gmane.comp.sysutils.pim.taskcoach

Distinguishing between billed and unbilled tasks

Hi,

I am trying to find a convenient and reliable way of grouping tasks (and 
subtasks) within taskcoach according to the invoice to which they have 
been added.

That is, I need to keep track of whether tasks have been completed (ie. 
the code written, tested and put into production, etc.) and whether the 
client has been billed for the work, and (most important) whether the 
client has actually paid the invoice.

These 3 distinct states may be separated in time by as much as a few 
months, so I don't always remember details about a given task/invoice 
when a client gets around to paying it.

So far, I've resorted to creating invoice-subtasks for each invoice, 
moving real subtasks under an appropriate billing subtask in the time 
between completing the work and receiving payment. It's a somewhat 
clunky and error prone approach.

How do you guys handle this? Is there some mechanism within taskcoach 
which could be made to support this work flow?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

--

-- 
Søren O.

"Oh, bother" said the Borg, "we've assimilated Pooh".

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privateemail_sam | 6 Aug 08:58

Re: Distinguishing between billed and unbilled tasks

--- In taskcoach@..., Søren Boll Overgaard <boll@...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to find a convenient and reliable way of grouping tasks
(and 
> subtasks) within taskcoach according to the invoice to which they have 
> been added.
> 
> That is, I need to keep track of whether tasks have been completed (ie. 
> the code written, tested and put into production, etc.) and whether the 
> client has been billed for the work, and (most important) whether the 
> client has actually paid the invoice.
> 
> These 3 distinct states may be separated in time by as much as a few 
> months, so I don't always remember details about a given task/invoice 
> when a client gets around to paying it.
> 
> So far, I've resorted to creating invoice-subtasks for each invoice, 
> moving real subtasks under an appropriate billing subtask in the time 
> between completing the work and receiving payment. It's a somewhat 
> clunky and error prone approach.
> 
> How do you guys handle this? Is there some mechanism within taskcoach 
> which could be made to support this work flow?
> 
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I can't understand your post.
plz describe your main question first.

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Frank Niessink | 6 Aug 21:53

Re: Distinguishing between billed and unbilled tasks

Hi Søren,

2008/8/4 Søren Boll Overgaard <boll@...>:
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to find a convenient and reliable way of grouping tasks (and
> subtasks) within taskcoach according to the invoice to which they have
> been added.

[snip]

> So far, I've resorted to creating invoice-subtasks for each invoice,
> moving real subtasks under an appropriate billing subtask in the time
> between completing the work and receiving payment. It's a somewhat
> clunky and error prone approach.

Did you try to create different categories and assign the tasks to the
different categories based on their 'state'? For example, you could
create categories called 'unbilled', 'billed', 'payment overdue' and
only mark a task completed when it has been paid. No need for
subtasks.

Cheers, Frank

------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/taskcoach/

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Søren Boll Overgaard | 12 Aug 20:53

Re: Distinguishing between billed and unbilled tasks

Hi Frank,

Frank Niessink wrote:
> 
>  > I am trying to find a convenient and reliable way of grouping tasks (and
>  > subtasks) within taskcoach according to the invoice to which they have
>  > been added.
> 
> [snip]
> 
>  > So far, I've resorted to creating invoice-subtasks for each invoice,
>  > moving real subtasks under an appropriate billing subtask in the time
>  > between completing the work and receiving payment. It's a somewhat
>  > clunky and error prone approach.
> 
> Did you try to create different categories and assign the tasks to the
> different categories based on their 'state'? For example, you could
> create categories called 'unbilled', 'billed', 'payment overdue' and
> only mark a task completed when it has been paid. No need for
> subtasks.

Your suggestion is much appreciated. I just tried it out for a few days, 
but unfortunately it doesn't quite do the trick.
In addition to keeping track of task states, I need to keep track of 
which specific invoice they were actually assigned to.

Customers consistently forget what tasks resulted in which invoice, so I 
need to go back and check which subtasks constitute invoice X. I 
apologise for completely forgetting to mention this in my initial post

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Frank Niessink | 12 Aug 21:30

Re: Distinguishing between billed and unbilled tasks

Hi Søren,

2008/8/12 Søren Boll Overgaard <boll@...>:
> Hi Frank,
>
> Your suggestion is much appreciated. I just tried it out for a few days,
> but unfortunately it doesn't quite do the trick.
> In addition to keeping track of task states, I need to keep track of
> which specific invoice they were actually assigned to.
>
> Customers consistently forget what tasks resulted in which invoice, so I
> need to go back and check which subtasks constitute invoice X. I
> apologise for completely forgetting to mention this in my initial post

You can create as much categories (and subcategories) as you need. For example:
- Billed:
--- Can be billed
--- Billed
--- Payment overdue

Invoice:
--- Invoice 2008/1
--- Invoice 2008/2
--- ...

Cheers, Frank

------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

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Søren Boll Overgaard | 13 Aug 13:12

Re: Distinguishing between billed and unbilled tasks

Frank Niessink wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi Søren,
> 
> 2008/8/12 Søren Boll Overgaard <boll@... <mailto:boll%40fork.dk>>:
>  > Hi Frank,
>  >
>  > Your suggestion is much appreciated. I just tried it out for a few days,
>  > but unfortunately it doesn't quite do the trick.
>  > In addition to keeping track of task states, I need to keep track of
>  > which specific invoice they were actually assigned to.
>  >
>  > Customers consistently forget what tasks resulted in which invoice, so I
>  > need to go back and check which subtasks constitute invoice X. I
>  > apologise for completely forgetting to mention this in my initial post
> 
> You can create as much categories (and subcategories) as you need. For 
> example:
> - Billed:
> --- Can be billed
> --- Billed
> --- Payment overdue
> 
> Invoice:
> --- Invoice 2008/1
> --- Invoice 2008/2
> --- ...

Perfect. I didn't realize that subcategories even existed.

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