How to set up the kinds of work your team does

Settings › Sub-task types is your workspace's list of the kinds of work your teams do, such as Blog Post, Video, Sweep Floors or Close the Register. They are the tags you put on a planned item, and the list a department picks its subtask templates from.

Before you start

Settings sits at the foot of the menu, and only admins see it. The list itself is shared by every How to set up departments, so each type needs applying to the teams that use it, as described below.

What are they for?

Two jobs, and they connect.

You tag a planned item on a project with one or more types. When somebody presses Promote on that item, each tag becomes a subtask in the Promote to task dialog, filled in from the department's subtask template of the same name.

So a planned post tagged Blog Post and Video becomes a task with those two subtasks already on it, assigned and dated. See How to plan what goes out and when.

What should be on the list?

The kinds of work your teams actually do, in your own words.

Nothing here assumes what business you are in. Blog Post and Sweep Floors are equally good entries, and a warehouse team's types look nothing like a content team's.

A new workspace starts with an empty list, which reads "No sub-task types yet."

How do you add one?

Type the name into the Add a sub-task type box below the list, then press Add or Enter.

A name can be up to 60 characters. Names are matched without regard to case, so typing "tiktok" when "TikTok" is already on the list keeps the one you have rather than adding a second.

Types can also arrive from a project. When somebody adds a planned item, they can type a new name into Add a one-off type…, and it joins this list and is applied to that project's department straight away. That needs the Add planned items to projects row, which starts at member.

How do you make one available to a team?

Open the menu beside the type, which reads Apply to, and tick each department that uses it. Once a type is applied, the menu shows how many departments carry it, for example 2 depts.

A project's planning picker only offers the types applied to that project's department. Adding a type to the list does not put it in front of anybody until it is applied to a team.

The menu lists each department with its colour dot and icon, and it appears once your workspace has at least one department. Unticking a department takes the type off that team, along with the defaults its subtask template held.

How do you rename one?

Click its name, type the new one, and press Enter or click away. Press Escape to keep the old name.

The new name shows on this list straight away. Planned items already tagged keep the old name, and so does each department's subtask template. After a rename, use Apply to again to put the type back on each department that plans with it.

Then open each of those departments in How to set up departments, set the new template's defaults, and remove the template with the old name.

What happens when you remove one?

Hover over the type and press the cross at the end of its row. The confirmation explains that items already tagged with it keep the tag.

The type stops appearing in pickers, and nothing already tagged changes. To bring a removed type back, add the same name again.

How does this fit with department templates?

This list is the menu of possible types. A department's Subtask templates say what happens for each type on that team: who it goes to, when it is due compared with the planned item's date, and at what priority.

Build the list here, apply each type to its teams, then set each team's defaults in How to set up departments.

Where should you start?

With three or four types that cover most of what one team plans, applied to that team, with their templates set.

Then watch for a month. The types people reach for become obvious, and the ones nobody uses can be removed before they are anybody's habit.