Tasks & Task Template Overview

This article will walk you through how tasks work and how to set them up. Jump ahead to:

Tasks Overview
Setting Up Tasks
Working with Tasks
Testing your Task Template

Tasks Overview

The final component in the leads/admissions process is the task workflow. A task workflow is a series of tasks you set up for yourself and your institution that must be completed during each phase. A new task workflow is generated each time a new lead record is created. The tasks in the workflow act like a checklist to remind yourself of what must be completed in order to move the lead along.

Tasks are tied to specific phases, thus you may have a set of inquiry tasks that remind you what you need to complete during the inquiry phase (e.g., respond to the inquiry, schedule a school tour, send out an application form, etc.) and a separate set of application tasks that remind you what to complete during the application phase (e.g., collect all supplemental material, send application check to business office, distribute application to decision makers, etc.). Tasks may be assigned to different members of your team and they may be set to trigger follow-up tasks. For example, Jane may be tasked with responding to an inquiry and once she completes that task, a follow-up task to schedule a school visit may be assigned to Amber automatically. This keeps the workflow going, it is like passing a baton from one relay runner to the next.

NOTE: Tasks will not automatically change a phase or a status for your lead. No matter what tasks or how few or how many tasks you complete within a phase, you must still manually change a lead’s status on your own by clicking the "Change Status" button from the lead Edit Form  (see Lead Phases and Statuses article).

Thus, even if you mark all of your tasks in a phase as completed, the system will not automatically move the lead to the next phase or change the lead's status for you; your staff must still manually adjust the status of the lead to move it into the next phase (conversely, you may change a lead's status even if no tasks are completed at all or if you ignore the tasks altogether or cancel them). This demonstrates that while tasks are only loosely dependent on phases since each phase has its own set of tasks, they are entirely independent of statuses (the completion, skipping, cancellation, or even total neglect of tasks has no automatic effect on statuses at all) and finally are meant strictly to be a simple self-help list of actions you come up with to remind yourself what needs to be done next; that's their sole purpose in BigSIS: to be a set of reminders for you. In this way, it may be helpful to think of tasks as answering the question “How do I keep this lead moving along?” If someone asks you, how do we keep Bobby’s lead moving along? The answer is “We are currently working on scheduling a school visit for Bobby and his family. After that, we have to create an application packet and send it to them. After those two things are completed, we can move them out of the inquiry phase and into the application phase.

Setting up Tasks

NOTE: If you have already set up a task spreadsheet and we have imported it into the system for you, you can skip this step and proceed to the section titled Working With Tasks. Otherwise, proceed below.

The easiest way to set up a task workflow is by filling out a Task Template Spreadsheet. You will fill in the spreadsheet with your common tasks, the team member assigned to each task, how long each task should take to complete and a few other details. We have prepared a completed sample task spreadsheet that you may download from BigSIS by going to System > Imports > Task Template Import > Download Starterfile.

The following three illustrations may assist you if you have questions about filling out the task spreadsheet

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Once you have completed the task spreadsheet, contact support@bigsis.com and attach the task spreadsheet. We will import the tasks into your database so that you can work and practice with live tasks.

Working With Tasks

When a new lead gets created the lead is stored in the system as a Lead Record, which can be found in the Leads table by going to Admissions/Leads > Leads, and each new lead record gets its own set of tasks to complete. There are two formats available to you for working with tasks. The first is the Task Calendar and the second is the Task Table, which can only be viewed from within the Lead Edit Form itself.

Task Calendar

The Task Calendar will display all of your open tasks in a calendar format. Tasks are displayed in the calendar based on the day they are due. The Task Calendar is there as a helpful tool for you, but it is not a necessary tool. You always have the option to complete and work with tasks using the alternative Task Table instead if you prefer (see section below titled Task Table).

1. Go to Favorites > Task Calendar
2. You will see the following task calendar open up:
   
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3. When you click on a task in a calendar, you will see the following task form open up:
   
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4. When you mark a task as complete from the task form, the following page appears:
   
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5. Marking a task as complete will immediately trigger any required follow-up task and assign it to the team member regularly assigned to that follow-up task. If that team member is you, then you will receive a new task assignment. If it is not you, then your team member will see the new task assigned to them the next time they log in to the BigSIS admin. NOTE: Some tasks may trigger multiple follow-up tasks at once.
6. IMPORTANT REMINDER: While it has been reiterated multiple times above, it is again important at this point to remember that completing or canceling tasks has NO EFFECT on the lead's phase or status. The task workflow serves strictly as a self-help checklist for you to remind yourself of what task you must complete to keep the lead moving along. You must still, manually and deliberately, decide when is the right time to click the "Change Status" button from the lead's Edit Form to change the lead's status (see Lead Phases and Statuses).

Task Table

1. The Task Table will display all of your tasks in a table format. One advantage this format has over the calendar format described above is that you are able to see all future tasks as well (though they will remain unassigned until the previous tasks have been completed). Completing tasks from the task table is also quick since all you need to do is check the box next to any task to mark it as complete. This will immediately and automatically assign the follow-up task to the next team member (whether that's you or another staff member). One major disadvantage is that you are unable to skip optional tasks when you use this format; however, you can simply cancel the optional task immediately after it has been assigned.
2. Go to Admissions/Leads > Leads. Select a lead, then click the "Edit" button. This will open up the lead Edit Form.
3. From the lead Edit Form, look for the section titled 'Lead Workflow Tasks' that looks like this:
   
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4. The following is an illustration with some helpful explanations of the Task Table:
   
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5. If you right-click (or CTRL + Click on Mac) any of the tasks, you will see this context menu that lets you complete or cancel any tasks quickly:
   
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6. If you double-click any of the tasks, you will be taken to the task form:
   
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7. When you mark a task as complete from the task form, the following page appears:
   
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8. IMPORTANT REMINDER: While it has been reiterated multiple times above, it is again important at this point to remember that completing or canceling tasks has NO EFFECT on the lead's phase or status. The task workflow serves strictly as a checklist for you to remind yourself of what task you must complete to keep the lead moving along. You must still, manually and deliberately, decide when is the right time to click the "Change Status" button from the lead's Edit Form to change the lead's status (see Lead Phases and Statuses).
9. Marking a task as complete (whether by checking the box next to the task in the Task Table, by right-clicking the task from the Task Table and selecting 'Complete,' or by clicking the "Mark Complete" button from the task form, will immediately trigger any required follow-up task and assign it to the team member regularly assigned to that task. If that team member is you, then you will receive a new task assignment. If it is not you, then your team member will see the new task assigned to them the next time they log in to the BigSIS admin. NOTE: Some tasks trigger multiple follow-up tasks at once.
10. Practicing With Your New Tasks
    (Note: You cannot complete this section until you have completed the task spreadsheet and it has been imported into your site, see the Setting Up Tasks section above) 

Testing your Task Template

After we import your task spreadsheet and after you have a chance to read about how tasks work (as well as learning about how phases and statuses work, see Lead Phases and Status), it is time to put all the techniques (and your new task workflow) into practice. Follow along below to take the Lead module for a spin:

1. Go to your testing site and enter in a new lead in order to create a new lead record and initiate a new task workflow.
2. Do you see your tasks in your task calendar?
3. Try completing the tasks and triggering follow-up tasks. Do you see the follow-up tasks in your task calendar?
4. While in the task calendar, find an optional task and cancel it. Are you finding any tasks that should be optional but aren't? Or, vice versa, are you finding some required tasks that should be optional?
5. Now go to the Leads table by going to Admissions/Leads > Leads. Open up the leads you are testing.
6. Evaluate the list of workflow tasks. Go through the ENTIRE process for each of the different kinds of leads (e.g., go from the first task all the way to the very last task for an Elementary School lead, then for a High School lead, etc.).
7. As you complete a task, check the other phases to make sure you're not accidentally triggering tasks out of order.
8. Does the sorting of the tasks in the table for each phase visually represent the order you operate in?
9. Check the due dates for each task. Do the due dates seem correct and reasonable?
10. Try canceling some tasks that you may not need to complete with real leads, does that create any issues?
11. Do you feel the flow of all the tasks map up correctly with what you experience in your day-to-day admissions process?
12. Keep sampling more leads and go through the process from beginning to end identifying any issues in the process that should be corrected.

Once you have played with this on the testing site, jot down notes for things that should be refined in the task template spreadsheet. Inform BigSIS support at support@bigsis.com immediately if changes need to be made to your task workflow. If the changes are done during the training process, we will happily import them for free. If the changes are requested at a later date, you may have to do the import on your own or request assistance from the BigSIS team (this may incur additional charges).