Tasks

Tasks cover to-do lists, delegated work, logged calls and meetings, and email reminders. They link to contacts, opportunities, projects, organizations, and saved emails, and can be created from any of them.

On this page:

• Creating a task
• Reminders
• Repeating tasks
• Assigning to a team
• Creating several at once
• Logging calls and meetings
• Calendar feed
• Time tracking

Creating a task

Six entry points:

• Add New Task from the Quick-add button at the top of any page.
• New Task above the list on the Tasks page.
• The Gmail Chrome extension, the Outlook add-in, or the mobile apps.
• The Actions menu on most records, saved emails included.
• Add Task in the Tasks subtab of most records.
• Activity Sets, which create a group of tasks at once.

Starting a task from a record creates the link to that record automatically, which is easier than entering the connection by hand afterwards.

To add a task from a record:

1. Open the record and click the Activity subtab.
2. Click Add Activity > Add New Task.
3. Enter a task name. This is the only required field.
4. Select the responsible user or team. Individual assignees get an email notification. Assigning to a team offers a further choice, covered below.
5. Select a category.
6. Set a Date Due and a Start Date from the pop-up calendars.
7. Choose a Reminder date and time.
8. If the task has a due date, set a repeat interval such as Every Weekday.
9. Enter progress percentage, priority, and status if needed.
10. To place the task inside a project or opportunity pipeline, select the pipeline and stage. On projects using milestones, select the milestone.
11. If the task was not created from an opportunity or project, use the Related to line to search for one. The link is added on save.
12. Set Visibility. Public lets any user on the account see the task; Private limits it to you, the assignee, and administrators.
13. Enter a description.
14. Click Save or Save & New.

ℹ️ The task appears on the assignee’s Insightly calendar on its due date, or on the start date if no due date was entered.

⚠️ The Visibility setting disappears under Advanced Permissions. Accounts using Advanced Permissions do not see this field, because visibility is governed there instead.

Reminders

A reminder sends an email at the set date and time, plus a push notification through the mobile apps if you have notifications enabled for the app.

1. Add or edit a task.
2. Click the Reminder field and pick a date.
3. Click the time field and enter or select a time.
4. Click Save.

⚠️ You cannot set a reminder on someone else’s task. Only the person responsible for a task can set and receive its reminder, so assigning a task to a colleague means they have to edit it and add their own.

Repeating tasks

Set a repeat interval when the task has a due date. Marking one occurrence complete creates the next.

To stop a repeating task, edit it and click the X next to the repeat option.

ℹ️ A repeat that is completed late skips the missed occurrence rather than stacking up. A weekly task due last Wednesday and completed the following Thursday produces a next task due the Wednesday after that, not the one already missed.

Assigning to a team

Assigning to a team requires an administrator to have set teams up first. Two options:

Task for each Team Member creates a copy per member and assigns one to each. Every member gets an email notification.

Single Task for Entire Team creates one task that appears on every team member’s Tasks page, and any of them can take it on. Completing it marks it complete for everyone.

⚠️ Single Task sends no email notifications. Teams relying on that option need to watch their own task lists, because nobody is told the task exists.

Creating several at once

Activity Sets generate a group of tasks from a template, and combine with pipelines so that reaching a stage creates the tasks for it. See Activity Sets and Pipelines.

Logging calls and meetings

Two ways, depending on whether you want a record of what was said or a record that it happened.

As a note. On the record, click the Related subtab, then Add Note. Enter a title and text, adjust the note’s date to the date of the call or meeting, and click Save. It appears under Notes on the Related subtab.

As a completed task. On the record, click the Activity subtab, then Add Activity > Add New Task. Fill in the details, set the status to Completed, and click Save. It appears under Past Activity.

ℹ️ Administrators can create categories such as Conference call or Lunch meeting, which is what makes logged activity reportable afterwards.

Calendar feed

Insightly tasks can feed an external calendar application. At the bottom of your Insightly calendar, reached from the calendar icon in the upper right, are links to add an iCalendar or Google calendar feed.

Time tracking

Applies to: Professional and Enterprise plans.

The Time object in the left menu records hours worked against tasks, on a daily or weekly timesheet, rolled up to an aggregate in hours and minutes and submitted for approval.

Daily view

Click Add Time Entry to log time. The daily view also provides timers: start one when you begin work and stop it when you finish, and the time lands on the day the timer started.

A task can carry several lines and entries on one timesheet, manual entries included, and the total aggregates manual and timed hours together.

⚠️ Only one timer runs at a time. Starting a new timer stops the running one and applies its hours to that task.

Two behaviours around dates. A timer running past midnight keeps going, and all its hours log against the day it started, with the message “The timer is running on a day in the past.” Starting a timer on a day that is not today produces “This is not today’s timesheet. Click the green button to start this timer today instead.”

Weekly view

One row per task with hours per day, daily totals along the bottom and task totals down the right. Clicking a weekday at the top navigates to it, highlighting the selected day in blue and the active textbox in yellow. Add New Row adds a task for the week, with hours enterable against any of the seven days.

Editing and deleting entries

Time and notes can be edited or deleted until the timesheet is submitted. Edit through the Edit icon, or Change Entry Date from the three-dot menu beside the entry. Change Time Entry Date beside the buttons also moves an entry to another date.

To delete, choose Delete Entry from the three-dot menu and confirm.

ℹ️ While a timer runs, the hours field is locked and hovering it shows “Stop timer to edit.” Project, Task, and Notes stay editable.

Submitting and withdrawing

Submit from the daily or weekly view with the Submit button. A modal takes an optional note and confirms.

• Only the user or an admin can submit a timesheet.
• Submit appears only when the timesheet is Open or Rejected.
• Withdraw submission returns a submitted timesheet to edit mode and Open status.

⚠️ Submitted and approved timesheets cannot be edited. Withdraw the submission first.

Approving

Only an approver can approve or reject. The Approve and Reject buttons appear only on submitted timesheets opened through the View All Time Reports page. An approved timesheet can be reopened with Withdraw Approval.

Reports

Time reports are in the right sidebar:

• View Time Report. The weekly view in printable form, notes included.
• View All Time Reports. The main list view of all reports and their statuses, defaulting to Submitted Timesheets.
• Recent Report Activity. Recent activity, capped at four items.