How does an accounting firm work in Task Manager?
An accounting practice runs on deadlines that no one can move. The twentieth, the twenty-fifth, a tax return, a contribution, month-end closing. Then there are dozens of clients. Each sends their documents at a different time and asks about their own matters by email or phone. Task Manager helps an accounting practice keep track of where each matter stands and when it needs to be handled. A client's task that you have access to has a due date visible in the calendar. Attachments added to a task thread are available in its folder in Files.
Work is organised around a task for a client or a period. Messages, attachments and agreements are collected in the task. The calendar shows task due dates, your events and team absences. A task with a due date but no time appears at 17:00 with an asterisk next to the time. The colour shows what needs attention: red means the due date has passed, blue means it's due today, and green means it's due later.
What an accountant sees when they open the calendar in the morning
The default view covers three days, and the arrows move it forward or back by one day. Weekends are shown too. At the end of the month, you can switch to a seven-day view, from Monday to Sunday. List view groups items by day of the week. Each item shows a time, a coloured marker and a title. Click a task to open its thread, or an event to open the editing window. Your selected date range and open panel are remembered between logins, so you don't have to set up the calendar again in the morning.
There's an absence strip at the top of the grid. It shows three people per day; if more people are away, you can expand the full list. Click it to see their name, type of absence and date range. You'll also see a message if someone added one in their settings. During a week when tax returns are due, this lets you know that Ania won't be back from leave until the twenty-second.
You move due dates by dragging them. Times snap to fifteen-minute intervals, so you can set a client meeting for 9:15. You can only move a task if you have permission to edit it. On the right-hand side of the Calendar there's a panel with a list of favourites, tasks, chats and mail threads (Pro module), if you have a mailbox set up. A task without a due date that you're allowed to edit can be dragged from the panel onto the grid to give it a date. You can undo a mistake with Ctrl+Z. Undo goes back twenty changes within the current app session.
What do you gain?
You don't start the day by checking your inbox to work out what's urgent. You can see straight away which matters are due today, which are overdue and which can wait until next week. It's easier to decide what to start with instead of picking due dates out of unread emails.
When a client calls to ask about something agreed three weeks ago, you don't have to search your inbox or chat. The conversation, attachments and agreements are all with the matter. When someone goes on leave halfway through the month, the person covering their clients, assigned to their tasks, can read the matter's history instead of asking colleagues. You can also see in advance who's going to be away and compare their absences with the due dates of tasks visible to you in the calendar. That gives you time to act before those dates pass.
An everyday example
Monday the twenty-first. You open the calendar in the three-day view. Today's column is highlighted, and the red line marks 8:40. You have four red tasks from last week and six blue ones due today. Three of them appear at 17:00 with an asterisk. These are tax returns to file with a due date but no specific time. One person is shown in the absence strip: off sick until Wednesday.
You open the calendar and filter it to the Workspace where you manage her clients. Two tasks are due on Tuesday. You move one to Thursday and leave the other as it is, taking it on yourself. When you click the task, the calendar docks on the left and the thread opens beside it. It contains a scanned invoice sent on Friday and team comments from Friday and Saturday. You don't have to call your sick colleague.
Then you create an event. Click the empty slot at nine o'clock on Thursday. The slot under the cursor shows the time that will be set, for example “09:00-09:30”. Enter the details in the window and add a team member. Leave email notifications off, as an in-app notification is enough. Your colleague gets their own copy of the event. If you change the time as its creator two days later, the event will move for both of you at once.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need the Pro plan?
For working on a shared inbox and document automation, yes - Mail, Files and Automations are modules in the Pro plan. Tasks and Calendar also work in Standard.
Does Task Manager calculate taxes or file tax returns?
No. Task Manager helps you keep track of deadlines, tasks and documents related to an accountant's work, but it doesn't replace accounting software. Tax calculations and filing are still done where they always were.
How can I tell a task that's overdue from one that can wait in the calendar?
Overdue tasks are red, tasks due today are blue, and tasks with a later due date are green. Completed tasks are struck through. High priority is marked with an exclamation mark before the title.
Can I undo an accidental change to a due date?
Yes. Ctrl+Z or the undo icon in the calendar header reverts the last change: moving a task's due date, moving or editing an event, or deleting one. You can even undo the deletion of an event whose date has already passed - it then returns to the grid as having taken place, without a new reminder. Using it repeatedly undoes earlier changes, up to twenty steps back within the current application session.
Can I see who's on leave in my team?
Yes. The strip at the top of the calendar shows team absences, including annual leave and sickness. Click it to see the person's name, type of absence and date range. You'll also see a message if the person added one in their settings.