Work the task tree

Task View is how staff plan and work through projects in the ERPNext desk. This page covers arranging projects and tasks. Timing work is in Timers and timesheets and budgets are in Hour budgets.

Open Task View

Task View is the default list view for both Task and Project. If you land on a plain list, open the view menu next to the page title and choose Task View. Choose List to go back.

Three buttons beside the title change what the tree shows:

• All Tasks shows every project with its task tree.

• My Tasks shows the tasks assigned to you, plus the parents above them so you can see where each one lives. A task you add in this view is assigned to you, so it does not disappear the moment it is saved.

• Pinned shows a flat list of the tasks you have pinned, across projects. See Pinned tasks.

The list's filters and sort selector apply as in any list view. Completed and Cancelled tasks are hidden unless you filter on status. Their logged hours still count toward budgets (see Hour budgets).

New Project or New Task (the page's main button, depending on which list you opened) starts the standard form. The list view's own sort selector calls the stored order Manual, and it is the default.

Work the tree

Projects are the top level and each row reads PROJ-0001: Title. Tasks sit under them, and any task can have subtasks.

Add

• A task, inline. Click a project to get an Add task... row at the end of its tasks, or click a task to get one as its last subtask and another directly below it as a sibling. Click the row, type a title and press Enter to save and keep typing the next one. Pressing a letter key with no field focused also opens Add task... for typing in the highlighted project.

• Many subtasks at once. The clipboard-list button on a row asks for one title per line and adds them under that project or task.

• A project. The Add project... row at the bottom of the tree. A project added while the Project list is filtered by customer gets that customer.

Reorder and re-parent

Drag a row to change its position, or drop it inside another task to make it a subtask. Drag a task into a different project and its subtasks move with it. Drag projects to reorder them. A task cannot be dropped at the top level, only inside a project or another task. Completed or filtered-out siblings keep their place relative to the rows you can see.

Edit

• Rename. Double-click the title, then press Enter to save or Escape to cancel.

• Open the full form. The panel button on a row opens the Task or Project form in a side panel. This is where you set budgets. Save in the panel header is enabled once you change something, and the breadcrumb links to the list and to the full-page form.

• Assign. The + on a task row lists the enabled staff users. Click a name to assign, or the x on an assignee's avatar to remove them.

• Complete. Tick the checkbox on an Open task to complete it. The row stays on screen, struck through, until the next refresh, so you can tick several in a row.

• Delete. The trash button on a task row asks you to confirm and then deletes the task.

The expanded and collapsed state of the tree is remembered in your browser, per user.

Copy tasks as Markdown

Copy a task with its subtasks as a nested Markdown checklist, to paste into a note, an issue or a message. Each task's description comes along under it.

• One task. Click the copy button on its row (two overlapping squares, next to the trash button). The notice confirms "Copied N task(s) to clipboard".

• Several. Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on a Mac) rows to add or remove them, or Shift-click to select the range of visible tasks from the last row you clicked. Then click the copy button on any selected row, or press Ctrl+C or Cmd+C. Press Escape to clear the selection.

• A whole project. The copy button on a project row copies all of its tasks.

The copy button on a row outside the selection copies just that row, and leaves the selection as it is.

What is copied:

• Every subtask of a copied task, at any depth, including collapsed ones. The copy holds the same tasks as the tree, so Completed and Cancelled tasks and anything your list filters hide are left out, and in My Tasks only your tasks and their parents are included.

• Tasks appear as checklist items, ticked if you completed them since the last refresh. Each copied task or selected row is a top-level item; a project appears as a plain line (its ID and title, as on its row) only when you copy the project itself.

• A task's description follows it as an indented paragraph, converted to Markdown. Images and links to files on the site become full URLs, so they still work where you paste them.

- [ ] Draft the home page

  Use the layout agreed at the workshop. Keep the hero short.

  - [ ] Write the hero copy
  - [ ] Pick the photo

    Two options, one bold and one muted.

Ctrl+C does nothing while you are typing in a field, so click a row first.

Pinned tasks

Pinned is your personal shortlist, kept in order across projects and independent of the tree. Pin a task with the pin icon on its row, and drag rows in the list to reorder them.

Quick entry

The Add a pinned task... field in the Pinned list is for capturing work fast. It sits at the end of the list, and moves below any row you click.

1. Type a title and press Enter. The task is created, assigned to you and pinned, and the field stays focused for the next one.

2. The new task goes where the field is: directly below the last row you clicked, or at the end of the list.

3. Paste several lines to add one task per line, in order. Escape clears the field.

A task added this way has no project yet. Until it has one it cannot run a timer, get subtasks or be unpinned.

Give a task a project

Click the project chip on a pinned row (it reads + Project while empty) and search the open projects by project ID, title or customer. Every word you type must match. Use the arrow keys and Enter, or click.

Choosing a project moves the task and all of its subtasks into it, at the end of that project's top-level tasks. The row then shows the project's customer. Only a top-level task can be moved this way, and you must stop its running timers first. Time already logged on the task stays on the project it was logged to, as it does when you drag a task to another project in the tree.

Keyboard summary

Next

• Timers and timesheets

• Hour budgets