When creating a task as part of a job, you can choose from a number of different task types. Each type has a unique function which add the efficiency of Senta in your practice:

Manual task 

This is probably the type of task you'll use most often, and will simply add a task, with the task title and details, to a user's task list. Think of it as a reminder for someone to do something.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Client

Task creation

There are no custom tabs when creating this task.

Completing this task type

Practice users:

If one of your practice users is completing this task, they just need to click Mark as completed to complete it.

Clients:

If the task has been assigned to a client, they will receive a notification email where they will be asked to sign in to the portal to complete the task.

They will need to go to the "Things you must do" area on their portal, and click Complete task on the task. The task will then be listed as completed on the practice side.

Send email

This task type allows you to create a pre-filled email ready to be sent, complete with any attachments you might want to send. You can use placeholders to auto-fill any information that is stored in fields on your client records or jobs.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Senta

Task creation

The email tab will allow you to set the sender email address to either be the same as the assignee, the account manager, or a specified user.

You can also set the recipient to be a contact role, a practice user, or a specialist.

You can set up autochase on any email task, which will automatically send follow-up emails to the recipient if a subsequent task has not been completed.

You can also choose for any documents uploaded to the job to automatically be attached to the email when it is sent.

Completing this task type

Practice user:

If one of your practice users is completing this task, clicking Send the email...

...will take them through to a screen where they can review or edit the contents of the generated email...

...before sending it to the practice outbox.

As well as sending them email, you can also choose to download a copy of the email text as a Word document, or mark the task as "Already done". This means that Senta will mark the task as complete, but the email will not send.

Senta:

If the task is assigned to Senta, as soon as that task reaches its start date, the email will be created automatically and queued in the practice outbox.

Send text message

This task type allows you to send SMS messages to clients who have a mobile phone number saved in Senta. There is no additional charge for this service. Please note when using this task type, you can only text the primary contact of your client.

To learn more about enabling SMS messaging in Senta, please see this article.

Can be assigned to

Practice users

Senta

Task creation

The send text message tab includes an area where you can write a message to your client of up to 160 characters. You can use placeholders in text messages to pull through specific information about the person you are contacting.

Completing this task type

Practice user:

To complete the task, practice users just need to click on Send the text message.

This will take them through to a page where they can view the text message and make any changes before clicking Send. The text message will then send straight out to the primary contact of the client.

You can also mark this task as "Already done" to mark the task as completed without sending the text message.

Senta:

If the task is assigned to Senta, as soon as that task reaches its start date, the text message will be sent to the primary contact of the client.

Send notification

This task type will send an automatic notification to a practice user, and they will receive a note on their notification globe, on the navigation bar. 

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Senta

Task creation

On the send notification tab, you can set the recipient to be a contact role, a practice user, or a specialist.

You can use placeholders in notifications to pull through specific information about the client.

Completing this task type

Practice user:

To complete the task, click on Send the notification.

The subject and recipient of the reminder can be edited before being sent.

The notification will appear under the notification globe on the navigation bar.

You can also mark this task as "Already done" to mark the task as completed without sending the notification.

Senta:

If the task is assigned to Senta, as soon as that task reaches its start date, the notification will be sent to the designated recipient.

Checklist 

This task type allows you to create a checklist of items to be completed.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Task creation

On the checklist tab you can select whether each checklist item is mandatory. This means that the task cannot be completed until that item has been checked off the list.

Completing this task type

Practice user:

When the task is running, any mandatory items will have an * symbol marked at the end.

Once done, you can either click Mark as completed, or Finish later to save progress so far without completing the task.

The checklist task can only be completed by a single user. If one user ticks an item and then reassigns the task to another user without completing the task, the item will not remain checked.

Please note that checklists can't be edited once the task is live. Any changes made to checklist tasks will only apply to tasks that haven't yet become ready.

Fill in a form 

This task type presents the user with a form to fill in. You can select from any of the forms you have stored in Senta. For more information on creating forms, please see this article.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Client

Task creation

The fill in a form tab will allow you to choose which form to fill in. There is also a checkbox option to automatically complete the task if any mandatory fields have already been provided. This is best used for setup tasks where a user may fill in the form from a tab on the client page.

If you select this checkbox, then as soon as the a user has filled in all of the mandatory fields on the tab and saves, Senta will mark the task as completed so the user won't be reminded to fill in the form when it has already been completed. So for instance, if a user had already entered this information on the client page, you would not be asked to complete it again as part of a task, as Senta would have automatically completed this task.

Completing this task type

Practice user:

To complete the task, click Fill in form.

This will take you through to a form to fill in e.g. the Payroll details form:

Once this form has been saved, the details will be added to a tab on the client page with the same name as the form. This tab will be available as soon as the job containing the task is created for the client, and this tab can be filled in directly rather than completing the task.

Client:

If the form has been assigned to a client, they will receive a notification email where they will be asked to sign in to the portal to complete the form.

They will need to go to the "Things you must do" area on their portal, and click Fill in form on the task. 

From here the client can fill in the form and click Save & submit when they are done.

The task will then be listed as completed on the practice side.

Yes/No 

This task type allows you to answer a yes/no question as part of a job. You can then have subsequent tasks in the job which are filtered according to the answer to the question.

When you kick off this job for a client, the filtered task will not become part of the job until you have completed the yes/no task.

To learn more about using yes/no tasks, click here.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Task creation

The yes/no tab has a text field where you can enter the question which can be answered with either yes or no. You can also set an answer reference, in case you want to pull the answer to the question into a placeholder elsewhere in Senta.

Completing this task type

You can answer either yes or no to this task, which will then mark the task as completed.

Upload documents 

This task type prompts either your practice user or a client to securely upload documents. The task will be marked as complete as soon as they are uploaded.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Client

Task creation

The upload documents tab will display a text area where you can enter instructions for the client which will appear in Senta to the user or client completing the task. Please note these instructions will not appear in the body of the email that goes out to the client, if the task is assigned to them.

Completing this task type

Practice user:

After clicking on Upload...

...you will be taken to a page where you will see the upload instructions. From here you can either cancel the task, or click on Select file to open a file selector.

Once you choose a file, you will be asked to set the document visibility.

You will be able to view the documents you have chosen to upload. Click Save to complete the task.

Client:

If the task has been assigned to a client, they will receive a notification email where they will be asked to sign in to the portal to complete the task.

They will need to go to the "Things you must do" area on their portal, and click Upload on the task. 

This will take them to a page where they can either upload a new file, by clicking on Select file, or they can select an existing file from the portal by clicking Choose existing file.

From here they can add a note to the practice to add any details about the document, then they can either click Confirm or Cancel.

After clicking Save, they will be taken back to a page where they can add further documents, or Save to submit.

Once they click Save, the upload task will be marked as completed on the practice side.

Approval

This task type allows tasks to be signed off by someone in your practice, meaning they cannot be completed until checked by the assigned user. This can be useful for managing workloads within your practice, or if you have new members of staff who require some overseeing of their work.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Task creation

On the tasks to approve tab you can choose one or several previous tasks that need to be approved. Tasks to approve must be in the same job as the approval task.

Completing this task type

Practice user

When you are working on a job, the approval task will remain blocked until you have completed the task that needs to be approved.

Once the dependent task has been completed, you can choose to approve or reject it.

If you reject the task, you will be able to enter a reason for rejection.

Rejecting a task will uncomplete it, and a note will be added to the task saying that it has been rejected. The reason for rejection will be listed on the approval Task.

If you approve the task, it will complete, and the next task will kick off.

Kick off another job

This is a really useful task which starts another job. 

Some examples of how to use this task:

• Kick off a new job at the end of your current job
• Use a filter, so that a VAT return job starts for VAT registered clients once they have filled in a form
  
  

Please note, any jobs kicked off by this task type are considered to be ad hoc jobs, even if they are kicked off by a repeating job.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Senta

Task creation

The kick off another job tab includes a dropdown menu to select which job you want to kick off.

You can also select when you want the job to kick off. This can be relative to:

- A date offset, relative to the start date of the job.

- When the task happens. The job will kick off as soon as the task becomes ready.

- Date entered on form. Choose any date field in Senta.

- A fixed date in time

Completing this task type

Practice user:

If this task has been assigned to you, click Kick off now to kick off the job.

Click Yes, do it.

You can also mark this task as "Already done" to mark the task as completed without kicking off the job.

Senta:

If the task is assigned to Senta, as soon as that task reaches its start date, the job will be kicked off.

Generate a Word document

This task type allows you to create a Word document from a template. You can use placeholders to pull data in from your clients' page, just like when sending an email through Senta. When you select a sender or recipient, this will allow Senta to pull details such as first name, last name etc. using placeholders.

Please note, we now recommend using the letter generator tool for creating docx documents if you wish to add branding and control formatting, including fonts and colours.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Task creation

When you select the "Generate a Word document" task type, you'll see several new options on the "Generate a Word document" tab:

You can now select a template to upload straight into the task:

You can select who you want the recipient and sender to be:

And assign a title to the document:

You'll see a new Action dropdown, which will allow you to select from various actions:

Download as Docx: the task will download the document to your desktop

Generate and store a docx: the task will create a Word document and store it against the job for you

Generate and store a PDF: the task will create a PDF from the uploaded doc, and store it against the job for you

If you select one of the "Generate and Store" actions, you'll also be given the option to select a Visibility:

Set a field value

This task type allows you to quickly change a pre-determined value on a client record. For example, you could use this task type to set a company's State field from 'Prospect' to 'Client' once they confirm they will be going ahead with you.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Senta

Task creation

The set a field value tab includes areas to choose the field which will be updated, and the value you want to set the field to. Any field type can be updated, for example a lookup, text field, or date field.

- Lookup field

- Text field

This can include placeholders.

- Date field

When updating this field type you can set a lookup relative to the date the task starts, or another date within the job.

You can also set a field to update to be blank, by leaving the field as empty, or setting the lookup to "select one". Please note this is not possible for date fields.

Completing this task

Practice user:

To complete the task, click Set [field name] to [value].

The field data will then update on the client page.

→ 

Senta:

If the task is assigned to Senta, as soon as that task reaches its start date, the field data will automatically update.

Call a web URL

This task type is used to send and receive data to and from external sites, using an API. 

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Senta

Task creation

The call a web url includes fields where you can choose between GET and POST methods, and enter the API URL for the site you wish to access. Write the API in the 'body' box.

Completing this task type

Practice user:

When viewing the task, to complete it click Do it...

If it is successful, you will see a 'Completed' message at the top right of the screen.

Senta:

If the task is assigned to Senta, as soon as that task reaches its start date, Senta will automatically call the web URL.

Electronic document signing

The signing task allows you to send documents to clients to be signed. For more information about electronic document signing, please check out our full guide here.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Task creation

From the electronic signing tab select the sender and signer, and enter instructions to the client. The sender can be a specialist, the same as the assignee, or a specific practice user. You can attach a document as part of the template, or attach it when you are completing the task. You can also choose to automatically have any job documents attach to this task to be signed.

Completing this task type

Practice user:

When viewing the task, click Send signing request.

This will take you to a page where you can edit the instructions to the client, and add documents to sign if you have not done so already.

Click Request signature to send the request to your client's portal. An automated email notifying your client about the signing task will also be created.

Cancel Jobs

The cancel jobs task allows you to cancel one or more active or scheduled jobs for a client. This can be useful as a time saving step, for example if you were to create a 'Leaving client' Job, you could set the first task to be 'Cancel all scheduled Jobs'.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Senta

Task creation

When setting up the task, from the cancel jobs tab you have the option to choose which jobs to cancel for the client. You can select as many or as few as you need.

Completing this task type

Practice user:

When completing the task, all you need to do is click Cancel jobs and all of those jobs will be cancelled at the same time.

Senta:

If the task is assigned to Senta, as soon as that task reaches its start date, Senta will automatically cancel the selected jobs.

Add note

You can use the add note task to quickly add a pre-written note to the client.

Can be assigned to

Practice user

Senta

Task creation

When setting up this task type, on the add note tab you have the option to write the text of the note, including placeholders, and choose what colour it will be if it is pinned.

Completing this task type

Practice User:

When completing the task, you just need to click Add note...

... and the pre-written note will be automatically added to the client's record.

Senta:

If the task is assigned to Senta, as soon as that task reaches its start date, Senta will automatically add the note.