Break complex tasks into clear, actionable steps
Some work is one instruction. Most work is eight, and the eight live in somebody’s head. A checklist puts them on the task itself, where the person doing the work ticks them off and everyone else can see how far it has got.
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The problem
A one-line task hides everything the job actually involves
A task called "Onboard the new supplier" is a title, not a plan. The steps exist — they are just not written down anywhere the next person can find them.
- The steps live with whoever did it last, so the second person does it differently.
- "In progress" covers the whole job, whether one step is done or seven.
- A half-finished task handed to someone else arrives with no indication of where it stopped.
- Nobody can tell which step is the one that always stalls, because steps were never recorded.
How TaskIt handles it
A list of steps on the task, worked by the person doing it
A checklist is part of the task record, not a comment about it. Items are ticked as work happens, and each tick is stamped with who did it and when.
- Add a checklist field to a task form, and every task raised on that form carries its own list.
- The creator writes the steps the job requires; the assignee works through them and can add steps of their own.
- Each item can carry a short note about what was actually done on that step.
- A task can carry more than one checklist — one card per checklist field on its form.
What you get
Progress you can read at a glance
A checklist card shows "3 of 7 done" rather than a number somebody typed. On a task that has a checklist, that count is how progress is read — the generic progress control is not shown, because ticking the steps is what moving forward means there.
The steps survive the person
Written on the form, the list is the same on every task raised from it. The second person to do the job gets the same eight steps as the first, instead of reconstructing them.
Who did which step is recorded
Every tick stores the person and the time, stamped by the server from the signed-in user. A handover mid-task therefore arrives showing exactly which steps the previous owner finished.
Accountability without a second tool
Ticks and added or removed steps write to the task’s own activity timeline, so the checklist and the rest of the task’s history are one record rather than two.
How it works
In the order a person using it meets them.
- 1
Add a checklist to the form
In the task form builder, add a field of type To-Do List and give it a name — "Steps", "Pre-flight", whatever the work calls it. Every task raised on that form now opens with that checklist.
- 2
Write the steps when you raise the task
The person creating the task fills in the items, in order. A checklist holds up to 200 items and each item up to 500 characters, which is more than any real list needs and keeps the record bounded.
- 3
The assignee accepts, then works the list
A checklist becomes editable once the assignee has accepted the task — before that the task is not yet theirs. On a department task, collaborators who have joined can work the list too.
- 4
Tick, annotate, and let it save itself
Items save as they are ticked; there is no save button to forget. A note can be attached to a step to record what was done, up to 1,000 characters.
A supplier onboarding that used to live in one person’s head
A 30-person distributor onboards a new supplier roughly twice a month. It was one task called "Onboard supplier" and an experienced buyer who knew the steps.
- 1
The steps get written down once
The buyer adds a To-Do List field to the supplier onboarding form with the seven steps she actually does: collect GST details, verify bank account, agree payment terms, load the price list, set up the ledger, send the welcome pack, file the agreement.
- 2
The next task raises itself fully specified
A purchase assistant raises the next onboarding. The seven steps are already on it. Nothing had to be explained in a comment, and nothing was left to memory.
- 3
The work leaves a trail as it happens
Steps are ticked over three days. On "verify bank account" the assistant leaves a note: penny-drop confirmed, reference 4471. That note stays attached to that step.
- 4
A handover mid-job costs nothing
The assistant is out on Thursday. The handover shows five of seven done — and which five. The colleague picking it up starts on step six instead of asking where it got to.
The result
The process is now the form rather than the buyer, and every onboarding since carries evidence of which steps were done, by whom, and when.
Who may change which row
The split is the same one the rest of the product uses: the creator defines the work, the assignee performs it. It is enforced on the server from the signed-in user, not from anything the browser claims.
- The creator, and managers or admins, have full control of every row — add, reword, reorder, remove
- The assignee (and an active collaborator) may tick any item, add items of their own, and edit or remove the ones they added
- Nobody may reword, reorder or delete a row somebody else wrote — so the creator’s instructions cannot be quietly edited by the person being measured against them
- A completed or cancelled task locks its checklist; the record of what was done stops being editable when the work stops
Checklist items and checkbox fields are different things
Both exist, and they answer different questions. A Checkbox Group is a fixed set of options the form defines — "which of these apply?" — and is answered once when the task is raised. A checklist is a working list: it is built for that task, ticked over the task’s life, and each tick is stamped with who and when. If you want steps that get done, the To-Do List field is the one.
What reaches the timeline, and what does not
Ticking an item, adding one and removing one each write an entry to the task’s activity timeline. Retyping or reordering does not — those are drafting, not events. Typing one note produces one entry rather than one per keystroke: the run of automatic saves behind a single note is folded into the same entry. Across tasks, the Form & Checklist Answers report — one of 22 built-in reports — lists every item, whether it was ticked, by whom and when.
Checklists on repeating work
A recurring schedule raises its tasks from a form, so a routine that needs an eight-step checklist gets the same eight steps every occurrence, without anyone retyping them. That is the difference between a laminated list on a wall and a record of whether the list was followed this week.
- Every occurrence carries the list, in the same order
- Each occurrence keeps its own ticks, notes and timestamps
- The schedule’s run history then shows every occurrence it raised, and each of those tasks carries its own ticked list
Frequently asked questions
A Checkbox Group is a fixed set of options defined in the form builder and answered when the task is raised — it captures a choice. A checklist (the To-Do List field) is a working list of steps that is ticked off over the life of the task, and each tick records who completed it and when. Both field types exist; the checklist is the one for work that gets done in stages.
Yes. The assignee, and any collaborator who has joined a department task, can add items and can edit or remove the items they added. They cannot reword, reorder or delete a row somebody else wrote, so the creator’s instructions stay intact. The rule is enforced on the server.
The checklist shows its own count — "3 of 7 done" — and on a task that carries a checklist, that is what the progress area shows; the manual progress control is not displayed there. Ticking an item does not write a separate progress figure on the task.
A checklist holds up to 200 items, each up to 500 characters, and a per-item note up to 1,000 characters. The limits exist to keep one task record bounded; they are well above what an operational checklist needs.
It locks. A completed or cancelled task’s checklist can no longer be changed, so the record of which steps were done, by whom and when stays as it was at the moment the work closed. It remains readable on the task.
Where to go next
The capabilities either side of this one, and the problems it is bought to solve.
Put your longest task on a checklist
Take the job everyone does slightly differently, write its steps onto the form once, and see what the next three run-throughs look like.