Tasks and workflows

A task is one thing somebody needs to do, with an optional due date and a priority. Most tasks are about a record, such as an animal, a person or an application; the rest are to-dos for the whole organization. A workflow is a checklist of steps that runs on one record, such as an intake checklist on a newly arrived animal. This page covers finding and finishing tasks, and working through a workflow’s steps. Writing the checklists themselves is covered in Workflows.

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The Tasks page

Open Tasks in the sidebar. The page is “Everything outstanding across the records you can see.”, and it opens showing open tasks. Above the list are three counts for the tasks the filters match: The list shows open tasks first, then those due soonest. Tasks with no due date come after the dated ones.

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Columns

Task is always shown. Use Columns to hide or show the others.

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Filters

The filters sit beside the list, each with a count of how many tasks it would match: Click an option again, or press Clear beside a filter, to remove it. Clear filters above the list takes you back to open tasks.

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Saved views

Under Views, + Save current view keeps the filters you have set under a name you choose. Click a saved view’s name to apply it again. Saved views are your own: nobody else sees them. To remove one, point at it and press the bin beside it.

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Marking a task done

Press Mark done in the Status column. While the list is showing open tasks, the task leaves it. If you pressed it by mistake, choose Done under Status, find the task, and press Reopen. A done task is never counted as overdue, however late it was finished. A task that stands for a scheduled medical item, such as “Biscuit: Rabies vaccine”, shows Open to finish instead. It opens the medical record, and the task is marked done when the item is recorded as given or performed. See Medical.

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New task

New task, at the top right of the Tasks page, adds an organization to-do: a task that is not about any one record. Press Add task. To add a task about a particular animal or application, add it on that record instead, so it is linked to it. Anyone whose role can change at least one workspace can add and finish organization to-dos. Everyone who can sign in can see them.

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Tasks on a record

Some records have their own list of tasks, with a box for adding one:

• An animal, in the Tasks card on the Today tab. This card shows only open tasks. See the animal record.
• An adoption application, on its Tasks tab. See Applications.
• A form submission that has a person, where tasks are added to that person. See Submissions.

To add one, type the title in Add a task…, choose a Due date and Priority if you want them, and press Add task. Each task in the list shows its title, Due and the date (or Overdue and the date, in red), and its priority when it is not Normal. The tick button marks it done; on a done task, the same button reopens it.

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Deleting a task

The bin beside a task on a record deletes it straight away, with no question first. A deleted task cannot be brought back. Tasks cannot be deleted from the Tasks page.

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Tasks RescueConsole adds for you

Not every task is typed in by hand. Tasks are also added:

• When a workflow step is set to create one (see Tasks from workflow steps), or a workflow step creates one as its action.
• When a medical item is scheduled for an animal: one task per item, titled with the animal’s name first.
• When a meet and greet is set on an application: one task for each person taking part, titled “Meet & greet:” and the applicant’s name.
• When you add a follow-up check from a form submission.

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Who a task is for

There is no box for choosing who a task is for, and the Tasks page does not show who a task is for. Some tasks arrive already given to someone: a follow-up added from a submission goes to the submission’s first assignee, or to you if it has none; a meet and greet task goes to each person taking part; and a scheduled medical item’s task goes to whoever will do it. When a follow-up from a submission or a meet and greet is given to you, you are told in the notifications bell (see Notifications). To see who a task with a due date is for, use the calendar’s Staff view, which groups the week’s tasks by person (see Staff).

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Who sees which tasks

A task is as private as the record it is about. You see a task about an animal only if your role can read Animals, a task about a person only if it can read People, and so on. Changing, finishing or deleting a task needs your role to be able to change that workspace. Organization to-dos are seen by everyone who can sign in.

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Workflows

A workflow run is one checklist, working through its steps on one animal, person or adoption application. Runs appear on the record they run on: Seeing a record’s workflows needs your role to read that record’s workspace. Starting, ticking, skipping and stopping need your role to be able to change it. If no checklists have been written yet, the card says so and points to Settings → Operations & forms → Workflows. See Workflows.

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Starting a workflow

Many workflows start by themselves: when an animal is added, when an application is approved, when a form arrives, and so on, as your rescue set them up. The same checklist does not start twice on one record while a run of it is still open. To start one by hand, choose it from Start a workflow… on the record and press Start. Only checklists that have steps are offered. On an application, the list is split into On this application and On the applicant.

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A run and its steps

Each run shows:

• Its name, as it was when the run started. Renaming the checklist later does not rename runs already under way.
• Its progress: how many steps are dealt with out of how many, such as 3 of 7. A finished run says Finished, and a stopped one Stopped.
• The date it started.
• Open, which opens the run on a page of its own, and Show or Hide for its steps. Open runs show their steps; finished and stopped runs are folded to one line.

Each step shows its title, its instructions, (optional) if the run can finish without it, and its due date if it has one. Due dates are worked out once, when the run starts, from the number of days the checklist gives each step.

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Completing a step

Most steps are things a person does, with a box to tick.

• Tick the box when the step is done. Untick it to put it back.
• Skip a step that does not apply. It is struck through and reads skipped. Skipping is the honest answer when a step does not apply, rather than ticking something that was not done.

Some steps do something when you tick them, such as sending an email or changing a field on the record. The step says what it will do beside the box, before you tick it. Once it has run, the same line says what happened. If it could not be done, the line says why in red, and Try again runs it again. The step itself stays ticked: only the action failed.

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Checks

A check is a step that is answered rather than ticked. Answer it with Passed, Failed or Not applicable. What a fail does depends on how the checklist was written. It may only record the fail, in which case the step reads “Failed. The steps after this wait for a person.” It may instead put the application on hold, or reject the application, and the step says which happened. A failed check keeps the run open, however many other steps are done. Once what failed has been dealt with, press Reopen on the check to clear its answer, and answer it again. Reopen is also how you correct a check answered by mistake.

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Steps that run by themselves

Some steps are done by RescueConsole rather than a person, and have a round mark instead of a box:

• An automatic step says “Runs by itself once the steps above are done, within five minutes.”
• A wait pauses the checklist. It says “Waits once the steps above are done”, and once reached, Waiting until and the date and time it ends.

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When a run is finished

A run is finished when every step that is not optional is ticked, skipped or answered, and no check has failed. Optional steps left undone do not hold it open. If a step on a finished run is put back, the run is open again.

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Stopping a workflow

Stop ends an open run that is no longer needed, such as an intake checklist for an animal that was transferred out the next day. It happens straight away, with no question first. A stopped run reads Stopped, its steps can no longer be ticked or skipped, and there is no button to start it again. To go through the checklist again, start a new run.

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The workflow page

Open on a run, or the link RescueConsole takes you to after starting a run from somewhere other than the record, opens the run on a page of its own. It is titled with the checklist’s name, says which record it is On, with a link to that record, and lists the Steps. Ticking a step here is the same as ticking it on the record. In the breadcrumbs, Workflow runs takes you to the Tasks page: there is no separate list of runs.

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Tasks from workflow steps

A step can be set to create a task. That task is made when the run starts, on the same record, with the step’s title, instructions and due date, so it also appears on the Tasks page and, for an animal or an application, in the record’s own list of tasks. Ticking the step marks its task done. Marking the task done does not tick the step: the step is the one that counts, so tick the step on the workflow.