Work with tasks

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From the Tasks module, you can view your assigned WorkZone tasks, take over the tasks assigned to other users, respond to a task, check task details, add comments to a task, view the summary of your task and its attached documents in a single PDF file, view, add, or remove task documents, edit and annotate tasks from the PDF view, and edit Microsoft documents (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) with relevant Microsoft 365 app.

From the Tasks module, you can view your assigned WorkZone tasks, respond to a task, view the summary of your task and its attached documents in a single PDF file, view task documents, annotate tasks from the PDF view, and edit Microsoft documents (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) with relevant Microsoft 365 app.

All tasks in the task list are grouped into three sections: Open, Upcoming, and Closed. You can collapse and expand each section for easier navigation.

Tasks are marked according to their deadlines:

  • Deadlines are shown next to the tasks. A red bar to the right indicates the tasks where process deadline is overdue. A yellow bar indicates the tasks due within the next 24 hours.

About task deadlines and priorities

Deadlines

  • Green — The process is in progress.
  • Yellow — The process deadline is close.
  • Red — The process deadline is overdue.

Open a task to view more information about its deadline.

By default, the tasks are sorted by their deadline date. Tap Priority, Rank, or Updated at the top of the list, to sort the tasks by their priority, rank, or last updated date.

Before you respond to a task, you can view task details and documents, add comments, edit Microsoft documents, annotate PDFs, add or remove task documents, approvers or workflow steps. You can also take over the task to prevent it from being edited by other users.

View a task

  1. Tap Tasks in the navigation pane.
  2. Tap a task to view its details.
Tip: When viewing your task list, tap on a task or a task document to load it with the highest priority from the WorkZone server. This can be useful, if you need to load a significant number of tasks and task documents (for example, after reinstalling the WorkZone Mobile (New) app).

Respond to a task

When you have received a task, you can respond to it. Depending on the type of task, you can, for example, Accept, Forward,Skip, Approve, Reject, or Reject to, Conditional approval, or OK the task.

If you accept ownership of, for example, a distribution task, you become the case handler.

If you cannot or do not want to perform a task, you can forward it to someone else.

  1. Tap Forward to.
  2. Start typing a name, and then select it from the list.
  3. Tap Forward.

You can skip some types of tasks. If you skip a task in a submission process, the task is forwarded to the next person in the approval order.

A task may involve approving or rejecting something, for example, a document.

  • Tap Approve or Reject to approve or reject the task. The case handler is then notified of your action, and the process can start over or move to the next phase.
  • Tap Reject to, and select one of the approvers, if you want this person to take action, and you want to see this task again.

You can select to approve a task conditionally, if you expect your requested changes to be accommodated and you do not want to see this task again.

  • Tap Conditional, and request changes from one of the previous approvers and from the case handler. Once the selected approver completes changes and approves, the task will move to the next phase.

If you, as a process owner, receive a response to your process, you will be asked to confirm receiving the response. The user tasks are then updated in the Processes overview and in Outlook, and the process will be closed.

Once you have responded to a task, the next open task is displayed. If there are no open tasks, the task list is displayed instead.

Other actions on a task

You can perform on a task a number of other actions.

Most tasks have attached documents. Tap the document title to view its content.

Prerequisite:

You can view documents of the following formats: .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .txt, .csv, .pdf, .jpeg, .png.

  • From the document view, tap and at the top to open the previous or the next document on this task.
  • Tap to refresh the currently opened document.
  • Swipe up and down to open the previous or next page of the currently opened document.

You can take over the tasks assigned to other users. When you take over a task, it becomes assigned to you and is locked for editing by other users: upon opening the task detail view, they will see a notification that this task is checked out by you, and all the task action buttons will be disabled. To work on that task, they will need to take it over from you first. This is to ensure that only one user is actively editing or performing other actions on a task at a time.

  1. Tap a task.
  2. At the top right corner of a task detail page, tap Take over. The task will be assigned to you and will become locked for editing by other users (but they can take over the task back, if needed).

You can add comments to tasks. Once the task workflow steps are completed, all task comments will be displayed in the smart task logs list, allowing full visibility of the task-related discussions and decisions.

  1. Tap a task.
  2. At the bottom of a task detail page, type your comment in the input field, and then tap .
  • WorkZone PDF.
  • You must be online.
  • Documents must have a PDF-convertible file format. See Supported document formats.
  • Documents must be unprotected.

Tap to view the summary of your task and its attached documents in a single PDF file. Tap Edit to edit that PDF file.

You can edit or annotate your tasks in the PDF editor directly from a PDF view. Your edited PDF copy will be saved as a new document on the task, so this way you can suggest your changes without editing the original document. Also, this allows multiple users to suggest their edits as separate PDF copies of the same task.

Prerequisite:

  • WorkZone PDF.
  • This functionality is only available for extended and advanced submissions created in WorkZone version 2023.2 or later.
  • You must be online.
  • Documents must have a PDF-convertible file format. See Supported document formats.
  • Documents must be unprotected.
  • You must have write permission to the task.
  1. Tap a task.
  2. Tap .
  3. Tap Edit to open the PDF editor.
  4. Make your edits.
    • For annotations: In the PDF editor, tap Edit to open a toolbar with different annotation options. Tap the needed button in the toolbar, and then tap at the place in the document where you want to add an annotation. For example, tap Sticky note to add a sticky note to a specific section in the document.

      See Use PDF editor (iOS version).

      See Use PDF editor (Android version).

  5. Tap Save. A new PDF document with your edits and/or annotations will be saved on the task with the name "<Document number> , <Task name> - <editor's user name>, <Date>". For example, "DT-05236, Application_02 - Ann, 08.05.2023".
Before you respond to a task with final action, you can add or remove task documents to/from this task.
  1. Tap a task.
  2. Tap Edit, and then tap:
Search

Search in all documents on the current case. Tap on the needed document to add it to the task.

Tip: Start typing in the search field to filter the displayed documents.
Add

This functionality will be available in future releases.

Filter

Filter the displayed documents to add as attachments.

Delete

Remove a document from the task.

  1. Tap to return to the task, and then save or cancel your changes.

You can edit the Microsoft documents, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, in the relevant Microsoft 365 app.

Prerequisite:
  • You must have the Microsoft 365 app installed on your device.
  • You must be online.
  1. Tap a task document.
  2. In the document viewer, tap Edit. The document will open in the corresponding Microsoft 365 app.
  3. Make your changes, and tap Save (or enable the AutoSave functionality to have your changes saved automatically). Your updates will be uploaded to WorkZone.

You can annotate PDF documents. The size of PDF documents that can be annotated depends on your organization's capacity and the network connection.

Important:

  • You will not be able to save changes made to a large PDF document. If you try to save changes and the "Uploading 0 of 1" message is displayed in the status bar for a long time, close and delete the app, and then install it again.
  • If another user edits and saves the same PDF document before you could save your changes, you will receive a document conflict notification with options to discard your changes or to overwrite changes made by another user. If draft versioning functionality is enabled for your organization, you can always view and restore any previous document versions in WorkZone Client. See WorkZone Client User Guide for more information about draft versioning.
  1. Tap the PDF document you want to annotate.
  2. In the document viewer, tap Edit. The document then opens in the PDF editor.
  3. In the PDF editor, tap Editto open a toolbar with different annotation options. Tap the needed button in the toolbar, and then tap at the place in the document where you want to add an annotation. For example, tap Sticky note to add a sticky note to a specific section in the document. See Use PDF editor (iOS version).
  4. Add your annotations, and then tap Save.

For advanced submissions, you can add or remove workflow steps.

  1. Tap Edit next to STEPS, and then tap:
Add Add a new step.
Delete Remove this step.
  1. Tap to return to the task and save or cancel your changes.
  1. Tap a task.
  2. Tap Edit next to APPROVERS, and then tap:
Search Search for employees and units registered in WorkZone, and add them as approvers.
Actor sequence Search in the actor sequences and add sequences. This option only applies to extended processes.
Delete Remove this approver.
  1. Tap to return to the task and save or cancel your changes.