Job Tasks Single Dialogs Workspace

Use this workspace to create and maintain a job-specific task list.

When you make entries on a job, for example in a time sheet, you usually make the entries on both tasks and activities. Thus, you must assign a list of available tasks for each job so that you can create entries for the job.

For more information about the general purpose of tasks, see the description of the Task Lists workspace.

In Maconomy, there are two ways of assigning task lists to jobs.

1. Assign a standard task list to the job

   . Multiple jobs can share task lists. Use this approach for simple task lists that do not require editing on a job-to-job basis. Create and maintain standard task lists in the Task Lists workspace. When you create or edit a task there, Maconomy makes the change for all of the jobs that share that task list.

2. Assign a separate task list to each job

   . If you select a standard task list and then make it private to the job, Maconomy automatically creates a copy of the standard task list, as well as any changes that you make to the copied job task list in this workspace. Use this approach for complex jobs and long task lists, or if you are using work breakdown structures in your job budgets.

You can mix these two approaches, but be careful not to accidentally change tasks.

Note: This workspace describes the job-specific task list approach only. For more information about shared tasks lists, see the Task Lists workspace.

When you create a job using a template, and if the template job has job-specific tasks, Maconomy creates a copy of those tasks and assigns them to the new job. The task list is now private to the job, meaning that it is not shared with any other job.

This workspace always displays the current task list for the job, regardless of whether the task list is job-specific or shared. However, if you change anything in the task list in this workspace (or elsewhere, for example by creating a task in the Job Budgets workspace), Maconomy checks whether the task list is shared with other jobs. If it is, Maconomy makes a copy of the task list and makes it private to the current job before it applies the change to the task list. Subsequent changes that you make to the original task list in the Task Lists workspace no longer apply to the job tasks. You can also view and edit the job-specific tasks in the Task Lists workspace.

On the lines in the Job Employee Specifications sub-tab, the Task Group 1-6 fields display the work breakdown structure of a job. You can create and edit this structure in the Job Budgets workspace, but you cannot edit it in this workspace. Creating a work breakdown structure on a job by assigning the related tasks to task groups gives you a better overview of the job, particularly on jobs that have several stages and task levels.

Here is a sample work breakdown structure for a job.

Analysis Stage
	Initial Analysis
		Pre-project analysis
		Feasibility study
	Project Analysis
		Business model review
		Project planning
Design Stage
	Design development
	Testing

In this table, task groups are highlighted in bold, while the tasks that belong to the job appear in regular font. This particular table contains two task group levels: The first task group level consists of an Analysis Stage and a Design Stage, and the second task group level—which is subordinate to Analysis Stage—contains the entries Initial Analysis and Project Analysis. In Maconomy, the first task group level is identified as Task Group 1, the second task group level is Task Group 2, and so on.

Note that a task group path (for example, Analysis Stage » Initial Analysis » Feasibility study) must always end with a task against which job entries can be posted. The work breakdown structure functionality merely allows you to assign task groups to tasks, thus helping you to structure your tasks in a logical way on a particular job.

Thus, in the context of this example, the Tasks sub-tab of the Job Tasks workspace would show six lines, equaling the number of tasks in the preceding table. Six task lines would be listed in the Job Tasks tab: Pre-project analysis, Feasibility study, Business model review, Project planning, Design development, and Testing. The Task Group 1 field would show a value of Analysis Stage on the first four lines and Design Stage on the last two lines. In addition, in the Task Group 2 field, the first two lines would show a value of Initial Analysis, while the third and fourth lines would show Project Analysis. No value would be shown in the Task Group 2 field on the fifth and sixth lines because only one task group has been assigned to these tasks.

Note that the grouping information is taken from the planning budget. If a task is not present in the planning budget, similar information is taken from the baseline budget. Thus, in case of inconsistency between the baseline budget and the planning budget, the planning budget overrides the baseline budget.

For more information on work breakdown structures and task groups, see the description of Job Budgets.

Actions in this Workspace

A number of actions in this workspace enable you to:

• Specify that users must enter tasks on all entries, or specify that they must not enter tasks.
• Copy the task list from another job and use it as a template for a new task list. Any existing tasks are preserved.
• Specify that daily task descriptions are required or optional for all tasks.

All users can create and edit tasks. However, if you set up the task to derive an amount or time activity, you must be granted permission to change amount and time activities in the Actions workspace in the Set-Up module. Also, tasks may require approval. If you have access to approve tasks in the Actions workspace, tasks that you created or changed are automatically approved. Otherwise, approval by another user is required, either in this workspace or the Approve Tasks workspace.