Tasks are where the work in a project happens. This guide covers every way to create, assign, schedule, complete and find them. New to projects? Start with getting started with projects.

Video: task management and collaboration overview

Create a task

  1. Open the project and click Add Task. The button is also on My Tasks and All Tasks.

  2. In Create a Task, check the Project and choose a Section. Every task belongs to a section. A new project starts with one, Section 1, which you can rename from its ⋮ menu. Add more with Add Section in the menu next to Add Task.

  3. Type a Title (up to 255 characters) and, if you like, a description with formatting, links, images and tables.

  4. Choose who it's Assigned To. Leave notify ticked to tell them.

  5. Add a Start Date, Due Date, Priority and Estimated Hours if you need them, then click Save.

    The Marketing Campaign project in List view, with the Add Task button, tasks grouped into the Planning and Content Creation sections, and the + Add a new Task link under a section

If your account has more than one task type, choose the Task Type too. Team members also see Everyone or Team Only at the top: Team Only hides the task from the project's external contacts.

Other ways to add tasks:

  • + Add a new Task under a section in the List, or + on a Board column.
  • In the Calendar, click a day, or drag across several, to create a task with those dates.
  • The green + button at the top of any page, then Add Task.
  • Copy Task or Copy Section Tasks, even into another project. See moving tasks between projects.
  • A project template, or recurring tasks that Avaza creates on a schedule (not on the Free plan). A smart tag such as ::MonthName(TaskCreatedDate):: in a recurring task's title puts each copy's month in its name: see recurring tasks.
  • By email: the project's ⋮ menu › Create Tasks via Email shows its address. The subject becomes the title, the body the description and attachments the task's files. The task goes into the first section, assigned to the sender, who must be a project member.
  • From a CSV file: Administrators use Settings › Import Data › Import Tasks. See importing data.
  • From an AI assistant connected through the Avaza MCP Server.

Edit, schedule and complete tasks

Click a task to open it. Changes save as you make them.

Dates. A start date gets the time 09:00 and a due date 18:00. You can change either time.

Status. In the List or Board, click the round status icon next to the title and pick a status. In the task, use Status or the percentage beside it: 100% moves the task to a complete status, and a complete status sets 100%. Each task type has its own statuses, and an admin can control which status may follow which. Priorities are customisable too.

The icons along the top of the task open more tabs:

  • Subtasks: smaller steps, with a done/total count.
  • Task Timesheets (clock): the estimate, the time logged and Add Entry. Project Collaborators who don't track time don't see it. See getting started with timesheets.
  • Recurring Settings: repeat the task.
  • Fixed Amounts to Bill ($): fees, such as milestone payments, that you can invoice once the task is complete. See invoicing fixed amounts.
  • Scheduling Settings: + Add Booking books time for the task on the Team Schedule. See scheduling and tasks.

Below the fields, Comments holds the discussion, which people can also join by email, and History shows who changed what, and when. You can also attach files from your computer, Dropbox or Google Drive (file management), and add tags and followers.

The task's ⋮ menu has Copy Task Link, Copy Task ID, Move Task, Copy Task, Assign New Parent and Delete. Deleting is permanent and removes the task's subtasks too. Avaza won't delete a task with timesheets, invoiced fixed amounts, expenses or schedule bookings linked to it.

Assign tasks, to one person or several

You can assign a task to any project member, including your customer's contacts, listed under Team Member and External Contact.

A task can have several assignees:

  • In Create a Task, choose more than one person under Assigned To.
  • In an existing task, click the people icon (Enable Multiple Assignment) next to Assigned To, then add more people.

Assignees become followers automatically, so they get the task's comments, and the task shows in each assignee's My Tasks. On a board grouped by Assigned To, the task appears in each person's column: dragging it to another column swaps just that person, and dropping it on Unassigned removes everyone. In Create a Task, the option to create a schedule booking only appears when you choose one assignee, who needs the Scheduling User role. See who is notified.

The task views

A project's tabs show its tasks in different ways:

  • Summary: widgets such as the task progress chart. Add more with Add Widget.
  • List: a table, grouped by section to begin with.
  • Board (Kanban): cards in columns, one per group.
  • Gantt: tasks with both a start and a due date appear as bars. Drag a bar to change its dates, or drag from one bar to another to make a dependency. Tick Auto-Schedule to move dependent tasks along with the task before them. Zoom and PDF are on the toolbar.
  • Calendar: tasks with a due date, by month, week or day. Drag a task to change its dates.
  • Files: every file attached in the project. See file management.
The same project in Board view grouped by section, with a column per section, cover images on some cards and a + button at the bottom of each column
The project in Gantt view with Zoom set to Week, task bars coloured by status, dependency arrows and the Now line

The toolbar has Group, Sort, Fields (columns or card details), Expand, Search and Filter. Group by section, due date, priority, assignee or status. In the List and Board, drag a task into another group to change its section, status, priority or assignee (not when grouped by due date). To order tasks yourself within a section, set Sort to Manual Sort, which appears when you group by section. See also moving tasks between sections. Save any setup as a custom view.

Find tasks

  • Completed tasks are hidden at first in the List, Board, Gantt and Calendar: those views come with an All outstanding filter chip next to Filter. Click its × to show everything. See finding outstanding tasks.
  • Filter has quick filters (All outstanding, Assigned to me, Due this week, Overdue, Hide subtasks) and + Add filter for status, priority, assignee, tags, dates and more. A 1 restricted filter chip means the view filters on something you can't see, and no longer exists means the item was deleted.
  • Search matches task titles, among the tasks the current filters show.
  • My Tasks (left menu) shows the tasks assigned to you across your projects, in the same views except Summary. Click your name at the top left to see someone else's. You see their tasks only in projects you're a member of too, unless you're an Administrator or Finance Manager.
  • Projects › All Tasks lists the tasks in all your active projects, most recently updated first, with sort, filter and search.
  • Global search (the magnifying glass at the top) also searches descriptions, task IDs and comments. See global search.
  • Sync to Calendar, in the ⋮ menu of a project or of My Tasks, gives a private iCal link for Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar. It includes tasks that have a due date. Google can take up to 12 hours to update.
  • The Tasks tab in Chat lists task discussions, and the Task List report covers tasks across projects.

Who can do what

  • Working with tasks needs the Project Collaborator role (or Project Manager or Portfolio Manager), and people see the tasks of the projects they're members of. External contacts can have this role too. With only the Timesheet/Expense User role, someone can log time against a task but can't open it. Administrators can open every project.
  • Each member has Task Permissions (Create, Update, Delete, Comment) in the project's settings, on the Members tab. All four are ticked when someone joins a project, so untick them for people who should only read. Administrators can always do all four.
  • The @mention list shows members with the Comment permission and the Project Collaborator or Administrator role.
  • External contacts never see Team Only tasks or internal notes.
  • Fixed Amounts to Bill shows on customer projects for Administrators, Finance Managers and Portfolio Managers, and for Project Managers with Can manage Fixed Amounts on project. Scheduling Settings is for Administrators and Scheduling Managers.
  • Only Administrators can set up task types, statuses and priorities, in Settings › Project Management Settings.

Next steps