Checklists, Open Records and Notes
Tyler Brennan
Using checklists as a task manager, it would really be helpful to have an ability to include notes within a specific item in a checklist. I'm thinking along the lines of clicking a checklist item and have it pop-out an open record, much like the checklist pop-out functionality that is already there. As we have the ability to assign checklist items to people, we often find ourselves needing to provide specific details in order for the assignee to perform a task that's more complex than a one line prompt.
Nate Montgomery @ SmartSuite
Merged in a post:
Comments on Checklist items
J
Jeff Eusebio
Since Subitems are not recommended to be used right now, and using linked records is like using a sledgehammer because you don't have a tack hammer, we've been using Checklists more and more to try to accomplish what Subitems were meant for.
This feature request is simply the abiliy to open up a Checklist item and add additional details (i.e. a comment or description field behind the scenes). This would allow us to, for example, give background on a to do item in the checklist. For us, this would go a long way to eliminating the need for Subitems, since Checklist is 80% of the way there anyway.
Jon Darbyshire
Hello Jeff Eusebio! I have a few more questions for you:
- Can you provide examples of the types of additional details you would like to add to Checklist items?
- How often do you anticipate needing to add comments or descriptions to Checklist items?
- Would you find it useful to have the ability to attach files or links to Checklist items in addition to comments or descriptions?
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Jeff Eusebio
Jon Darbyshire
- In Asana, we have about 40 steps required to onboard a new employee. Many of those steps such as "Send an email the day before the employee arrives (see template)" include a description, in this case, the template email to send. Another example is "set up laptop for first use" where the description includes how to go about doing that.
When we hire a new employee, we simply duplicate the last onboarded employee "task" in Asana (which contains all the subtasks and all their associated details), rename it to the new employee, and we're off and running.
I tried to move this from Asana to SmartSuite and failed miserably. Even went to office hours about it. The same setup is simply way more counter-intuitive and way move overhead. What's one task in Asana is one or two full tables in SmartSuite (and this setup was horrible to try to manage). The suggestion in office hours was to manage it all in one table with filters, but when I went to copy the 40 tasks to a new employee, SmartSuite put the words "(copy) after every tasks, which I'd need to manually go remove from every task.
I could totally do what Asana does so well if I was just able to add a description/comment to every checklist item. I asking it for the Checklist because "Subitems" we've been told not for so long, and no replacement has been coming for so lnog, that I'm giving up waiting on that.
- All the time
- Yes, but this is already possible. I'm already able to paste entire files into a checklist item, or pictures. They really are quite flexible and amazing already.
Jon Darbyshire
Great to hear your perspective, Tyler Brennan! I have a few more questions for you:
- Can you provide an example of the type of information you would like to include in the notes for a checklist item?
- How would you like to see the notes displayed when a checklist item is clicked?
- Would you find it useful to have the ability to attach files or links to the notes in a checklist item?
Tyler Brennan
Jon Darbyshire, thanks for the follow-up. If it helps, this was prompted by our use of deliverables as a primary record with subtask checklists as a field guiding that process. Because of the complexity a certain deliverable may entail (amount of, or specialty subtasks), more fields built around checklists would be ideal. For example, a status field would go a long way to be able to track our subtasks.
To answer your questions:
- Aside from the above, it could be as simple as a text area field to throw in some additional details, bullet points or paragraph form. Or something more complex like a Smartdoc.
- I imagined an open record mostly because of this notion around more fields than just a 'notes' field. I like how the Sub-Items field displays within an open record, where the fields you need are there in a table format. However, it may be as simple as some kind of icon within the checklist item itself to indicate there are notes attached as a flag to "find out more."
- It certainly could be helpful on some occasions!