS, WSC, XHT, and XHTML. The maximum file size that is supported is 7839744 bytes (7.47 MB).	No
	Assign To	Displays your name. You can choose to assign another user to the task by adding and selecting them. By default, tasks you create are assigned to you, however, you can modify task templates to automatically assign different types of tasks to one user or many users. This is done by business administrators with appropriate privileges on the Customize workspace in the Task Management tab. For more information, see Task Management.	Yes
	For	The list of entities assigned to the task. As you type the name of the entity you want to add to the task in the For field, a list of corresponding entities appears below the field. Select the desired entity when you see their name appear in the list below the For field. You can also click the Select button and select from a list of entities. If the target entity does not exist, you can click the Add a new item button  in the Select entities dialog, enter the entity information in the New Contact dialog, and save your changes to add the required entity.	Yes
	Priority	The importance of the task. Populates with category B by default.	Yes
	Reminder	If you set a reminder for a task or schedule item, an alarm is displayed in a Reminders dialog at the specified time if NexJ CRM is running. If it is not running, the alarm is displayed the next time you sign in. In the Reminders dialog, you can select the View more detail button to display the activity details in the application sidebar. For more information, see Setting reminders.	No
	Status	The current progress of the task. For example, Cancelled, Completed, In Progress, On Hold, or Outstanding.	Yes
	Template	The template you have selected. You can choose to select a new template and click Override to change your original template selection.	Yes
Recurrence	Not applicable	Settings for a repeating task.	Not applicable
Related	Not applicable	When appropriate privileges are granted (for example, mda:ServiceRequestEnabled, mda:OpportunitiesEnabled, mda:ProductsEnabled), the task's related opportunity, products, service request, account plan, or campaign. The tab also displays any follow-ups assigned to the item such as additional schedule items, tasks, or documents. Click the Add button that is next to the related item type you want to associate with the task.	Not applicable

When the Hierarchical Access Model is enabled, the Restrict access to users in the Assign To checkbox is available. To only allow users specified in the Assign To field to access the task, select Restrict access to users in the Assign To. The Hierarchical Access Model is a security model that restricts user access to data records by organizational hierarchy.

You can copy text and paste it into the Notes field for an activity, task, or schedule item. When your cursor is in a Notes field, you can press Ctrl+V to paste copied text from your clipboard into the Notes field or right-click in the Notes field and select Paste.

You can associate a task with other items, such as an opportunity, products, service request, and account plan by adding them in the Related tab. You can also add follow-up tasks in the Related tab, such as additional schedule items, tasks, or documents.

You can also add tasks on the My Tasks card on the Home workspace or in the Tasks data table in the Activities tab for an entity, opportunity, or service request.

Setting and working with reminders

Set reminders for schedule items or tasks to display an alarm at a specified time. If NexJ CRM is running at the time for which the reminder was set, a Reminders dialog opens, displaying alarms for the task or schedule item. It also displays alarms for any other activities whose reminders have not been cleared, including reminders that occurred while NexJ CRM was not running.

Reminder actions

Permanently remove an individual reminder from the dialog by clicking the Dismiss button , or remove all displayed reminders by clicking Dismiss All on the bottom of the dialog.

Mark an individual task or schedule item as done by clicking the Mark Completed button . You will no longer receive reminders about this activity.

To find out more about the schedule item or task the alarm is for, click the View more detail button. Information about the activity is displayed in the application sidebar. To find out additional information, such as recurrence and related items, or to update activity details, click the Edit button on the sidebar banner.

To delay an individual reminder, select a delay time in the Remind me again (in) field and click Snooze. Another reminder dialog will be displayed after the specified amount of time has passed.

To delay all reminders, click Snooze All on the bottom of the dialog. When you click Snooze All, any selected values in the Remind me again (in) fields are ignored, and all reminders are delayed for 15 minutes.

Adding recurring tasks

When you want to create a repeating task, you can set a recurrence series rather than adding each instance individually. A recurring series is scheduled according to a specified pattern and within a set scope of time. When you create a recurring series, you can choose to have the task's start date repeat based on a timed pattern or based on when the preceding task is completed.

Because subsequent recurring tasks are generated when the current task is completed, they are created individually, not based on a horizon as a recurring schedule series is. When a new task is generated, its start date will correspond to the specified recurrence pattern, and will, therefore, be displayed as a future task.

Create recurring tasks rather than individual instances of a task you want to have repeated.

To create a recurring task, navigate to the Recurrence tab in the New Task dialog and select from the following Recurrence Pattern options to determine how frequently the task will repeat:

• Daily

• Weekly

• Monthly

• Yearly

Each of these options has different configuration fields. You can select the exact frequency (such as every three days or every two months), specific dates or days, or the kind of days (such as the second Friday of the month).

In the End of Series section, select one of the following options for when the recurrence will end:

• Never
  The task continues recurring until you change this value.

• After
  Specify a number of times you want the task to recur.

• By
  Specify a specific date when the task should stop recurring.

If you set a new recurrence pattern and then decide while creating it that you no longer want the task to recur, click None in the Recurrence Pattern section to clear the settings.

You can identify a recurring task in the data table on the Tasks workspace by the

Recurring task attachments

Attachments can be added to a recurring series of tasks either when you first create the series or in an individual occurrence where the attachment is persisted to the future occurrences. However, once you have added an attachment to a series, it cannot be replaced, modified, or removed from the series. The attachment will not appear in tasks that are earlier in the series than the task that the attachment was added to, but will appear in every following instance.

Specifying view and edit security for tasks

You can apply view and edit security to any task you add.

To restrict viewing and editing of a task to a group of users or to yourself when adding a new task, navigate to the Security tab in the New Task dialog and select the appropriate view and edit security options.

You cannot modify view security and edit security settings for a task after it has been created. If you want to restrict view and edit access to a document, you must set it when you add the task.

The Security tab is not available when the Hierarchical Access Model is enabled.

For more information about applying security, see Security settings for objects in NexJ CRM.

Deleting tasks

You can delete a task by selecting it in the data table, clicking the More Actions button

Editing and managing tasks

You can select a task in the data table and click the following buttons:

Button	Description
Edit	Opens the Edit dialog where you can modify a task. If you are adding a large note and you want to view the entire note and edit it, click View/Edit Full Notes . The Edit dialog displays the following field information under the Notes field: Created by Displays the date and time that the task was created, and the initials of the user who created it. Edited by Displays the most recent date and time on which the task was edited, and the initials of the user who edited it.
Mark as Complete	Complete the task.
More Actions	Select from the following options: Add Call Record Add a record of a call regarding the selected task. Email Send an email to the contact that the selected task is for. Delete Remove the selected task.

Filtering the audit trail

NexJ CRM retains a history of actions that users have performed on records in the system. When you complete an action, such as viewing or modifying a task record, the action is logged in the record's audit trail. Users with the appropriate privileges can view the history and details of these actions in a record's Audit Trail tab.

As of NexJ CRM 9.7, the audit configuration between activities and their associated contacts and users have been relaxed to minimize the system resources required when processing records having a large number of associations. This change means that deletion of either the activity or the contact is not reflected in the Audit Trail tab for the remaining record. For example, if Task 1 for Contact A has been deleted, this change will not appear when viewing the audit details for Contact A. Similarly, if Contact A is deleted, then the change will not appear in the audit details for Task 1. The primary delete operation for the target item is audited and stored. It is only the secondary link, created specifically for related items, that will no longer appear.

When modifying a task, you can filter the data table on the Audit Trail tab to display specific event records.

NexJ provides the following filter chips that you can use to filter the audit trail:

• Action
  Select an operator and an audit action; for example, Read (view a record) or Create (create a new object).

• Date
  Select an operator and a date.

• User
  Select an operator and the required user or users.

To add additional filter chips, click the Filter options button

In the data table, select the action whose details you want to view. Depending on the type of action, additional details might be available. The details for the selected action display in the data table at the bottom of the tab. Each row represents a field that was updated as part of the action. The field's name, old value, and new value are displayed. If a field did not have a value originally, the value in the Old Value column will be blank.

To change which columns display in the data tables, click the Select columns button

Sending emails related to tasks

Send an email for a task to discuss the related task with the people involved. The system addresses the email to everyone from the related task's For and Assign To fields.

To send an email related to a task, select the Tasks filter in the Activities tab for the selected entity or select the task record in the tasks data table, and click the More Actions button

Fields in the dialog populate with information from the activity.

Fields and checkboxes	Description	Required field
Attachments	Documents included with the email. Populates with the attachments from the task. You cannot manually add or remove attachments from the email.	No
Body	The body text of the email. You can use the toolbar at the top of the field to format the text as rich text with styles such as bolding, italics, bullet points, and hyperlinks. You can copy and paste formatted text into the field. You can also click the Image button in the toolbar and upload images from your computer to use in email signatures. The images cannot exceed 2MB in size. The images must be in JPG, JPEG, or PNG format. To specify additional image settings, navigate to the Advanced tab. For example, you can specify the size of an image and its alignment.	Yes
CC	Recipients copied on the email. Populates with the default email address of all users in the task's Assign To field. To add a copied recipient, enter the contact's email address in the field, separated by a semi-colon.	No
Include Email Signature	Add your email signature.	No
Mark as Complete	To set the task's status to Completed when the email sends, select Mark as Complete .	No
Priority	The priority of the email record. Populates with category B by default.	Yes
Subject	The subject line of the email. Populates with the task's description.	No
To	The recipient of the email. Populates with the default email address of all contacts in the task's For field. To add a recipient, enter the contact's email address in the field, separated by a semi-colon.	Yes

To modify your email signature, click Manage Email Signature .

To preview the email before sending it to email recipients, click Send a Draft Email to send the email to your email address. If there are merge fields in the email body and attachments, they are personalized using the information from one of the email recipients. After you click Send a Draft Email, a message displays stating that you have sent an email to your email address. Click OK to continue.

To send the email, click Send Email. The email is sent to the email addresses in the To and CC fields. The task's attachments are included in the email.

Viewing and adding delegated tasks

View the tasks that you have assigned to other users by selecting the My Delegated Tasks predefined filter card. For more information, see Searching and filtering in NexJ CRM.

To add a task for other users, select the My Delegated Tasks predefined filter and click Add, select the task template, and in the Assign To field, select the user or users to whom you want to delegate this task.

The task is created and appears in the assigned users' Tasks workspace.

Business administrators with the appropriate privileges can modify task templates to automatically assign different types of tasks to a specific user or users. For more information, see  Tasks in the administrator documentation.