Overview
The Task Tracker is an interactive, visual representation of all the tasks, deliverables, and milestones required to complete a project. It serves as a high-level project overview where you can see who is assigned work and the current status of each task. This helps you keep your team members on track and your tasks on schedule. Additionally, the Task Tracker gives your Clients a window into the work being done and the timeline for completion.
The Task Tracker helps keep things organized with customizable views, filters, and columns, giving your team members the ability to work collaboratively how it suits them best.
In the Task Tracker tab, you can perform the following:
- Create tasks, deliverables, milestones, or issues.
- Assign team members to tasks.
- Drag and drop to re-prioritize or nest tasks.
- Access the Task Details side panel, where you can view and manage individual task activity
- posts, checklists, proofs, and file attachments.
- Edit task custom field values in the Task Tracker table.
- Assign weighting percentages to milestone tasks.
The Task Toolbar
The Task Tracker toolbar acts as a page-wide header just above the Task Tracker table, giving you instant access to the most frequently used features and functionality you need to manage your tasks, with additional options located in the Actions menus.
The toolbar contains logically grouped sets of buttons and controls. The left side of the toolbar contains controls for searching, viewing, and filtering tasks, while the right side of the toolbar has controls for adding, sorting, exporting, and other task management needs.
Search
Use the Search field to quickly find the task information you need. As you start typing a search term, Kantata will instantly filter data from the Task Tracker table, looking for matching values in nearly every field of each task row and the Task Details side panel.
Saved Views
You can use filters, sort options, and custom columns to configure how information appears in the Task Tracker and then save these configurations for future use. This way, you can switch between different views and get the information you need without having to manually re-apply the same filters every time you visit the Task Tracker.
After saving one or more views, you can access them from the Views drop-down menu. If you log out of Kantata or leave and return to the Task Tracker, the view that is set as your default will load, regardless of which project you're viewing.
For more information on using views, please see the Saved Views article.
Shared Views
After creating a Saved View, you can set it as a Shared View so it can be accessed by other account members that have the necessary Shared Views in Task Tracker permissions.
A Shared View provides a standardized view so everyone is accessing the same information in real-time. For example, if you add the Actual Fees column to the Issue Tracking Shared View, that new column will automatically appear for all other team members when they are using that same view in the Task Tracker.
To learn more about Shared Views, see the Task Tracker Shared Views article.
Filters
ACCESSIBILITY
The Filters modal has been designed to support keyboard-only navigation, improving accessibility to assist power users as well as those with disabilities.
If your project has several tasks and a large number of resources, filters are useful for showing only the tasks or resource information you are interested in and hiding the rest. Using the Filters modal in the Task Tracker, you can combine various elements (task fields and values) to create a filter that fits your needs. For example, you may want to see critical task deadlines, milestones, or other important information—such as tasks that have not yet been started. You can save any combination of chosen filters for future use as a Saved View.
Click the Filters button on the Task Tracker toolbar to open the Filters modal and select the desired filter(s).
To learn more about the Filters modal, see the Task Tracker Filters article.
Quick Filters
After you apply filters, each field type with selected values displays as a Quick Filter in the toolbar, indicating that these filters are active and contain the specified number of selected values. These Quick Filters display until you leave the page or manually clear the filters.
Selecting the Filters button again reopens the Filters modal, allowing you to adjust the selected fields and values. You can also quickly update the values for Quick Filters by selecting the filter from the toolbar, selecting (or deselecting) the values you want, and selecting Apply.
To learn more about Quick Filters, see the Task Tracker Filters article.
Pinned Filters
You can pin filters that you use frequently so they will always appear in the toolbar when you visit the Task Tracker.
To pin a filter, open the Filters modal and click the Edit icon in the top-right corner of the Fields section. In edit mode, you can select all the filters that you want to pin and you can drag and drop to rearrange the order they display in. When you’re finished, select Save Pins, then Apply Filters.
To learn more about Pinned Filters, see the Task Tracker Filters article.
Cascade Changes to Dependencies
When Cascade Changes is turned on for a project (default):
- Modifying a task Start Date will automatically cascade changes to dependent tasks so you don’t have to manually adjust the dates of all predecessors and successors.
- You can also cascade date changes to dependencies from the Task Details side panel, but only if it was opened from theTask Tracker.
- Shifting task dates also shifts any scheduled hours allocated to a resource for that task.
Note: Scheduled hour changes are processed once every minute in order to combine them with additional scheduled hours changes made at the same time.
The Cascade Changes checkbox selection is persistent. This means that even if you refresh the page or go to another tab, the Cascade Changes option will remain On or Off—depending on your selection—when you return to the Task Tracker for that particular project.
Exporting a CSV File
You can export the Task Tracker data to a CSV file by clicking the Export button and then selecting CSV from the drop-down menu.
Applying Templates
Click on the Apply Template button to apply a template that contains commonly repeated tasks, assignments, resource mapping, and other information to an existing project. This saves you from having to manually add the same information to your projects repeatedly.
When the Apply Template modal appears, select a Template and Start Date. You can also choose to apply one or both of the following to your project:
- Treat Weekends as work days–This causes the task duration to include weekend days.
- Distribute Scheduled Hours–This allows the resource estimated hours to be added as scheduled hours, which are distributed evenly between the task start date and end date.
NOTE
Only users with the Edit Financials project permission and above have access to view the Distribute Scheduled Hours setting and create scheduled hours.
After you select a template, you can see a list of template resources on the left, mapping options in the middle, and project roles on the right. In the Map To column, you can choose to map to a specific resource, create a new resource, or invite an account member who is not currently on the project.
To learn more, see the Apply a Template to a Project article.
Adding Tasks
Click on the Add Task button on the right side of the Task Toolbar to add a new top-level task row to the project. It will appear at the top of the Task Tacker table.
Actions Menu
The Actions menu is where you can access additional Task Tracker actions.
- Configure Columns—This lets you determine which columns to display in the Task Tracker table and in what order. The way columns are configured can be part of a Saved View.
- Show Completed Tasks—This will only show completed tasks in the Task Tracker table.
- Show Only Archived—This will only show archived tasks in the Task Tracker table.
Sort Order
You can sort the tasks in the Task Tracker table by clicking the Sort drop-down button and selecting from the following options:
- WBS (default)—Sorts your tasks in the order you’ve arranged them. If you haven’t moved any tasks, they will be sorted by date added, from newest to oldest.
- Added—Sorted by date added, from newest to oldest.
- Updated—Sorts tasks by those with the most recent activity, in descending order.
- Upcoming—Tasks with a status of Not Started are sorted by Start date, from the newest to the oldest. Tasks with a status of Started or Needs Info are sorted by Due date, from newest to oldest. When tasks have the same Start or Due date, the one with the most recent activity appears first. Tasks with an overdue Start date will always appear at the top.
- Priority—Sorted from highest to lowest priority level.
Bulk Actions
You can use bulk action options to perform specific actions on a large number of tasks, such as updating task types, changing task statuses, assigning members to tasks, adding task tags, archiving old tasks, deleting tasks, and duplicating tasks.
To access the bulk actions, select one or more tasks by checking the boxes in front of the task name in the first column of the table. This will cause the bulk actions to appear, temporarily replacing the standard toolbar options.
To learn more, see the Task Tracker Bulk Actions article.
The Task Tracker Table
The Task Tracker table consists of individual task rows that can be nested into groups of parent and subtasks.
KEYBOARD ACCESSIBILITY
The Task Tracker has been designed with keyboard navigation in mind, improving accessibility for power users and those with disabilities.
When editing, you can:
• Tab to move between cells.
• Shift - Tab to move backwards between cells.
• ↑ ← ↓ → to edit a cell's content.
• Enter / Return to confirm selections or to enter/exit edit mode. • Escape to revert to a cell's original content and exit edit mode.
When viewing, you can:
• ↑ ← ↓ → to move around cells.
• Enter / Return to confirm selections (such as checking boxes for bulk actions)
• Enter / Return to open drop-down menus.
• Enter / Return within a cell to edit its content.
Task Rows
By default, an individual task row shows the WBS, task type, title, tags, assignees, status, and start and due date. The following is a breakdown of the default task row cells and contents.
WBS—This column displays the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) number. This is the unique number assigned to each task, also commonly referred to as the “row number”.
Type—This drop-down menu allows you to change an individual task type.
- Tasks are items that need to be completed.
- Deliverables are things that need to be produced, such as documents.
- Milestones are project deadlines, marking the completion of a phase or stage of a project.
- Issues are bugs or items that need to be resolved.
Title—This field is for the task title.
Task Detail Side Panel —This button opens the Task Details side panel, where you can view and manage individual task details and information.
Actions —This drop-down menu contains the following frequently used task-related actions.
- Add Task Below—Adds a new top-level task beneath the currently selected task.
- Add Subtask Below—Adds a new subtask below the currently selected task or subtask. You cannot add more than 4 levels of subtasks to a parent task.
- Indent—Indents the task (shifts it to the right) to create a new task hierarchy level, turning the task into a subtask.
- Outdent—Outdents the task (shifts it to the left) to create a new task hierarchy level, turning the task into a parent task.
- Add From Template—Select this option to add tasks or subtasks from a template under the currently selected task or subtask.
- Duplicate—Select this option to duplicate the task.
- Delete—Permanently delete the currently selected task or subtask. When the parent task is deleted, all subtasks are deleted.
Tags—This field is for adding task tags, which are used to help identify specific keywords or topics and facilitate searches across projects in Kantata.
Assignees—This field is for assigning the team members (resources) who are responsible for performing the task’s work. Each task can have multiple assignees.
Status—This field is for changing the task status, which informs team members how a task is progressing.
Start Date and Due Date—These fields display a task’s Start Date and End Date. Changing a task’s Start Date will change the task Due Date while retaining the duration of the task (i.e., the number of working days needed to complete the task). Conversely, changing the Due Date of a task will not affect the Start Date; it only extends the duration of the task.
WBS
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) column shows the unique number assigned to each task and subtask in the project, breaking down the project into a more manageable structure. WBS may also be referred to as the "row number" that can help you locate a task in both the Task Tracker and Gantt Chart.
You can add the WBS column to the Task Tracker table when you configure the table columns.
The WBS adds a decimal followed by a number for each level of nested tasks that you create. For example, if the hierarchy for task WBS 38 includes three task levels total, the first/parent-task level will be 38, the second level will be 38.1, and the third level will be 38.1.1. You can add up to five levels total (including the parent task).
When you create task dependencies, the WBS is included in the dependency to inform the application of which tasks are predecessors and which ones are successors.
Task Hierarchies
A task hierarchy consists of parent tasks and their subtasks. Subtasks help break complex tasks down into smaller action items and have the same attributes as regular tasks, including its own due date, assignee, status, etc. You can add up to five levels of parent tasks and subtasks within a task hierarchy in order to capture the entire work breakdown structure of your project.
You can nest your tasks underneath others three different ways:
- Selecting Add Subtask Below from the Task Actions drop-down menu on a task row.
- Selecting Indent (to create a subtask) or Outdent (to create a parent task) from the Task Actions drop-down menu.
- Dragging and dropping one task beneath and into another.
When you create task hierarchies, the tasks’ WBS will indicate which task is a parent task and which one is a subtask, using a decimal to indicate which level of the hierarchy the task is located in.
Task Dependencies
You can configure the Task Tracker table to include the Predecessors and Successors columns so you can create, view, and edit task dependencies in the Task Tracker.
A dependency is the relationship between predecessor and successor tasks.Tasks may have multiple predecessors or multiple successors.
- Predecessor—The task that controls the start or end date for all related successor tasks.
- Successor—The task whose start or end date is controlled by the predecessor.
A dependency is represented by a mixture of the WBS/row number of the predecessor task followed by the initialism for the type of dependency that you’re establishing (finish to start=FS, start to start=SS, finish to finish=FF, and start to finish=SF). If you create a dependency for that includes a subtask, the subtask WBS will include decimals. For example, if your predecessor is for task WBS 1.2, you'll know it's the second subtask for task WBS 1.
A lag or lead can also be added to a dependency, represented by the number of lag or lead days. For example, a lag of 3 days for task WBS 1.1 would display as 1.1+3d whereas a lead of 3 days for task WBS 1.1. would display as 1.1-3d.
To learn more, see the Task Tracker Dependencies article.
Expand All/Collapse All
To expand/collapse all the task hierarchies and view every subtask in the Tracker at once, click the small arrow in the task row header. Depending on whether you're expanding or collapsing all hierarchies, this arrow will either be right-facing (Expand All) or down-facing (Collapse All).
Task Highlighting
The Task Tracker highlights Milestone task rows and overdue Start and Due date columns to help you quickly locate them in the Task Tracker table.
When a task is overdue by either the Start or Due date, you will see the overdue date column highlighted in red.
When a task has the Milestone task type, the entire task row is highlighted in gray.
Milestone Weighting
You can assign weighting to milestones to define percentages of completion at different stages of the project. Milestone weighting is especially helpful for projects where payments are tied directly to achieving certain milestones during the project lifecycle.
To learn more, see the Milestone Weighting article.
Resource Estimated Hours
You can configure the Task Tracker table to include the Resource Estimated Hours column so you can quickly estimate how many hours may be required to complete a project.
For each task, you can see a breakdown of the total resource estimated hours, as well as the hours estimated for each assignee. You can click the drop-down arrow to minimize the assignee-level view and only display the total hours for the task.
Click in the cell to the right of the assignee to enter hours. You can also tab into the column, then use the up and down arrows to navigate between the individual cells.
Editing Task Custom Field Values
You can view and edit task custom field values directly in the Task Tracker table. To do so, click in the column field and make your desired changes. Keep in mind that the edit action you can perform in a custom field column will depend on the field type (Text, Date, Currency, Number, or Choice).
Certain custom fields may only be visible and/or editable for certain users based on the custom field permission types and visibility setting. An Account Administrator can adjust the Read and Write permissions and visibility for custom fields at Settings > Custom Fields.
Summary Bar
Located below the Task Tracker table, the Summary Bar allows users with View Financials permissions or higher to see a summary of estimated hours, cost, fees, and other information.
To expand the Summary Bar, select the Sigma icon. The Summary Bar is collapsed by default, but if you expand it, it will remain visible by default the next time you visit a project.
You can see the estimated totals for the following:
- Duration—Calculated by the earliest start date and latest due date of tasks, this is the total estimated number of weeks it will take to complete the project.
- Hours—Calculated by the resource estimated hours on each task, this is the total estimated number of hours it will take named and unnamed resources to complete the project.
- Cost—Calculated by the resource estimated hours on tasks and the associated cost rates of those resources, this is the total estimated cost of all unnamed and named resource assignments on a project.
Note: Cost appears only to users that have Report Viewer with Cost or higher account permissions.
- Fees—Calculated by the resource estimated hours on billable tasks and the associated bill rates of those resources, this is the total estimated fees of all unnamed and named resource assignments on a project.
- Margin—Calculated by the total estimated cost and fees, this is the estimated margin for the project. The margin percentage is the margin divided by the total number of fees.
- Budget—This is the total estimated budget for the project. The remaining budget is calculated based on the estimated budget and the amount of estimated fees the project has.
These numbers update in real-time as you make adjustments to your project.
When a project is in the Estimate stage, users with Edit Financials project permissions or higher also see these options on the right side of the Summary Bar:
- Select Rate Card—Allows you to change the rate card on the project.
- Start Project—Allows you to move a project to the Project stage.
Rows and Pages
At the bottom of the Task Tracker table, you can select whether you're viewing either 10, 25, 50, or 100 task rows at a time. Select your preference from the bottom-right of the page; changes are automatically saved.
Rows that exceed your selected number are added to subsequent pages. You can scroll through these from the bottom-center of the page.
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