Here’s what you need to know
Prior to FreeAgent Banyan, you managed your work using Next Steps. They were great, but you couldn’t customize them, and if you were a large team with 100K+ Next Steps, reporting was too hard.
With FreeAgent Banyan all your Next Steps have been migrated automatically to a new App called Tasks. Tasks are just like any other App in your system, giving you complete control. You decide what fields you want to capture, how the Task form is organized, who can see what when, and so on.
You can tune Tasks over time as you learn what’s best for you and your team. You get all the native FreeAgent App security features too. You can even customize Task Cards, just like Trello, but in a modern CRM.
Here is a summary of the most important changes:
Tasks as an App
- Next Steps is now “Tasks” and works just like a normal FreeAgent App
- So you’ll see Tasks in the App menu, not under Activities
- You can now favorite Task views you create, just like any other App
- Now there is also a detailed record for Tasks which can be both favorited and shared, and also augmented with Notes in an Activity Timeline
- Tasks works like any other App
- You have control over which fields you want to collect on Tasks
- You have control over which types of tasks you want
- You have control over which fields you want to show in the cards
Tasks Types
- Different types of tasks – email, phone call, meeting, todo are set through a Task Type field
- Form rules determine which fields are visible based on Type
- Type cannot be changed after a task has been created
- Creating a task is now done from a single action – Create task – and the type is set once you pick the Type from the form
- You will no longer see Create Meeting, Create Email, etc., as independent actions from related lists
- All former Next Steps of type "Reminder" have been migrated to Tasks of type "Todo"
- App Actions are available for each task type. You will have one to Send Email on Email task, Call {phone number} for Calls.
Quick Add Tasks
- You can now add Tasks very quickly using “Quick Add” – a new feature available across all Apps
- You will see Quick Add under the Tasks related list
- Quick Add creates a task of type Todo, filling in only the description field, and automatically setting ‘Assigned To’ to the current user.
- This is the default behavior and can be changed under App Configuration with custom code.
Meetings
- Scheduling meetings is a little bit different and a whole lot better
- You won’t see the calendar on the form anymore
- There is a new “schedule field” (for Meeting task types) that has been added which will launch a new calendar availability modal
- Interacting with that modal you can find a meeting time, and then return to the task form
- For Meeting task types, "When" has been converted to "Start time"
- Events on your calendar are now sync’d using automations you can customize (Create Meeting, Update Meeting)
- By default, those automations trigger on create/update of a task of type Meeting.
Overdue Tasks
- Overdue tasks are now marked using a Boolean field called ‘Overdue.’
- Overdue is set using a new automation of type “Schedule Field”, that you can also customize
- By default, the automation triggers based on the due date field, and schedules a task to update the overdue once the due date time has passed
- Note that this means that you will now have a historical record of all tasks that were ever overdue – once overdue is set it is not automatically unset by completing the task
Complete Tasks
- “Mark as done” has been renamed “Complete Task” and is now easier to perform
- You will see it as a primary action on your task cards
- This is handled by an app action that you can also customize
- By default, this sets the Task Status as Completed and automatically fills the completed by and closed at fields.
- You’ll notice the app action shows under the dotted menu and also on the card’s footer, that is the primary action of your card by default, you can also modify that on the card configuration section for your app.
- Due date on task is now a standard Datetime field
Tasks Source
- We’ve added reference fields: Source app and Source record on Tasks
- You can fill in these two fields to specify the source record the task references
- Importantly, these are now optional fields - allowing you for the first time to create standalone tasks
- This functionality is a replacement for "link to field"
Automations for Tasks
- Automations setup now uses Create Task for all task-related work
- You will no longer see Add Reminder and any other type-specific task actions
- It’s now possible to create any type of Task for any type of App
- To handle the relative “When” field (which was used to set the Due Date) you will find a new section on the Create Entity Form where you can choose the delay time for due date field, or any other date or datetime fields
- The new section uses a new field type called ‘Delay’ that you can set using an intuitive expression e.g. 1w, 1d, 1h, 1m, 1s, etc.
FAQ
Q: Where did my Next Steps go? They used to be under Activities and the whole menu disappeared?
A: Next Steps has been renamed to Tasks and it’s now an App! You’ll find it in your App menu.
Q: Where are the “feet” icons I used to see in my Rolodex view and on boards, etc.
A: The “feet” have been replaced with a new “task icon” which looks like a list. This is the default icon for the Tasks App and it is changeable – admins can go to App Configuration and customize the icon if they want.
Q: What happened to all my Next Step reports?
A: They’ve all been migrated and are available under the new “Tasks” app. Should you have any issues with an important report, please use Global Search to locate it and contact us via chat if you have questions.
Q: I don’t use FreeAgent for meetings, can I disable that type of Task? And can I add new types?
A: Yep! You can control which types of Tasks you and your team have active & can add new ones as your needs change. Task Type is a Choice List. Learn more about how to Manage Choice Lists.
Q: I just want to use FreeAgent for Todos, not for scheduling emails and phone calls – is that possible?
A: Sure! Just disable all task types except todo and take advantage of quick add and use as a quick list of items you need to get done attached to all your important App records.
Q: Is reporting better for Tasks than it was for Next Steps?
A: Yes! Tasks is an App so it gets all the advanced reporting options available in FreeAgent. This includes unlimited filters, custom sorts, 1st and 2nd pivot options, statistics on list column headers, and so on. We recommend that you review all your existing reports and enhance them.
Q: I have multiple automations to send emails automatically or create reminders. Where are they?
A: All automations for your next steps were migrated to Tasks, which means that all your automations work exactly the same as before.
Q: Why are my completed tasks not disappearing from the related list?
A: Now that Tasks is an App, there are no more special treatments. Closed next steps will stay in the related list.
Q: Where is the Calendar Section in the new Tasks Form?
A: There’s a new schedule field for the Meetings that will launch a modal with the Calendar UI.
Q: There used to be a button to automatically close my Next Steps, where is it?
A: We created an App Action with the name “Complete Task”, it will automatically mark your Task as “Completed”. This action is completely customizable. Learn more about App Actions.
Q: I want to add a new field only to Tasks of a specific type, can I do that?
A: Yes!, there are two sections created for Meetings and Emails where you can add new fields only for those task types. You can create new Form Sections for each new type you add, and then, through Form Rules, you can control the visibility of that section based on the task type. Learn more about Form Sections and Form Rules.