Tasks, phases and dependencies

A project is made of tasks, optionally grouped into phases, with dependencies saying which tasks must finish before others can start. All three are Autotask records; ProjectSmith shows them on the board, in a list and on a timeline, and writes your changes back. See Projects come from Autotask.

Available from the Autotask connector release

The board, task drawer and timeline arrive earlier against sample projects. Reading and writing your Autotask tasks, phases and dependencies arrives with the Autotask connector.

Tasks

Select a card on the board, or a row in the list view, to open the task drawer. It shows:

• Title, status, start and end dates and estimated hours.
• The primary resource and any other assigned resources.
• Estimate against actual: hours estimated, hours logged so far and hours remaining. Logged hours include approved ProjectSmith time and time entered directly in Autotask.
• The task’s phase and its dependencies.
• Activity: who changed what, and when.

Change any field in the drawer and the change is written to Autotask. If the write fails, the drawer says Not saved to Autotask, retrying.

Create a task

1. On the board, choose Add task in a column, or use New task from the list view.
2. Enter a title. Optionally set the phase, dates, estimate and resource.
3. Save. The task is created in Autotask first, then appears on the board in the column for its status.

Screenshot placeholder: the task drawer showing estimate against actual and the dependencies section.

Phases

Phases group tasks into stages of a project, such as Discovery, Build and Cutover. They come from Autotask.

• On the board, filter by phase to see one stage at a time.
• In the list view and on the timeline, tasks are grouped under their phase, with each phase’s totals for estimated and logged hours.

Dependencies

A dependency says task B can’t start until task A is finished. In Autotask these are task predecessors; ProjectSmith draws them as arrows on the timeline and lists them in the task drawer.

Add a dependency

1. Open the task that has to wait (task B).
2. In Dependencies, choose Add, and pick the task it waits for (task A).
3. Save. The predecessor is written to Autotask, so it shows there too.

To remove a dependency, remove it in the task’s Dependencies. On a project synced from Autotask the predecessor is deleted in Autotask too.

Tip

If task A’s end date moves later than task B’s start date, the arrow on the timeline turns to a warning colour and the clash is listed. Nothing moves on its own. Choose Shift successors on a clash to move the tasks that depend on it, up to 25 tasks, so each starts once its predecessors finish (plus any lag), keeping its length. Their new dates are written to Autotask. Tasks that are already done never move.

The project timeline

Each project has a timeline: a Gantt view of its phases and tasks across the calendar, with dependency arrows and today’s date marked. Drag a task’s bar to change its dates, or the bar’s end to change its length; the new dates are written to Autotask.

The portfolio

Portfolio shows every active project on one timeline, so you can see what’s running at the same time and where projects overlap. Select a project to open it.

On a phone, the timeline and portfolio scroll sideways inside their frame.

Common questions

Why can’t I see a task I created in Autotask? It appears at the next sync, within a few minutes during business hours. If it still doesn’t appear, check the task’s status is linked to a column; unlinked statuses go to Needs a column on the board.

Can tasks have subtasks? Autotask tasks don’t nest, so neither do ProjectSmith tasks. Use phases to group related tasks.