Question

Tracking age of work and prioritizing

  • 14 February 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 50 views
T
Rank
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

How do we set up our work items and tracking so that we can use the kanban to identify how long a work item has been in our office?  We have a turn around goal and we are struggling to identify how a work item is tagged in a way that we can sort in the kanban to quickly see whose return comes next for work.  So, how do we track what day the information is considered received in our office and filter or sort by that in the kanban?

4 replies

kylenecarse
Rank
Userlevel 6
Badge +10

@Terri Svihla Great question!  We have used the Start Date as our date the client has dropped off complete files and the work is entered to the processing queue.  We use the List view for a better visualization and it works well for the most part.  But if the date isn’t changed, it sits with the default start date and could be missed or put higher in the queue list than it should be.  

The status column tells us where it’s at in the process, and the Start gives us visibility on when the files came in and priority order.  

Hope this helps!  Let me know if you have more questions!

LD7E
Rank
Userlevel 6
Badge +7

@Terri Svihla We do the same as @kylenecarse. It is important to have work setup originally with Start/End Dates being the due date. For example, 1040’s are all set as 4/15 for both. This way when we update the start date to when received we do not worry about something being a little off. Learned the hard way when they were all originally 1/1.

We also use Excel unfortunately. The limitation with Karbon is that everything with the same start date can not be identified by who’s first on that date. Literally have had days where 20+ work items come in. For a one person show that is impossible to maintain an order of FIFO.

When extensions are filed, those that have not provided documentation (4/15 S/E), are all moved to a 10/15 S/E.

We will use the list view for a quick overview, however a Kanban view with all status’ is nice as it lets us look to see what needs to keep moving to the right (complete). For example, if the status is Received Add’l Documentation then we know it is time to go back to a prior work item to keep it moving. Takes patience and practice to get everything right.

kylenecarse
Rank
Userlevel 6
Badge +10

I agree, there needs to be more functionality for priority and FIFO tracking.  We default all our start dates to 1/31 (cause rarely do we get files in on that date).  Once docs come in, we change start date to their complete drop off date.  Still, as you can see in the screenshot we have have multiple come in on the same day, so from that standpoint, we don’t know exactly who was first.  

We then rely on statuses to track the rest of the way, and we change the due dates to the extended due date once returns are extended.  That’s the best way have found so far that works for us, but hoping that more functionality comes soon.  There is a new Feature Request section here in the community.  I bet this would get a lot of upvotes!

max
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +19

I have not played around with changing the start date to the date we receive documents, but it’s something I’m considering. Right now, we are working very hard to finish before we start, so our in-process is small enough that it hasn’t been an issue. We don’t have backlogs right now, though I’m sure as the US tax season wears on, it will get worse.

Here are two feature requests that try to address this issue. Vote them up if you like the ideas, and comment on them if you think they could be better. 😀

Vote here:

and here:

 

respect humans | continually improve

Reply


Badge winners

Show all badges
Terms & ConditionsCookie settings