Tracking Tasks and Budgets

Your Task Workflow Manager


Access your Task Workflow Manager to add and edit task types, which are values that describe units of work like “sales” or “editorial.” You can also create a task workflow, like “not started” or “in progress,” to describe the evolution of a task. The values you create in the Task Workflow Manager will populate in picklists in your BigTime environment.

This article will explain how to access and use your Task Workflow Manager, including how to add and edit task type and task workflow values. Then, we’ll show you where you’ll find the values you create in BigTime.

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 to accommodate your firm’s needs.

Access and Use Your Task Workflow Manager

In order to access your Task Workflow Manager, you need to access Configure Types. Click Workflow...Configure Types on your navigation bar. Your window should look like this:

Add, Edit, and Delete Task Types

Task types are values that describe the type of work associated with a task. For example, we have a task called “write copy for website,” and the task type is “editorial.” You’ll choose a task type from a picklist when you add a new task to BigTime.

Adding Values

To add a new task type, click Add Task Type located on the top-right corner of your window. A new window will pop up, and you can type the name of the task type you’d like to add. Then click Add to save your work, as shown in the image below.

The value you add will appear in the gray column.

Editing Values

To edit a value, click on the pencil icon.

Doing so will direct you to a new window to make edits for that specific value. Edit your task type label into the textbox and click Save, located near the bottom right of your window.

Make a Value Inactive or Delete It

The window you use to edit a task type value is also where you make a value inactive or delete it.

Check the box next to Inactive, if you want to make a value inactive. This means the value will be removed from the picklists in BigTime, but the history and data associated with the value will be saved. Plus, you can always reactivate an inactive value by returning to the editing window, unchecking the box, and saving your change.

Alternatively, you can delete a value by clicking Delete, near the bottom-right of your window. A value with history associated with it can’t be deleted, but you can mark it as “inactive.” However, if you really want to remove the value, go through all of your tasks associated with the value and change it to another one.

You’re not able to delete a value if there’s a history associated with it, but you can mark it as inactive.

NOTE: On your Task Workflow Manager window, you can choose to include inactive values by clicking Show Inactive Task Types, found near the bottom-left of your window.

Edit Your Task Workflow

Task workflow refers to the evolution of a task from start to finish and all of the steps along the way. The values you add to your workflow will also appear in a picklist when you create a new task. You can customize the verbiage to describes the workflow for each task type you create.

In the section above, we added a “design” task type value. Now we want to customize the workflow associated with this value. Here’s what we’ll do:

Click on the pencil icon to access the task workflow editor.

Now we can edit, delete, and add to the columns, each of which describes a step in the task workflow. Simply type the word or phrase into the textbox for each column.

In the image below, you’ll see how we customized each column, except for the last one. Click Save to save your work.

Say you want several values in the first column. You can easily add more by clicking Add New Code, located at the end of each column.

Select Task Type Values and Task Workflow Statuses in BigTime

Now that you’ve created some values, we’ll show you where to find and select these values in your BigTime environment.

Select Task Type Values

When you create a new task or subtask, you’ll see the Type column in your Task Editor. Click on the red triangle, located on the textbox under this column, and a picklist of your task type values will populate. Then, select the value that’s most relevant to the task.

NOTE: You can also add the task type column to your Task Dashboard. When you add or edit a task, Task Type will be one of the fields you can choose to add.

Select a Task Workflow Status Value

Now indicate the status of the task you’ve created by following the steps below.

  1. Choose Overview/Status located on the navigation bar within the Task Editor.

  2. Click on a task, hyperlinked on the left-side of your window.

  3. Click on the red triangle under Current Status and select a value.

  4. Click Save to save your work.

    NOTE: You can also add the task workflow status on your Task Dashboard. When you add or edit a task, you can indicate the status by selecting a value under Initial Status.


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