Tasks

Tasks

A task is one piece of work with a person on it: a supplier order to raise, a price review, a transfer, a promotion deal to decide, a list of products to look at, or something you wrote down yourself. Many tasks carry lines, one per product, and the task is finished when those lines are dealt with.

Open Tasks from the left rail. It opens on a table of your open tasks. Click a task to open its page.

You see the tasks assigned to you. If you can see the whole business, you also see every task in the remits you are viewing. A task with no remit is only ever its assignee’s.

Dates and times on Tasks are Melbourne time.

Where tasks come from

The From column says what created each task. When a task came from a routine, a project or a conversation, it names that routine, project or conversation and links to it.

The empty list says the same thing: “A task appears when a routine finds something, a project needs a decision, or you add one.”

Task types

A task’s type describes the work. Its source (above) describes what created it. A routine can raise a task of any type, depending on what its check decides.

The tasks table

Each row is one task. The title is always shown. Under it you see the task’s details, if it has any.

By default the table shows Type, From, Due, Lines, Flagged and Status. If you can see the whole business, Assignee is shown too.

Sorting

Click a column heading to sort by it, and click again to reverse the order. Right-click a heading for Sort ascending, Sort descending, Hide column and Reset columns.

The table starts sorted by Due, soonest first. A task with no due date always sorts after the dated ones, whichever way you sort. Sorting by Status puts open work first. Tasks that tie are ordered by title.

Searching and filtering

Search tasks… matches a task’s title, its routine or project name, and its details. A search lasts for this visit only.

The Filter button holds these choices. The number beside each one is how many open tasks it would show.

You can pick one choice from each group. The filters you have set show as chips above the table. Click a chip to remove it, or click Clear all.

A routine’s page links to its tasks with All tasks. From a run on the routine’s timeline, the list narrows to the tasks that run raised or refreshed, and a chip reads Run of and the run’s date.

Grouping and columns

View holds two settings:

• Grouping: No grouping, Status, Type or From. Each group gets its own heading and count.
• Columns: turn any column on or off. Reset puts back the defaults.

Right-clicking a type pill or a From badge also offers Group by type or Group by source, as well as a filter to that type or source.

Acting on a row

Right-click a row for the actions its page offers, without opening it:

• Open task, and Open routine, Open project or Open conversation when the task came from one.
• On an open task: Mark done, Snooze until tomorrow, Snooze until next week and Cancel task.
• On a closed task: Reopen.
• Open in new tab and Copy link.

Cmd-click or Ctrl-click a row to open the task in a new tab.

A view you can share

Filters, sorting, grouping and columns all live in the page’s address. Copy it and whoever opens it sees the same view, so long as they can see the same tasks. Search is not saved there.

When you open a task, the address keeps the view. The panel beside the task shows the same list you were looking at, and the way back returns to the same table.

The task page

The heading says the task’s title. If the task is about a supplier, the heading shows the supplier’s name instead, linked to the supplier’s page. Under it you see:

• Raised by and the routine, with the time of the run that raised it (for example, “Wed, 14 Oct, 15:46 AEDT”). The time links to that run on the routine’s page.
• In and the project, when the task sits in one.
• How many lines it has, how many are flagged, and data as of: the business date the figures describe.

If a link points to a task you can’t see, or one that is gone, the page says “This task isn’t available.” It also links to Projects, because older links like this one may point to work that is now held there.

Lines

Each line is a product, with its code and the figures behind it. A routine can choose the columns it shows. Otherwise you see the figures the line carries, such as SOH, Wks cover, Units L4W, Rate of sale vs year, Suggested qty and Proposed price.

A flagged line is one a check found worth your attention. Its Signal column says why, for example a stock-out risk, a suggested quantity or a price move. A line raised by a rule of yours also says What it met: and lists the conditions it met.

Lines that need you come first: lines to recheck, flagged lines, and lines you have already acted on. The page shows 200 lines at a time, and Show … more loads the next batch.

Lines across runs

A routine keeps one task open across its runs and refreshes it, so you don’t get a new task every time. The task says Open since, when it was Updated, and how many runs have touched it. It also says what changed since you last looked, for example “2 added · 3 updated · 1 dropped”.

Each line can carry a badge:

If nothing in a task is in scope any more, the routine closes it. The task then reads No longer required, and its lines stay on it as history.

Order quantities

On a buying task, each line has an Order qty field. The suggested quantity appears in the field until you type your own. Clear the field to drop your figure. A decimal is rounded down to a whole unit.

Cover

A planned buy’s order task shows Cover in days: how far ahead its lines are sized. Next to it the task says where that figure came from, such as a cover rule, the routine’s fixed cover, or the days to the next run plus the lead time. On an open task it also shows the order so far, against the supplier’s minimum order value.

Change the number of days, from 1 to 91, and every line is sized again. A quantity you typed on a line stays yours. Once you have changed it:

• Use the run’s figure puts the routine’s cover back.
• Use … days for the supplier on future runs saves your figure as that supplier’s cover rule.

When the supplier’s delivery history is known, the task shows how its deliveries actually land against the lead time in this cover. It may also offer Cover slow deliveries, which sizes the order on the lead time that 9 in 10 deliveries arrived within. If a line’s supplier has no lead time set, the line is sized on a 28-day default and the task links to the supplier’s page, where you can set one. See Suppliers and Supplier settings.

Raising an order

Raise the order shows how many lines go out. Before anything is sent, it asks you to confirm and lists the order by supplier: lines, units and value, and whether the supplier’s minimum is reached. An order under a supplier’s minimum still goes out, because the minimum is never a reason to hold a line back.

Raising sends the order into Decisions and out to every destination set to receive raised orders. Twelfth does not contact the supplier itself, and the order can’t be changed after it is raised. The task then reads Order raised with the date, lines, units and value, and offers Download the order as a CSV file.

If another task has already ordered one of the same products, the raise is refused and names that order, with Open it beside it. To send yours as well, say why in Why does this order go out anyway? and press Raise anyway. Your reason is kept on the decision.

If no line has a quantity yet, the button says “Nothing to order yet: type a quantity on a line, or change the cover.”

Reviewed, no action

Reviewed, no action closes a task when there is nothing to do, and asks you why:

Counted it: the figure is right is offered only on a task raised by a store count check. You can move the day anywhere from today to a year out, and add an optional Note.

Until that day, the routine won’t raise the same finding on the same evidence again. A real change in the figures brings it back sooner. The closed task says the hold back to you, for example “Held until Fri 10 Oct — you said stock was arriving.” When a routine raises the work again after the hold ends, the new task shows Back after your hold ended with what you said last time.

Muting a line

Mute on a line, or Mute a line above a review grid, stops the routine that raised the task from flagging that product under its check. On a planned buy, a mute also keeps the product off the routine’s order tasks and removes it from this order now. If you had typed a quantity on the line, the dialog warns you that it will be removed.

Choose how long the mute lasts under For how long: 1 week, 1 month (the default), Until a date or Until I unmute it. A note is optional but recommended, because whoever sees the mute next reads it. The product comes back when the mute ends, or sooner if someone unmutes it on the routine’s page.

You can mute a line only if you are allowed to change the routine. A head of buying can also mute lines on a buyer’s task.

Review tasks

A Review task asks you to look at some products, not to buy them. Each line says what its check found under What sold, and the cover at that pace, and Details opens the figures behind it. There is nothing to type.

Close a review task with Mark done once you have looked. Some tasks only mark lines and order nothing. These close with Reviewed, which holds nothing, so a line that is flagged again is raised again.

Promotion tasks

A Promotion task is a confirmed deal, decided line by line. For each line, set In or Out and the Promo price. Next to each line you see the deal’s terms and checks: Special buy price, Funding, Margin after funding, Expected in window, Cover for the window, Recent price and Other promotions. A failed check shows as a chip under the product’s name, for example a margin under the workspace’s floor, Out before it starts or Also on another promotion.

Settle decisions closes it. The button counts the lines In and Out, and it is disabled until every line is In or Out and every In line has a price. Settling records the decisions and can’t be undone. Afterwards, Download for Rex gives you the export. A promotion task can’t be cancelled, raised as an order or marked done.

Supplier orders, price reviews and transfers

A supplier order, price review or transfer that Twelfth’s engine opens comes into Tasks as its own task. It opens the same review grid, staged edits and sign-off as the project stage, with Triage and Pending, so the work is the same whichever way you open it. Task details says which routine raised it and which project it sits in. See Projects and Tasks and routines settings.

Assignee and handing a task on

The assignee chip shows who a task is on. If you can move the task, click the chip to choose someone under Hand task to. You can move a task if it is yours, or if you can see the whole business and the task belongs to a remit. For a task in a remit, only people who can see that remit are listed. A personal task belongs to its assignee alone, so handing it on removes it from your list.

Anyone else sees the assignee’s name, which links to their profile.

Acting on someone else’s task

When you open a task that belongs to someone else, the page tells you before you act, for example: “This is Sam’s task. What you do here is recorded as yours, on Sam’s behalf, and Sam sees it.” From there you can hand the task on or snooze it.

Everyone who opens the task, the assignee included, sees Done on your behalf (or on the assignee’s behalf) with the latest entry and who did it. Press it to show only the lines that were changed. The arrow beside it opens the whole list.

Due dates and snoozing

A task raised by a routine is due at the time its run was scheduled. A task you create has no due date.

Snooze moves an open task out of the way until tomorrow. From the table you can also snooze it until next week. A snoozed task stays in the list with snoozed and the day it comes back.

Statuses and how a task closes

Every task is Open, Done or Cancelled. A closed task says how it closed:

A task with lines closes with an outcome, either by raising its order or with Reviewed, no action. Plain Mark done is for a task without lines or a review task. Reopen brings a closed task back, except for a raised order or a settled promotion, because those are final.

The panel beside an open task

When a task is open, a panel beside it lists your tasks in sections by type: Buying, Pricing, Transfer, Promotion, Review and General. Each section collapses, and you can drag sections to reorder them. Each row shows where the task came from, how many lines it has, its title, and how many lines are flagged.

The panel shows the same list as the table you opened the task from. Filtering or searching in the panel keeps the current task open. The heading (My tasks, Done or All tasks) takes you back to the table with the same view. The New task button (+) starts a new task.

The Tasks table itself has no panel beside it.

Starting a task by hand

New task creates a task for you. Give it a Task name, a Type (General, Review, Buying, Pricing or Transfer) and, if you like, Details, then press Create task. Its source is Manual, and it opens as soon as it is created.

Tasks, projects, routines and suppliers

• Routines raise most tasks. A routine’s page lists its tasks and opens each one in place, and All tasks opens them on Tasks. Mutes and holds you set on a task apply to the routine that raised it.
• Projects hold the work tasks come from. A supplier order inside a project is the same record whether you open it from Tasks or from the project.
• Suppliers: a buying task is about a supplier. Its heading links to the supplier’s page, where lead times and cover rules live, and a cover you choose can become that supplier’s rule. Supplier-wide settings are under Supplier settings.
• Tasks and routines settings covers the workspace timezone, notifications, and where raised orders go.

Asking Twelfth AI

• “Which of my open tasks are overdue, and which have flagged lines?”
• “Why was this line flagged on the Mattel order task?”
• “What holds did I set with Reviewed, no action that end this week?”