Task Templates

Recurring tasks handle the rhythm of your practice - VAT every quarter, payroll every month, accounts every year. They generate work automatically on a schedule.

Task templates are the other half of the story. They never create anything automatically. Instead, they sit ready for the moment a client asks for something: a team member picks the template, picks the client, and gets a complete, properly-structured task on demand. Ad-hoc work gets the same consistency as your scheduled work - without anyone rebuilding the checklist from memory each time.

A template holds the complete definition of a piece of work, so nothing gets forgotten when it's needed in a hurry:

• Name and description - with rich-text formatting for instructions and background
• A checklist - every step of the job, spelled out once
• An optional workflow - for work that needs structure, like a Draft → Partner review → Send approval flow
• A category and time estimate - so the work is classified and planned from the start
• An assignment rule - who should do the work, resolved automatically when the client is picked
• A default due date - set as an offset in days from when the task is created, which you can adjust on the day

Templates also have an active/inactive toggle, so retired templates stop appearing when creating tasks without losing their definition.

The Add Task button - on the Tasks page and on a client's Tasks tab - offers three choices: a one-off task, a task from a template, or a recurring task. Pick a template and the whole task form is prefilled - description, checklist, workflow, category, estimate, assignment, and due date.

Start from a client's page and the client is prefilled too. Everything stays editable before you save, so the template is a starting point, never a straitjacket.

Templates are managed in one place - the Task Templates page, a click away from your Tasks page. Each template has a Run Now button: pick a client, and the task is created immediately with its checklist and workflow in place. When a client calls asking for a reference letter, the work is set up before the call ends.

Templates can also be duplicated - handy for creating variations of the same job - and exported as JSON.

Rather than naming a fixed person, a template's assignment rule can be relative to whichever client the task is created for:

• A specific user - the same person handles it every time
• The client's manager, partner, or associate - whoever holds that role for the chosen client
• The manager of a linked service - resolved automatically when the client is picked

One template routes the work correctly across your whole client base - no thinking required at the moment of creation.

Just finished a job you know you'll be asked to do again? Duplicate on any existing task offers three options: another task, a recurring task, or a task template. The task's structure - checklist, workflow, category and all - becomes a reusable template in one step, captured while it's still fresh.

You don't have to start from a blank page. Sodium ships with a library of ready-made templates you can import in one click, including:

• Change of address - with a checklist covering Companies House and HMRC notifications
• Accountant's reference letter - with a partner-approval workflow built in

New practices get both automatically, so the first time a client asks, the answer is already set up.