Overview
The Tasks tab allows you to manage and track every task on your project. No matter what type of work is being facilitated, there are always questions, observations and/or issues which need to be addressed in a visible and straightforward manner. Fieldwire tasks replace labor-intensive phone calls and emails, and are a catch-all way of documenting the following:
- QA/QC issues
- Inspection observations
- Punch items or deficiencies
- Safety issues
- RFI's and change orders
- Work progress
- Delays
- Design and pre-con coordination
- Variations
- General communication and instant messaging between team members
- And more!
Table of Contents
What is a task?
To create a task directly on a plan, simply open any individual sheet from the 'Plans' tab and select the pin icon on the markup toolbar:
It looks slightly different, but you can also do this in our mobile apps:
Once you've created a task, you can then quickly fill out the fields most relevant to your team and workflows. Here's an example of a task with all its attributes (right side) filled out and a few examples of messages and attachments you can add at any time (left side):
Task Content
You may have noticed that our example task above is tracking a construction activity: T-stat conflicts with shelving. On the left, you can see the correspondence (instant messages and attachments) between Katie, Andrew, and John, including:
- Task Number - Each task is assigned a number. These numbers are unique to each task and cannot be repeated within that particular project. If you have deleted a task, you can recover the task for up to 30 days from the Trash tab. Task numbers cannot be changed or altered in anyway.
- Task Title ("T-stat conflicts with shelving" in the example) - these should be practical titles that will be easy to search for later on. Titles have a 255 character maximum; the first message you add to the Task automatically becomes the title if you haven't specifically entered a title yet.
- A related task, which is simply a linked task
- A checklist, which tracks the initials and date for each item that has been checked off from that list. (These checklists can be inserted from templates, which can speed up the process of task creation)
- Time and date stamped correspondence, via the comments feature
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Note - the day you create a task, the task name will show up in the messages section with the time it was created. The following day, the actual date the task was created will appear.
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Note - the day you create a task, the task name will show up in the messages section with the time it was created. The following day, the actual date the task was created will appear.
- A detailed plan mark-up (referred to as a Crop Plan), which can be added by selecting the paperclip attachment button
- A link to a PDF file
- A marked-up photo that Katie took on her mobile device in real-time
Task Attachments
The following items can be added to tasks through the 'paperclip icon':
- Photo / File - Upload a photo or file related to the Task
- Note - When you add a new photo to a task and then delete it from the task, it is removed from the Photos Tab.
- 360° Photo - Users on the Business or Business Plus subscriptions can add 360° photos taken by a Ricoh Theta or other 360° camera.
- Existing Photo - The "Existing photo" option allows you to attach any photos stored under the “Photos” tab to your Task.
- Note - When you add an existing photo to the task and then delete it, it is not removed from the Photos Tab.
- Existing file - This option allows you to link a file that has been uploaded into your project.
- When attaching existing Files from your project to the Task, you can simply click within the search field, and you'll see a list of all of your files currently on the project. You can scroll up and down this list to locate the correct one.
- Form - Attach an existing Form, or create a new Form Template in the task.
- RFI - Create a new or attach an existing RFI to a task. If you choose to create a new RFI, you can choose to copy the photos from the task directly onto the RFI.
- Link (URL) - Hyperlink a webpage to the task.
- Google Drive - Upload any Docs, Sheets, or Slides to your task.
- Crop plan - Here you can include a cropped section of the plan to highlight the exact location in question.
Task attachments are extremely useful as they allow users to insert progress photos, pertinent forms and files, and crop plans that show the exact location of the task on the plan sheet - all within the task itself.
Task Attributes
On the right, you'll see task attributes, which allow you to manage and filter your task data. These attributes are the backbone of Fieldwire's task management capabilities and are the mechanism by which you can improve the efficiency of your projects, allowing you to:
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Adjust the task status
- You may either use the default statuses (on the Basic plan) or you may leverage Custom Task Statuses (if the project is on a Pro plan or above)
- Categorize tasks
- Assign the task to a user you've invited to your project
- Adjust the location of the task
- Adjust the start and end date to schedule the task
- Add the cost
- Add tags for tracking and reporting
- Add Watchers who will receive updates on the task
Custom Task Attributes
Custom Task Attributes (CTAs) allow Business and Business Plus users to add attributes to track project-specific data and disable unneeded attributes. Users can customize their tasks to track project-specific information, whether it’s estimated man-hours vs actual man-hours, task completion percentage, or something entirely different.
Note: If you have access to the Fieldwire API and would like to access CTAs through the API, please see our developer page for more in-depth information: Custom Task Attributes
Note: You can clone custom task attributes from one project to another during the project cloning process (more info here: How do I clone projects?).
Project Admins can create and edit Custom Task Attributes under the Project Settings tab. In order to create CTAs, click on "Manage attributes" under the “Task customization” section.
From there, select “+ Add custom attribute”, then choose the “Short text”, “Number”, or “List” attribute type and name the attribute. (Keep in mind, attributes must have unique names). Finally, choose "Create” to generate a new Task attribute. Currently, a maximum of up to 20 Custom Task Attributes can be created per project.
To add or remove the Custom Attributes on Tasks, toggle the attributes “on” or “off” as shown in the screenshot below. Toggling attributes on and off will add or remove those attributes from all tasks, whether they are newly created or already existing. You can also toggle off certain default attributes: Plan, Location, Manpower, Cost, and Tags.
Additionally, the text and number type attributes can be edited/renamed by clicking on the Pencil icon next to the name as shown in the screenshot below in the box next to "2."
Once the task attributes have been updated, your tasks may look something like this:
This is how the task will look on mobile:
Android:
iOS:
Filtering with CTAs
Custom Task Attributes can be utilized to filter tasks. To do so, go to the Tasks tab and click on the "Filter" button. From there, you'll notice that any Custom Task Attribute that is toggled "on" will show up as a specific field by which to filter tasks.
In addition, when you search for a location, all its sub-locations will appear automatically, making it easier to filter your tasks that are connected to a particular location or sub-location.
Distributing Tasks
You have four different options for distributing a task: email it directly from Fieldwire, email it from your device's mail app, copy & paste the information, or export it as a PDF. This is useful to inform project members who are not utilizing Fieldwire:
To share a Task via email to external users who aren’t on Fieldwire you can use the “Open in my email” option which will generate a link to a report of the task. This will allow the task to be emailed from another email address besides the Fieldwire account email. The report that is generated will be the same report that is available when selecting the “Export as PDF” option.
Note: Each user can send no more than 50 task emails per day when using the "Send email" option. If you exceed this limit, you will not be able to send another task email until 24 hours have elapsed since the 50th email was sent. The "Open in my email" option will not be affected by this limit:
Generate QR Code
QR Codes are a helpful way to provide users in the field instant access to a task or punch list. To generate a QR Code for a specific Task from the Web:
- From Fieldwire in a desktop web browser, navigate to the task you would like to generate a QR code for.
- Next, select the ‘Share’ actions from the Task view
- Select ‘Export QR code’
- The QR Code PDF will be opened in a new window
Once a QR Code PDF for a task has been generated, you can print it out to hang in the appropriate location on site.
Generate and View QR Codes on Mobile
QR Codes for specific tasks are also available to view and download from both the iOS and Android applications. QR Codes can be used on mobile to quickly share reference to a task with someone standing nearby, or to download and print off directly from your mobile device.
To view a QR Code on Mobile:
- From the Fieldwire iOS or Android Application, navigate to the desired task you would like to generate a QR Code for.
- Select the ‘Share’ icon from the bottom of the task view
- Select ‘QR Code’
From here, the basic QR Code can be shared with someone nearby for quick reference. If you would like to download the QR Code from mobile, select ‘Download as PDF’ from the basic QR Code view. PDF Downloads of QR Codes are only available while the device is online with a connection to wifi or cellular data. Viewing a QR Code for a task requires that the task has previously been synced.
Once the PDF has been downloaded, you select the ‘Share’ icon from the top right corner of the PDF to send it off or print directly from your mobile device.
Scan QR Codes on Mobile
QR Codes can be scanned and opened from the device’s camera or from the QR Code scanner within the Fieldwire Mobile Apps. To scan a QR Code from within the Fieldwire App:
- From the Project list, Task List, or Plan list – open the search bar.
- Tap the QR Code Scanner Icon in the far right of the search bar.
- Note: the QR Code scanner icon will only display when there is no text in the search bar.
- Focus the QR Code scanner on the QR Code
- The linked task will automatically be opened in the iOS or Android app.
Please note, there are a few limitations to scanning a QR code from the device or Fieldwire Mobile Scanner:
- If you do not have access to the linked project, you will not be able to access the linked Plan.
- If you do not have the Fieldwire app installed on your mobile device, the link will open in the mobile browser.
In addition to the limitations mentions above, it is important to note the following limitations as well:
- You are not able to create a QR code linked directly to a photo in the Photos tab as individual photos do not have a custom URL. Generating a QR code for a photo would just open the photos tab of the Fieldwire app.
- Opening a QR code linked to a specific file on the Files tab does not work on iOS or Android. Both mobile apps open the Files tab rather than the designated file.
- Links to Submittals and Specifications do not work.
Advanced Task Features
As your projects expand, you may want to take advantage of our advanced features to manage groups of tasks more efficiently:
More information
Creating Tasks & Managing Tasks on Web