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A task is one piece of work. It lives in a project, sits in a section, and carries everything the work needs: who is doing it, when it is due, how long it should take, and how much time has gone into it.

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What is a task?

A task is the smallest unit of work you plan and track against. Every task belongs to exactly one project. Tasks are where operations meet money. The same row that says “Homepage wireframes, Sarah Lin, due Friday” also says how many hours were estimated, how many were tracked, what those hours are worth to the client, and what they cost you.
The chain that runs through the whole product is Client → Project → Task → Estimate → Time entry → Approval → Budget impact → Invoice → Payment. Tasks are the fourth link, and the one everyone touches every day.

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Where tasks live

There are three places you work with tasks. The project tabs are at /{workspace}/projects/{project}. The personal Tasks page is in the sidebar under Tasks.

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How a task moves

A task’s stage is its section. There is no separate status field to keep in step. Each project defines its own sections – “To do”, “In design”, “Ready for QA”, whatever fits the work. Every section carries one of three categories: Moving a task into a section whose category is Done completes it. Moving it back out reopens it. That is the whole model. Read more in /projects/project-sections.

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What a task carries

Every field

The full reference for every field on a task.

Estimates

How long the work should take, and how revisions are recorded.

Assignees

One owner plus any number of collaborators.

Subtasks

One level of breakdown, each with its own status.

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Example

Priya Raman runs the Website Redesign project for Bluebird Coffee at Northwind Studio. The project has three sections: To do, In progress and Done. Priya creates a task called “Homepage wireframes”, assigns it to Sarah Lin, sets a due date of Friday and an estimate of 6 hours. Sarah opens the task, starts the timer, and works 3 hours. Her billable rate is 100/hour,sothose3hoursareworth∗∗100/hour, so those 3 hours are worth **300** to the project. Her cost rate is 45/hour,sotheycostNorthwind∗∗45/hour, so they cost Northwind **135**. The margin on those 3 hours is $165. When Sarah drags the card into Done, the task completes and Priya sees the finished work on the board.

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Permissions

Owner, Admin, Project Manager, Member and Contractor can create and edit tasks. Deleting and bulk editing stop at Project Manager. Finance and Client hold none of these. Full detail is in /tasks/task-permissions and /concepts/roles-and-capabilities.

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Plans and apps

Tasks are part of the Projects & tasks app, which is on by default and included on the Free plan. Some things attached to a task need more: If the Projects & tasks app is switched off, the whole Tasks area disappears from the sidebar and the URLs stop working. See /concepts/apps-and-modules and /concepts/plans-and-features.

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Common questions

Every task belongs to a project. Tasks you add from the Tasks page without picking a project go into a hidden container project, so they behave like any other task and never get lost.
No. Each task completes on its own. A parent and its subtasks are separate work items with separate stages.
Yes, from the task detail Project field – as long as none of its time has been submitted, approved or invoiced. See /tasks/task-details.
No. A task’s stage is the section it sits in. Your project’s section names are the statuses.

Create a task

Every way to add a task.

Task views

List, board and the day view.

My tasks

Your personal day-by-day list.

Project sections

Define the stages a task moves through.

Budget vs estimate

Two different numbers people mix up.

Task permissions

Who can do what to a task.