Solve360 Discussion Forums

Recurring tasks

Sep 21, 2010 02:54pm sven34 New Member 1 post	Hi, I’m new to solve360 and trying to get my head around it. Looks promising so far. One question about recurring tasks; I’m consulting for an Belgian Accounting firm and would like to integrate their task-flows. Deadlines are always very tight and mostly determinded by the goverment. In the example of monthly VAT return this needs to be filled the 20th of every month. So i would need a more dynamic way of setting milestones. In the case of a VAT return the task list would look like this: t1: received invoices from customer t2: processing invoices t3: prepare VAT return t4: inform customer if VAT needs to be paid t5: File VAT return Given that the deadline for t5 is always the 20th the other tasks should be completed with a certain timeframe. So the list would look like this in terms of deadlines: t1: t5 - 5 days (actual 15th of the month) t2: t5 - 3 days (actual 15th of the month) t3: t5 - 3 days t4: t5 - 2 days Does this already exists or would this be a feature request? Thx for the feedback. Sven

Sep 21, 2010 05:31pm Engineering SpecialOps Administrator 4124 posts	Hi sven. Welcome to the forums. Yes, this would be a request. Tasks have specific dates however scheduled emails do have relative dates, so that emails can be sent out x days after the date they are inserted via a template. Tasks can’t do this yet. Thanks for the idea!

Nov 15, 2010 04:24pm ScottVoak Apprentice 9 posts	This would be very valuable for us also. We are a real estate team and use tasks to set up the marketing for a home or for an escrow. For example: Task 1: Day 0: Sign Contract Task 2: Immediately following Task 1: Send interior designer an email to visit home Task 3: 2 Days after Task 2: Check for receipt of designer’s recommendations, review with seller and set a date for photos to be taken. Task 4: Set after Task 3: Take Photos & Virtual Tour Task 5: 1 Day after Task 4: Order sign installed Task 6: 1 Day after Task 4: Put on MLS Task 7: 1 Day after Task 4: Prepare Flyers Task 8: 3 Days after Task 4: Insert Vitual Tour into MLS and YouTube Task 9: Upon Completion of Task 8: Create Property Web Site Task 10: First Friday after Task 9: List open house on Craig’s List… Task 11: First Sunday after Task 9: Hold open house, include in Monday Morning Email. The same type of scheduling happens in an escrow - inspect home, request repairs 2 days after inspection… Any idea when relative scheduling will be available?

Nov 15, 2010 05:44pm Engineering SpecialOps Administrator 4124 posts	Hi ScottVoak and welcome to the forums. Everything in a template uses relative dates (relative to when it was saved in the template), and events can repeat and act like tasks. So you would probably want to setup a tasklist in which the first two tasks would be due today and the 3rd task would be due in two days. You would save this as a template. Next Tasks 4 through 11 would be in a different tasklist and saved as a separate template. This template would be inserted on the day that the photos are taken as that is the day relative to which all remaining tasks are scheduled.

Nov 15, 2010 05:46pm ScottVoak Apprentice 9 posts	Thank you for the solution. Have to say I am impressed at the speed you guys respond.

Nov 16, 2010 05:57pm ScottVoak Apprentice 9 posts	I set up a template with tasks expecting the relative dates to hold when I re-used the template on another blog. However, what happened when I added the template to the new blog is that it kept the original dates from when the template was created. Is there anyway to set it so the first activity date is the date the template is added to a blog and the other dates are relative to that?

Nov 16, 2010 06:03pm Engineering SpecialOps Administrator 4124 posts	The dates of the activities are relative to when the template was last created or updated. I think you can achieve the result you need by setting the first activity to today, the others relative to that, then save the set as a template. When inserted (say a week from now), the first should be due that day, and the others follow relative to the first one.

Nov 16, 2010 06:06pm ScottVoak Apprentice 9 posts	I see how to set the first task equal to “today”. But how do I set the second tast relative to the first one? I don’t see that option, just the calendar.

Nov 16, 2010 06:12pm Engineering SpecialOps Administrator 4124 posts	Set the next task’s Due date to n days from today by picking the date from the date selector (click Add schedule if needed).

Nov 16, 2010 06:29pm ScottVoak Apprentice 9 posts	Will try it again. Yesterday I built a template with a lot of items scheduled for today (1 day after the start). When I used the template today, it scheduled the start for yesterday and all the 1 day after activities for today which was the actual day on the calendar it was scheduled for. Will set another up now and test it tomorrow.