Best Practices to Getting Started with Task Manager

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• Getting Organized
• General Set-up
• Settings
• Global Options
• Close Dates/Holiday Profiles
• Categories
• Administration
• Groups
• Tasks/Task Dependencies
• Publishing

In this article, you will learn how to set up your Task Manager solution for success. Learn more about general tips to getting started, configuring your settings and utilizing the Task Administration.

 

Getting Organized

• Identify tasks for implementation
• No need to set up tasks for all processes; you can use a phased approach
• Consider how you want the tasks organized
  • Departments
  • Entity/Profit Center/Cost Center
  • Process Types
  • Task Type (Journals, Data import, Analysis, etc.)
• Gather detail about the tasks: task attributes, frequency, ownership and workflow
• Identify reporting needs

General Set-up

• Read the Task Manager Guide before starting your implementation. This can be found in the:
  • MarketPlace
  • Platform Help
  • Task Manager Help
• Utilize import templates where possible for ease of set up
• Test features by toggling them on and off in the QA system to determine the impact during set up
  
• Task Manager is available in the OnePlace Dashboards:

• To initiate the Time dropdown on the Scorecard, select and set a time in the Cube View section of the POV pane:

• Leverage Import templates for set up and maintenance purposes

• All templates are Excel based and can be downloaded from respective pages within Settings and Administration
• Templates are available for:
  • Close Dates
  • Day Map
  • Categories
  • Holiday Profiles
  • Holiday Offsets
  • Task Groups
  • Tasks
  • Task Dependencies

Settings

• Global Options

• Close Dates/Holiday Profiles

• Categories

Global Options

• Set email connection to support task notifications
• Identify if you have a day zero in your close cycle.
  • If set to Day Zero, March 31 = Workday 0
  • If not set, March 31 = Workday 1
• Due Date Method is typically set to Explicit Day Map List as this allows for greater flexibility

Close Dates/Holiday Profiles

• Close dates must be set up in Task Settings for task due dates to calculate
• Task due dates are Derived or Explicit
  • Derived – due date determined based on the Close dates
  • Explicit Day Map- due date determined based on the date loaded in the Day Map
• Holiday Calendars are used to shift due dates and are used with either Derived or Explicit close calendars
• Holiday calendars can be set up by region and are assigned on a task basis

Categories

• Plan out how you want to use Categories
• Categories can be used differently for different Task Group types
• Utilize the import templates for set up and maintenance
• If you want to leverage Categories for your tasks, the Categories must be set up before importing the detailed tasks

Administration

• Groups
• Tasks/Task Dependencies
• Publishing

Groups

• Groups need to be set up before loading Tasks
• Groups can be Public or Private:
  • Public Groups – Every user with access to Task Manager will see all tasks within the Public Group but will only be able to act on those they have security access to
  • Private Groups – Users with assigned tasks will only be able to see tasks that they are assigned to
• Groups can be copied or deleted
• Deleting a Group not only deletes the tasks but all published task for all periods

Tasks/Task Dependencies

• Tasks have frequencies and frequencies can vary by task
• Event notifications are set on a task by task basis
• Work Day Due can be positive or negative
• Work Day is not the due date but the task start date. The due date will be calculated based on the start date and duration
• Tasks can be updated, copied or deleted at any time
• Tasks can be dependent on other tasks or other task groups if needed
  

Publishing

• Tasks need to be published in order to appear for the task period
• After publishing, only tasks with the applicable frequency will appear in the given period
• If task details or attributes are updated after publish, the tasks will need to be republished for the period and any period you want impacted
• Publishing tasks can be done via a Merge or Replace process
  • Merge - impacts only tasks that have been changed
  • Replace - deletes the published tasks regardless of the status of the tasks and creates new tasks
• Deleted tasks are not considered when you Publish using Merge. To delete a task out of a period, you must Publish using the Replace process

Source: Platform Power Hour: Task Manager Webinar

Author: Kelly Darren & Jessica McAlpine of OneStream