ShiftCare’s Task Management feature allows you to create, update, complete, and invoice tasks. Tasks can be linked directly to clients or created as standalone items, giving your team a flexible way to manage responsibilities.
Note: This feature is only available on Premium plans. If your organisation is not on a Premium plan, please refer to our Support Coordination guide.
Creating Task Durations
Before creating tasks, you’ll need to define the general durations that will apply to them.
Navigate to Account > Feature Settings from the sidebar menu.
Toggle 'Enable Tasks' on.
Click 'Manage' in the Duration section.
Fill out the value and choose between Minutes or Hours. Select 'Add New Duration' to add more lines, and click the trash icon to remove any unneeded durations.
Click 'Save' to confirm your changes.
Creating Support Categories
Support Categories are used to group and track related tasks or services under a shared label.
You must have at least one category created here before you can require staff to use them (see below).
Click 'Manage' in the Support Categories section.
Select 'Add category' and enter a descriptive name. Click 'Save' after each category name. Existing categories can be updated or deleted from this menu.
Click 'Done' after creating all your Support Categories.
Mandatory Support Categories and Facilities
You can configure your account to require that anyone creating or editing a task must assign it to a Support Category.
Navigate to Account > Feature Settings from the sidebar menu.
Scroll down to the Task Settings section and toggle 'Require support category on tasks' to on.
Once enabled, the Support Category field will no longer say "Optional" on the task creation screen. If a user tries to save a task with a blank category, the system will block them and display an error.
Toggle 'Require facility on tasks' to on to make selecting a facility mandatory when creating or editing a task.
Tracking Balances and Hours Limits
You can configure the system to issue a warning (or block it entirely) if scheduling a task would push a client's fund balance or support category hours over budget.
Navigate to Account > Feature Settings from the sidebar menu.
Scroll down to the Task Settings section. Here, you will see two sections: 'Hours Tracking' and 'Fund Balance Tracking'. For each section, you can configure the following:
Toggle on/off: Enables or disables the tracking feature.
Visibility: Choose 'Always show balance' to display the remaining budget every time a fund/category is selected, or 'Only show when low or depleted' to hide the tracker until the balance drops below 50%.
Block when zero or negative: When enabled, the 'Save' button is completely disabled if the selected fund or category is depleted. When disabled, the system will show a red warning, but the task can still be saved.
Configuring Invoice Settings
Click 'Manage' in the Invoice Settings section.
Click the question mark beside 'Task Invoice Item Format' to open the description tag menu.
From the menu, copy the required description tags and paste them into the field. Make sure to copy the correct format for it to work. Click 'Save'.
Creating Price Books for Billable Tasks
You will need to create a dedicated price book for billable tasks.
Navigate to Account > Prices from the sidebar menu.
Click here (AU) or here (NA) for detailed instructions on creating a new price book. Make sure to set an appropriate name for the price book and tick the 'Available for task management' checkbox.
Add the necessary prices for your price book. Click here (AU) or here (NA) for detailed instructions.
Creating Task Funds
Task funds are a specialised category of funds that can only be used for paying task invoices.
Navigate to Clients > List and select a client.
Scroll down to the Funds section and click 'Add Fund'.
Enter the Fund Name, Start Date, Expiry Date, and Amount as usual. In the Fund Type dropdown, select 'Task Fund'.
Click 'Save'.
Creating Task Support Categories
Task Support Categories allow you to link together Support Categories, Funds, Price Books, and Staff. This streamlines the creation of new tasks by prefilling these details.
Navigate to Clients > List > Client name and scroll down to the Task Support Categories section. Select 'Add Category'.
Select the relevant Support Category, Assigned Staff, Price Book, Fund, Contractual Hours per Month, and any Notes, if necessary.
Click 'Add Category' to save.
Updating Staff Expected Hours
You can define expected task hours for specific staff members.
Navigate to Staff > List and select a staff member.
Scroll down to the Task Management section and click 'Edit'.
Adjust the hours and percentage. Click 'Update'.
'Weekly task hour expectation' is the target total hours for a staff member within a week. This can be tracked in Dashboard > My Tasks. 'KPI: Hours Billable %' is the percentage of the weekly task hour expectation that is billable.
Creating Task Types
Navigate to Account > Feature Settings from the sidebar menu.
Click 'Add Task Type' in the Tasks Types & Prices section.
Enter a descriptive name for the task type. To make a task billable, assign a Pricebook and tick the 'Billable' checkbox. Click 'Create New' to save.
Click the 'Edit' icon to change the name or update the billing configuration of a task.
Linking task types to price books allows you to include them in client invoices once the tasks are marked as done.
Creating Tasks
Tasks can be created from multiple areas in ShiftCare.
From the Tasks Page
Navigate to 'Tasks' from the sidebar menu.
Click 'New Task'.
Fill in the required information and click 'Save Task'. Selecting a Support Category (optional) automatically fills out the Staff and Fund fields. If the Require Support Category setting is enabled, this field is mandatory.
If billing is enabled for the chosen task type, the 'Billable' option will automatically be ticked. This can be manually unticked.
Real-Time Hours and Balance Tracking
If your admin has enabled Balance Tracking, you will see a real-time hours/balance indicator appear beneath the dropdown menus when you select a Support Category or a Fund.
The system will calculate the client's current usage (including any Planned, In Progress, or Done tasks) and warn you if creating this new task will push the client over the allotted hours/budget.
Green: Healthy balance (under 50% used).
Orange: Low balance (50% or more used).
Red: Insufficient balance (Depleted). If your admin has enabled strict limits, the 'Save' button will be greyed out, and you will not be able to create the task until the budget is adjusted.
Note: When creating a new task, the only available status is 'Planned'. This can be updated later by selecting 'Add Update'.
From the Client's Page
Navigate to Clients > List > click on the name of the client.
Select Manage > Add Task.
Fill in the required information and click 'Save Task'. Selecting a Support Category (optional) automatically fills out the Staff and Fund fields. If the Require Support Category setting is enabled, this field is mandatory.
If billing is enabled for the chosen task type, the 'Billable' option will automatically be ticked. This can be manually unticked.
Note: When creating a new task, the only available status is 'Planned'. This can be updated later by selecting 'Add Update'.
From the Scheduler
Navigate to the Scheduler and click the three dots menu corresponding to the client.
Select 'Add Task'.
Fill in the required information and click 'Save Task'. Selecting a Support Category (optional) automatically fills out the Staff and Fund fields. If the Require Support Category setting is enabled, this field is mandatory.
If billing is enabled for the chosen task type, the 'Billable' option will automatically be ticked. This can be manually unticked.
Note: When creating a new task, the only available status is 'Planned'. This can be updated later by selecting 'Add Update'.
Updating Tasks
Navigate to Tasks from the sidebar menu.
Select the task you want to amend and click 'Add Update'.
You can update the status of the task and add notes. Click 'Save' after making the necessary changes.
If your account requires Support Categories, any older tasks without a category must have one assigned before the system will allow you to save your updates.
When you update a billable task’s status to 'Done', the task will be included in the client's next invoice. Please make sure to enter the start date and time (required for invoicing).
Invoicing Tasks
You can include billable tasks in your invoices.
Go to Invoices > Generate.
Check the 'Tasks' box to display the Total Tasks column.
Select the invoice/s you want to generate and click 'Generate'. Wait for the loading bar to complete.
Go to Invoices > List to view your generated invoices. You can also export and print your invoices from here.
Only tasks marked as Done and linked to a Billable Task Type will appear in invoices.
Paying with Funds
You can use funds to pay for task invoices directly.
Open a task invoice and select 'Pay with Funds'.
The fund assigned to the task (via the Support Category) will be selected by default, but you can change this if needed.
Note: Only Task Funds will appear as options here.
Click 'Submit'.
Using Filters
From the Tasks page, click the 'Filters' button.
You can filter by status, clients, assignees, creation date, and due date.
Click 'Apply Filters'.
Filters can be removed by clicking the X button next to the option.
Task Dashboard
The Task Dashboard provides a personal overview of your workload. Navigate to Dashboard > My Tasks tab to view a list of all tasks currently assigned to you, along with comprehensive details.
For further assistance with Task Management, please contact our Support team using online chat when you're logged into ShiftCare or email our Support team at support@shiftcare.com.