Question

How is everyone tracking recurring internal tasks?

  • 24 February 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 190 views

I am looking to create a list of recurring admin task that I perform.  I am hoping this is the last year i have to do any of this stuff.  I’d like to create a recurring Work project and assign the Work to an office manager next year.  

Some of the tasks I want to put in the Work are:

  • Renewing tax software license - Nov 15
  • Rolling forward tax software - Dec 1
  • Rolling forward depreciation software - Jan 31
  • Pay state CPA firm dues - Feb 15
  • Updating engagement letters - Dec 15
  • Renewing technical subscriptions - various
  • Etc

Any ideas would be appreciated.

I am trying to Clockwork my firm.

Thanks,

Marty


3 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

Hi @Marty McCutchen! Welcome to the Karbon community. 😀

I don’t know what will work well for you and your firm, but I can tell you what we are doing here. I’m curious to see how other people answer as well.

 

  1. Create firm departments as organization contacts
    1. Use a contact type: “Firm - Department”
    2. Example: Accounts Receivable
  2. Add recurring work items to the appropriate firm clients
    1. Use work type: “Internal”
    2. One work item for all tasks that need to be done at the same time
    3. Never bunch work together into one work item with different due dates
  3. Create a kanban dashboard showing all work for contacts with client type: “Firm - Department”

Does that help at all?

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

Hi @Marty McCutchen 

We operate similar to @max though we have not got as granular with contact type - I like it!

We use the contact type ‘Internal’ and then create contacts that make sense for the work that will assigned.

So for the example you shared we would create separate work items for those tasks under the Firm-Admin contact.  We would also never group work together that has different due dates.

We also have internal contacts for 

Firm - Team Meetings where we can park a reminder to set/send agendas on the correct cycle, assigned to the owner of that meeting and then after the meeting park the recordings so team members can find it if they want to revisit.

Firm - Marketing where we set work items for social media posting cycles and Newsletter prep and distribution.

And we encourage our team leadership to create internal contacts by role, as COO I have a number of work items with various cycles set up.  The beauty of that is that I manage the privacy and when it comes time to delegate that work I can change the internal contact, reassign and the cycle will continue for my delegate.

I am a BIG fan of internal contacts and work items to keep things on track, it truly is a set and forget once you get going.

Userlevel 5
Badge +9

Hi @Marty McCutchen ! I have many things set up this way.

 

I somewhat agree with @max. The internal contacts are key. 

  • I create the contacts as internal “contact type” as “internal” and set up as orgs not people. 
  • I DO have tasks within a work item that have due dates that are different. Creating work items like this you can set the start and due dates of each task to show up on MyWeek (and Todo’s) at the right time. 
    • Daily work items: Inserted into the Weekly work item. We have a section for each day of the week that has tasks that HAVE to be done by especially if the tasks are recurring daily.
    • Weekly work items: Includes daily sections and one section for WEEKLY items that have to be done no later than the end of the week and are not dependent on a specific day of that week.
    • Monthly work items: Could be broken out by sections of type of tasks (marketing, reimbursements, event scheduling, etc.)
    • Qtrly/Yearly work items: Depending on the need these can be combined or separate. 
    • Create a “role” to add to each task in the colleagues section of settings. This will help when reassigning everything.
    • Assign every task so it appears on MyWeek/Todos. If not assigned, they will not.
    • Set the recurring to:
      • Work Creation: 1 month (or 1 period like a year or week, etc) prior to start date.
      • Task Creation: One day prior to start date. Doing this allows for changes and additions throughout the year to be captured easily without much maintenance.
      • Be sure to select the repeat cycle to appear in the MyWeek. I recommend when the work starts but it’s a personal preference.

Setting these type of work items up has helped us to capture all the things that don’t really change, identify the duties of a role, and anyone can jump in and assist in the event of an absence. You can also set up a quality control section in each of these to remind a project manager or manager to review before the work is marked completed.

TIP: We have also used this for hidden internal contacts to capture recruiting and other sensitive processes that only a select few people have access to and can collaborate on.

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