Recurring Tasks

A new Intervals user asked us about re-occuring task support for monthly tasks.

At present Intervals does not have true "re-occurring" tasks but there is a quasi way to do it. What we do is track the time, make updates, notes, etc. and then use the "copy task" link on the left hand side of the task detail page. So we close out the task for the given month, then spawn it's twin for the next month. We actually tinkered with true "re-occurring" tasks, but found that it created too many tasks and created overload so we decided to focus on one task at a time. "Copy" task creates a new task # but with the same summary, project, module, etc. then we schedule it for the next month. In fact, we often "copy" a task for a given project to a new project.

Would be very useful for me. Thanks. Craig.

Michael, You can change the code....so that it is a loop.

Make recurring tasks auto appear after the last one is gone.

So, lets say we have a monthly task.
After Oct 31 it goes away (completed or not), the Nov 1-30 task pops in. You can edit and remove the recurring portion of the task (an additional checkbox for your database).

Also, thank the guy above, or turning me on to your system. It does rock.

Marc

Hey everyone!

Recurring Task function would help us out a lot too.

Cheers

Scott

Any progress on recurring tasks? While I admit it would be very handy, I think that you'll find you will end up reproducing the functionality of a calendar, don't you think? Instead of recurring tasks, how about calendar integration (e.g. CalDav), with the ability to link a meeting with a task or assign time to a meeting? If the meeting is recurring, then the task would be too. What do you think?

Agreed. It would be helpful for us as well

So, I don't mean to be the squeaky wheel, but word on the street is they get the grease.

Any progress on a recurring task?

The description from 7/5/08 sounds GREAT!

Thanks everyone for all your comments on our recurring tasks feature. We have this feature tentatively scheduled to launch late July and will send out an email once it is live. Thanks again for all your comments. Please keep them coming.

Any update on the status of recurring tasks? This will likely be the selling point for us if this feature is added.

Great product you guys have!

When we build out the recurring task feature we'll be sure to take the number of days into consideration. Glad to hear Intervals is working out for you. It's nice to have some locals on board. Email us your contact info and i'll drop off some shirts :)

At this time we do not have plans for recurring projects. However, projects are pretty easy to replicate by using the Copy Project link in the project profile. For Intervals users who want to approximate recurring projects, we recommend setting up a template project, complete with team, tasks and documents. Then simply copy that project each time you need it to recur. Although it is not automatic like true recurring projects would be, it only requires two clicks or so to setup your next project.

The recurring task piece has definitely been a moving target. It has been on and off the roadmap and we haven’t done a great job communicating around the feature. We have found that it is a feature that is not asked for heavily in feature requests from within each account in terms of volume of requests but for those that do request the feature it is a very high priority for them. For comparison, the modification to clients with contacts and granular permissions for executives that will launch in the next few weeks is probably asked for fifty to one when compared to recurring tasks. We agree 100% that it could add a lot of value and we would use it ourselves but the biggest challenge is that there is a wide divergence in how people would like to see it implemented. Some want full blown calendar functionality akin to Microsoft Outlook whereas others want a more basic implementation more like what has been discussed here in the forum.

Just to quickly reiterate how features are prioritized here is the general categorization we use:

1. ruled out
2. being contemplated
3. on the development plan
4. active / under development

If a feature adds value for most without adding too much complexity we typically move forward with it. The recurring task piece has been falling between #2 and #3 above. The feature is currently being contemplated due to the lack of consensus on the best way to implement it that adds a lot of value for most without adding too much complexity.

Here are few variations on feedback around the request that we have received:

After reading how you propose to implement it, I would say that we would prefer that the recurring tasks fill out the calendar – perhaps to a set length of time for eg 3 months, 6 months 12 months depending on the task.

I would like to be able to drop in ‘Monday 3pm-5pm – Team Meeting and Timesheet Run through’ and set it to occur every Monday.

I really don't want all of the comments, documents, and time on one task. When the recurring tasks is created it should be its own task.

My vote would be to reschedule an existing task. Seems like it is a recurring task, not tasks. So each recurrence should carry with it the same task number as the original task along with a running history. For example, if it were a daily task I don't think we would want a separate task number for each recurrence.

I would love to be able to set a recurring task that creates the 'Monthly Newsletter' task 1 week before the first day of each month.

As a component of the calendar, in addition to milestones, tasks, and notes, it would be great to include meetings. You can schedule a date, time, select the owner, select employees to attend and meeting subject. Association with a project or milestone would be great as well.

I have a number of tasks that I do daily. I still have to keep track of the time, but I do them and then need to set the deadline for the next day. It would be great to have a collection of "recurring tasks" that could be re-set to daily, every Tuesday, bi-weekly, etc. You'd set the times, stop the timer, assign it to a project, client or whatever and then do one click to bump it to its next place in the schedule.

Hopefully this helps articulate some of the pain points around the feature and once again my apologies on not doing a better job of communicating where the feature is at here in the forum. The feature is being considered and we appreciate the feedback. We would love to execute it in a simplistic way that is easy to use and helps manage tasks more efficiently.

Any updates on the recurring task issue? It's a big issue for us. Thanks!

There are all types of tasks we perform monthly.

Additionally, as you are updating the Tasks feature, it would be nice to have a "Pending" feature. (Same for a Milestone.) Currently you can mark a task/milestone as "In-Progress" or "Completed". It would be nice to be able to mark the task or milestone as" Pending". Often a tasks/milestone gets "tabled" for a period of time. During this time I do not want the item showing as overdue, but would like to be able to view Pending tasks/milestones. I do not want to delete the task/milestone as it will eventually become active again (however I would not know an estimated new due date, so simply changing the due date is not an option), but I do not want it sitting in overdue tasks.

i definitely agree that if you are going to spend the time to create this feature that it should be done in a way that is simple and offers the greatest value for the greatest number of users. i'm spending quite a bit of time here to see if i can articulate a guide as a group who would find tremendous value in recurring tasks. first let's describe the problem

1. no recurring tasks presumes that all clients are one time developments. we build it and then never touch it again? that simply isn't the case. building long term relationships is the goal (hopefully for all businesses) and creates stronger businesses. that means that there will be routine tasks


2. for budgeting purposes, recurring projects would be just as useful as recurring tasks. for example, we allocate up to $5,000 labor per month for a project. in current form, we have to add the allotment each month for every single project. this is time consuming and risks human error. it seems that adding recurring projects wouldn't be much more effort if already creating recurring tasks


3. recurring tasks may be something like:
   create monthly traffic report: recurs monthly on first monday.
   write a press release highlighting client's developments: recurs every three months on the second wednesday.
   prepare meeting agenda for friday's phone call: recurs every two weeks on thursday


4. simply put, we tried to avoid monthly contracts with clients in order to accommodate intervals, but it is bad for business. so now we have to jump through hoops to make it work - which we only do since intervals is so strong in other ways :)

Below you outline some of the pain points of determining the correct way to implement, which i'll address

After reading how you propose to implement it, I would say that we would prefer that the recurring tasks fill out the calendar – perhaps to a set length of time for eg 3 months, 6 months 12 months depending on the task.

I have a number of tasks that I do daily. I still have to keep track of the time, but I do them and then need to set the deadline for the next day. It would be great to have a collection of "recurring tasks" that could be re-set to daily, every Tuesday, bi-weekly, etc. You'd set the times, stop the timer, assign it to a project, client or whatever and then do one click to bump it to its next place in the schedule.

I would love to be able to set a recurring task that creates the 'Monthly Newsletter' task 1 week before the first day of each month.

all of these appear to deal with how the task should recur. meetup.com is probably the highest used system for recurring events that i can think of and their system is quite simple:
https://awesomescreenshot.com/00b67yl9c
https://awesomescreenshot.com/05a67yv9c
the following should accommodate all of the variations of what people may want out of recurring tasks

• for weekly, you can choose to repeat every week up to every 10 weeks, then simply select the days of the week to recur on.


• for monthly, you can choose to repeat every month up to every 12 months, then simply select the time of month (first monday, last sunday, second tues, etc.)


• optionally set an end date

I would like to be able to drop in ‘Monday 3pm-5pm – Team Meeting and Timesheet Run through’ and set it to occur every Monday.

As a component of the calendar, in addition to milestones, tasks, and notes, it would be great to include meetings. You can schedule a date, time, select the owner, select employees to attend and meeting subject. Association with a project or milestone would be great as well.

ignore these. this sounds like someone who wants intervals to act as a meeting calendar... that doesn't seem appropriate to me. project scheduling is completely different from time/meeting scheduling. recommend tungle or google calendar.

I really don't want all of the comments, documents, and time on one task. When the recurring tasks is created it should be its own task.

My vote would be to reschedule an existing task. Seems like it is a recurring task, not tasks. So each recurrence should carry with it the same task number as the original task along with a running history. For example, if it were a daily task I don't think we would want a separate task number for each recurrence.

these two seem somewhat opposed. create a new task or simply reschedule the existing task? on one hand, creating a separate task would be great for time budgeting (say we budget $500 per month... we don't have to reset it each time). on the other hand creating a separate task would cause tons of redundant task which would make the reports, piecharts, and general navigation much more cumbersome and less useful.

i suspect the reason why the first wants separate tasks is so that budgeting can be managed. i suspect the second wants to simply reschedule an existing task is so that they don't get flooded with duplicate tasks. i think there is a way to make everyone happy. for tasks/projects which recur, the start and due dates are simply rescheduled... but the budget gets grayed out and a new "recurring budget" box is added. here's how it would work:

the recurring budget is automatically added to the total budget on each recurrence date. so say we have a task that recurs each week with a recurring budget of $500. week 1, overall budget is $500. week 2, overall budget is automatically upped to $1000. week 3, overall budget is upped to $1500, and so on. users could not directly affect the overall budget since it is automatically increased by whatever the recurring budget is set to on the day it recurs.

i think that covers everything... hopefully if you read it is agreed that this doesn't have to be such a challenge if it is done right.

Seems like the ability to easily manage recurring tasks has been on the radar screen for ... years. Is it ever going to happen, do you think? It's the one big feature you're missing (just my $.02).

Thank you, everyone, for keeping the interest going for recurring tasks. This feature is still under consideration, not because we're trying to put it off, but because our development efforts are being focused on other areas of the application at this time.

We recently completed a round of questionnaires and customer interviews that are helping to set priorities. Tasks within Intervals are more complicated than simple todo systems and we have concerns over adding additional complexity. That and a wide range of views from customers on how they would like to see this feature implemented makes it more difficult than adding a simple feature.

We are tossing around some ideas and still consider this to be a relevant feature request. Meanwhile, we still recommend using the task copy feature to repeat tasks or rescheduling tasks as mentioned above.

We too have recurring tasks for clients, with ongoing projects .... this is very common for web agencies the world over if they have ANY managed clients.

Agree ...
"why can't you start with a simple feature, such as recurring calendar, and then expand from there?"

Would be even better if on first implementation you could add option to only create next (x) item, when previous one is completed ... that way when you complete one iteration, it will then create the next one (x) number ahead .... not creating an indefinite number at a time. So you could say, when I finish this one, ensure next 1, 2,3 etc are created/scheduled
next iteration .... have adjustment on interval from when created (eg. completed two days late, so adjust future interval accordingly, etc).

.... but, just getting a simple calendar repeat would be a great start ... could at least then create for the contracted mount from the start (eg. 6 months, 12 months, etc).