Last updated 22/03/2021.
Tasks are the various jobs that you preform for your customers. Tasks in Groundleader are usually set up as recurring tasks, but one off tasks can also be created.
Select the ‘Tasks’ option in the ‘Schedules’ section of the main menu or click the square button at the top of the page with the mower icon to get to the tasks page.
Finding a task
There are lots of filters on this page you can use to select specific tasks or groups of tasks.
Click the ‘Apply filters’ button to apply your selected filters or ‘Show all’ to list all your tasks.
Adding a new task
To add a new task from the tasks page click the ‘add new task’ button, you will then need to select which customer the task is for. It may be easier to select the desired customer on the ‘Customers’ page and click the ‘Add new task’ link there.
The various fields that need to be filled in on the task form are described below.
Task ID
Each task needs to have a unique ID, Groundleader will automatically assign an ID for each new task but you can change it if you want.
Site ID
This is where you select the site at which this task will be carried out. To select an existing site start typing the site ID into the textbox, a list of sites that match what you have entered will be shown, select the desired site from the list.
Most of the time when adding a new task you will be adding a new site as well. To add a new site for this task click the ‘Add new site’ link. Here you will be able to set up the new site for this task.
We recommend you read the Sites help pages for more information on adding sites.
Team
Choose the team that this task is allocated to. This will be the default team for this task. If you don’t have any teams yet you can add one by clicking the ‘add new team’ link. Here you just need to enter the team name, if the team is a subcontractor click the appropriate checkbox. Teams are explained in greater detail on the teams help page. Subcontractors are explained in greater detail on the subcontractor help page. If this task does not need to be allocated to a team select the ‘N/A’ option.
Region
This option will only be shown if you have indicated that you operate in more than one region. If so you can choose which region this task belongs to. Regions are explained in greater detail on the regions help page.
Task description
This is where you enter what the task involves, this is shown to your staff along with the site and task hazards on the printed job sheets.
Task hazards/notes
This is where you enter any hazards specific to the task, site hazards do not need to be entered here as they should already have been entered in the site record.
Site hazards
Any hazards relevant to the selected site will be shown here. If you change them here the site hazards will be updated when the task is saved.
Admin notes
This is where you can enter information that will only be visible to administrator users of Groundleader. Enter any task information that you wouldn’t want the customer or your non admin users to see.
One off task
If this task is only going to be performed once check this box, this will cause the task to become inactive after the first visit. It is also possible to log a visit for a one off task without having to add the task at all, see the non stock item/visit resources page for more information.
Active task
For a new task this should be checked. Inactive tasks are not shown in the job assigner and are filtered out of most task lists by default.
Task critical risk
If this task has any kind of critical risk associated with it you should check this box. Any risk details should be entered in the ‘Task hazards/notes’ section. Tasks with a critical risk or on sites with a critical risk will be highlighted as such on the printed jobsheets used by your staff.
Customers reference
This is an optional field where you can enter any customer reference for this task. This will be shown on invoice lines for visits for this task.
Task type
Here you choose which type this task is, start typing your desired task type name or short-code into the textbox then choose the correct one from the list. You can also choose to ‘Add a new task type’ if required. See the task types section for more details on how to set up task types.
Schedule type
Here you choose which schedule type you want to use for this task. The schedule types affect how Groundleader calculates the next visit date for each task, there are 5 to choose from.
- Days Between: The urgency level of each visit is simply based on the number of days since the previous visit. Arguably the most flexible, simplest and easy-going type of schedule. Note – if you are always falling behind, then this schedule type might mean you won’t manage to do all your intended visits before the end of season.
- Fixed: This is where you select fixed dates that you want to do the visits on, by selecting individual dates on a year planner. However note that you still need to assign those visits to the crews when they come due. The use of the year planner for fixed schedule tasks is explained in the fixed schedule visits section of this resources.
- Appointment: This is an option you can select for a fixed schedule date task, and is the only means whereby you can set up a job which will add itself to the job assigner automatically each time. It does come in handy when you have absolutely promised a specific client that you will definitely attend a specific site on a specific date. All other task schedule methods mean you must add them to the assigner each time they come due, manually, but give you more flexible control of your schedule. Note that appointment visits can be carried forward, if they’re not completed, just like any other type of visit.
- N/A: This should be chosen if the task is not one that is carried out on any type of schedule.
- Auto adjust: Similar to the days-between method, but if you fall behind during the season, it will increase the “urgency”, so that you schedule the visits closer together, in an attempt to get you to complete all the visits before the close of season. Likewise if you get too far ahead, it will decrease the urgency. The auto-adjust method is good for ensuring the required number of visits are carried out over the course of the season. Visits will never be scheduled outwith the minimum and maximum specified days between visits values for the task.
More detail on this method, below.
More on The “Auto adjust” schedule type
This schedule type tries to fit the required number of visits into the remaining time before the task end date. Because of this it needs to know how many visits are remaining in the current season. If you add a new task set to the “auto adjust” schedule type part way through a season and don’t expect the full number of visits to be carried out that first season, you will need to enter the number of visits to be carried out in that first season.
The “Auto adjust” schedule type does not schedule the visits completely evenly throughout the season, the visits will be scheduled slightly closer together during the center of the season where growth is expected to be faster.
Edit schedule info
Once you have selected a task type, the default values for start date, end date, number of visits, target, minimum and maximum days between visits from the task type will be applied to the current task. These values are shown in a table to the right of the schedule type dropdown.
If you click the ‘Edit schedule info’ link it will bring these schedule values up on the page where you can edit them from the default values. These values are explained on the task types help page. It is advised that you do not edit the schedule values to be too different from the task type defaults. If you need them to be significantly different it would be a better idea to create a new task type that better suits the task.
Pricing fixed or hourly
Select whether this task is to have a fixed price or be charged at an hourly rate. If you are editing a task it is possible to change it from one pricing type to another.
Fixed price
If you selected that this is to be a fixed price task the actual fixed price needs to be filled in here.
Start/finish times required
If this is an hourly rate task the start and finish times will always be required. For fixed price tasks it is up to you to decide. Marking them as required shows an asterix (*) on the printed job-sheets used by the staff, this should let them know they have to fill in the start and finish times. It can be useful to log the start and finish times for fixed rate task visits, with this information Groundleader can help you see how much you profit you are making from each task on the ‘Profit analysis’ page.
Rate % adjuster
For hourly rate tasks this is where you can adjust the hourly rate charged. The default value of zero will ensure that your base hourly rate is charged. When you select a task type for the task Groundleader will load the default % adjuster from that task type into the task form. For example you may have a tractoring task type where the % adjuster is 100%, this would cause the hourly rate for this task to be double your base rate. You can adjust this percentage value at the task level if desired.
Travel time minutes
Tasks whose pricing type is set to an hourly rate can be set to have a travel cost added to the calculated visit cost. If the selected site has a travel time set this time will be loaded as default and will remain to be shown in brackets next to this input.
The travel time is set in minutes and is charged at the adjusted task rate, that is your base rate adjusted by any rate % adjuster. Cost for travel time is only added once to each visit regardless of how many staff attend. As you enter the travel time the calculated travel cost will be displayed in the table to the right, this should allow you to set it to a value you find suitable.
Task pricing information is shown as you enter the estimated man hours, travel time and task rate adjuster %.
Waste Disposal Cost
This allows you to enter a default waste disposal cost for this task, whatever you enter here will be used as the default waste disposal value when you log a visit. As waste disposal can often vary from visit to visit it is okay to leave this field blank and enter the desired value when logging each visit.
Estimated man hours
Enter your estimated man hours for the task here, it may be left blank but this can be useful if filled in.
Subcontractor rate
If you have a subcontractor to carry out this task enter the rate you will pay them for each visit here.
Do not invoice stock
Sometimes you may not want to invoice for stock used at a visit. This can happen for example with fixed price spraying visits. If you check this box any stock logged during a visit will be recorded but not invoiced to the customer. When logging each visit you can change this setting if required.
This is useful if you don’t want to charge for stock used but still need to keep a record of it. In some areas you are required to keep track of all herbicides and pesticides used, Groundleader is able to produce a PDF report with this information. See the stock help page for more information on managing stock items.
Evidenced based visit settings
These are explained fully on the evidence based visits help page, if this task requires evidence based visits check this box. If the tasks customer has their own visit evidence settings they will be copied to the task, if not your companies default settings will be used. To change the settings for this task click the ‘settings’ link that shows when this option is checked.
Make task a guide task & Guide name
Guide tasks are used on overviews to determine when an area is complete. This is explained in more depth in the overviews section. If you make a task into a guide task you will have to give it a guide name, this name is usually the geographical area that this task is in. When a visit is logged for a guide task then that area is automatically marked as complete in any overviews that include the task.
Add to daybeat
Daybeats are just another way of filtering tasks. A task can be added to any number of daybeats or none at all. How to set up your daybeats is explained in the daybeats help page.
Task m2
An optional field for you to enter the area of the task in square meters.
Arisings
Enter what is to be done with any arisings from the task, for example COLL is collect or COMP for compost. This information is shown to your staff on their printed jobsheets.
Weather
Here you can select whether visit for this task need to be carried out on a dry day or can be done on a rainy day. It can be useful on a wet day to filter all your tasks by rainy to see what can still be done.
Warn duplicate
If you check this box Groundleader will warn you if you try to log two visits for the task on the same day.
Annual requote
If you uncheck this option the task will not be included as default when an quote is raised for the customer.
Is rate weather affected
If this task is priced at an hourly rate and you want to adjust the hourly rate for this task depending on the weather conditions logged during the visit check this box. This is explained in greater detail in the ‘Visits’ help page.
Finally
Click ‘Save’ to store your task.
Task options
When you select an existing task from the task list you will be shown a page with various options for that task as well as all the task details.
The task options available can include:
- Edit, brings up a form where you can edit the task details.
- Assign task, This will open a form which allows you to assign this task to one of your teams.
- Deactivate / activate task, You can make a task inactive by clicking this button, inactive tasks are not listed in the job assigner page. Inactive tasks can be activated again by clicking the same button.
- Delete task, Only shown to users in the ‘administrator’ role. You will only be able to delete the task if it has no visits logged.
- Duplicate task, This brings up the new task form already filled in with all the same details as the selected task. This can save time if you need to create multiple similar tasks. You can change the customer in the form to make the new task for another customer.
- Log visit, brings up the form where you can log a visit for this task.
- View visits, takes you to the visits page where you will see a list of all previous visits for this task.
- Visit images, Just like site images but here you can view or add images for specific visits.
- Review fixed dates, only shown for tasks with the fixed schedule type, this opens the form where you can set up the fixed visits dates for this task. See the fixed visit planner help page for more information on setting up your fixed visit dates.
- Edit site, edit the site the task is performed at. This is not used to change the task to another site bit to change the hazards or site ID of the site it is linked to.
- Site images, Allows you to view any images that have been uploaded for this task site. You can upload more images if desired. See the images section for more details on this feature.
- Archived rates, This will show the price history for this task.
- EBV settings, View or update the evidence based visit settings for this task.