Recurring Tasks

Every recurring task has three dates: when the work starts, when it's due internally, and when the statutory deadline falls. You pick which one drives the cycle - that date is what lands on the recurrence pattern. The other two are set separately on the task.

• Start Date driven - useful when the work has a natural starting point, like the day after a VAT quarter closes. The due date can be set as an offset from the start (e.g. "7 days after start"), a fixed calendar date, or anchored to a client date such as their year-end.
• Due Date driven - useful when the work has a recurring internal deadline, like payroll on the 22nd of each month. The start date is offset back from the due date (e.g. "30 days before due"), so the cycle lands on the deadline and the work opens that many days earlier.
• Statutory Date driven - useful for compliance work where the HMRC or Companies House deadline is the immovable anchor. The due date is offset back from the statutory date as an internal buffer, and the start date is offset back from the due date - so you set the safety margin and the working window in two steps. Year-end accounts and corporation tax fit this shape naturally.

On top of the driving date, you choose how often the task repeats:

• Daily - for tasks that need doing every working day
• Weekly - specify which day of the week
• Monthly - on a specific date or day of the month
• Yearly - annual tasks tied to fixed calendar dates

Due dates that fall on weekends or bank holidays are automatically adjusted. Configure how each task handles non-working days:

• Skip - don't generate the task if it falls on a non-working day
• Move before - bring the due date forward to the previous working day
• Move after - push the due date to the next working day

Holiday calendars are built in, so HMRC deadline adjustments and bank holiday awareness work automatically.

Not all recurring tasks follow fixed calendar dates. Many depend on client-specific dates - year-end, VAT quarter, corporation tax period. Recurring tasks can be triggered by:

• Built-in client dates like year-end
• Custom field dates you define yourself

When a task is triggered by a client date, each client gets their task generated relative to their own date. A client with a March year-end gets their annual accounts task at a different time from a client with a December year-end.

Recurring tasks can be linked to billable services. This connects the work being done to the fees being charged, giving you visibility into which tasks relate to which revenue.

When services are set up with recurring tasks, the entire chain from proposal acceptance through to task generation is automated.

When a recurring task generates work for dozens of clients, every task gets the same name by default. Smart naming lets you define a template that creates distinct, meaningful names for each generated task.

Templates use simple tokens that are replaced when the task is created. For example, a recurring task called "VAT Return" with the template:

VAT Return - {{ ClientName }} - {{ Quarter }} {{ Year }}

generates tasks like "VAT Return - Acme Ltd - Q2 2026" and "VAT Return - Smith & Co - Q2 2026". Available tokens include month names, year, quarter, and client details, so you can build names that make each task immediately identifiable in your task list without opening it.

Recurring task templates can be assigned to specific users or task teams. When tasks are generated, they inherit the assignment from the template, so work is distributed to the right people automatically.

Rather than naming a fixed person, you can also assign by role relative to each client, so the same template routes work correctly across your whole client base:

• Specific user - a named person does the work every time
• Client's client manager - whoever manages that client
• Client's partner - the partner assigned to that client
• Service manager - the manager of the related service
• Do not assign - leave it unassigned to pick up later

Because manager and partner are resolved per client at generation time, a single recurring template can hand each client's task to whoever is actually responsible for that relationship.

Recurring task templates support checklists for lightweight step tracking and can have workflows attached for more structured multi-step processes.

When a task is generated from a template, the checklist items and workflow steps are created along with it. Every instance of the task starts with the same structure, ensuring consistency across your practice.

Use saved views with the "include projected tasks" option to see recurring tasks that haven't been generated yet. This gives you a forward-looking view of your workload, helping with capacity planning and resource allocation.