Having recurrence triggered based on completing another task is not possible. However, what I would suggest to you is to establish a workflow that you and your paralegal use. It can be very simple. For example:

1) In the morning, the paralegal looks into Swift To-Do List and prints tasks for today (he/she can just select some tasks, right-click them, and print them). In my experience, having the printed tasks on the desk really helps with getting things done.
2) Work on the tasks through the day (when something urgent comes up, add it on the printed list – and put everything else into Swift To-Do List)
3) When the paralegal is done for the day, he or she can email you a quick report listing the tasks done that day. Writing such a report shouldn’t take more than 5-10 minutes. He can even Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V the tasks from Swift To-Do List.

Similar workflows are very, very effective and used by many successful businesses. They also increase productivity and ensure steady progress..

I’m a solo attorney with a paralegal. I do many collection cases, that are almost identical in the process of obtaining judgment and collecting. I’d like to set up a checklist template of all the steps, in-order, so that I can apply it to each new referral I receive. It seems like I can do this easy in your program by adding each new debtor as a to-do list. I’d like for when my paralegal completes a task, it reminds her of the next task and reminds her or me or both via email of what the next task is. In other words, when she or I complete a task, a reminder and/or recurrence of the next procedural task is triggered.

Is my dream settings possible??

Thanks,

When you setup one of these reminders you can see the time (5:00 AM) in the Reminder column in the task-view area (if you have the column enabled).

Yes, recurrence revamp is still on our drawing boards. In fact, it’s pretty high on our priority list. It’s certainly coming!

In the future, we might change how this works, so it recurs immediately after you complete it.

I use the duplicate feature for tracking the month-end close procedure at my company. I have our month-end close checklist set up in STD with recurrence set and the actions set to “Duplicate and remind”. When my staff complete one of the tasks I mark it as done which captures the current months task completion details and then generates a new task for the following month. Over time I have a history of what was done, when and by whom and can add notes to a specific months tasks. This is great for KPI analysis and for briefing our auditors at the end of the year about the process for each month end. Hope that gives you another example of ways to use the duplicate action.

Duplicating a task makes sense if you want to keep a “history” of the completed tasks.

It also makes sense when you can’t afford to miss any of the recurred instances of the task. Say, for example, that you want to save $100 per month to meet your yearly savings goal, but you don’t complete the tasks for 3 months, and therefore, 3 such tasks pile up. Then you get some extra money, and decide to “catch up” and mark the 3 old recurred tasks as done and put $300 into your savings account.

On the other hand, if you have something like a weekly task which is “water plant”,s you won’t suddenly decide to water the plant 3x times as much, just because you missed watering it for 3 weeks. In this case, the only information you need is when you watered it last.

Hope this helps.

This is no problem: “I want to set up a task due on 11/1/12. I have to do this task yearly, so I want it to recur. I want the task to always be due on 11/1.”

This is unfortunately not possible: ” I want the 11/1/13 task to be visible as soon as the 11/1/12 task is done”. — The recurrence always happens based on the original schedule, regardless when you complete the task. The task can’t be automatically due before it actually recurs.

Soon coming version 8 will include a “Hide Until” field, which will allow you make a task which will start appearing after a certain date, e.g. before its due. It requires some manual work (to set the field), but I think that for tasks that need to be done yearly, it is acceptable.

Also, in the a bit more distant future, we plan to improve/change the recurrence, so it behaves like you expect (which is basically the Outlook recurrence behavior).

I want to set up a task due on 11/1/12. I have to do this task yearly, so I want it to recur. I want the task to always be due on 11/1. I want the 11/1/13 task to be visible as soon as the 11/1/12 task is done, or on 11/2/12 would be fine as well.

What settings do I use to make this possible? From what I’m gathering, it seems like the recurrence date you set changes the due date. It also seems the task isn’t available until the date is due. I’m reasonably certain I am looking at this wrong, because I don’t see the value in a task popping up the day it is due. Please help me!

Have a wonderful day. Cheers!

When a task is supposed to recur on some date, that date is set as the due date. If you complete the task it won’t affect the due date. But once the task recurs again, the due date will be set to the date of the next recurrence. So what you require is probably not possible the exact way you want.

Regards

In Swift To-Do List, the task always recur based on the original schedule, not immediately after you complete them. You can preview the task recurrence by clicking the “Preview” label in the Recurrence tab. When a task recurs, it’s Due Date can be automatically set to the date of the next recurrence, and the Start Date to current date. This can be configured in Options – Recurrence.

Also, newly created recurring tasks can automatically get Due Date assigned to the date of the next recurrence.

Thanks

Each task has all settings related to the recurrence located right in the Recurrence tab. The recurrence is not affected by the Due Date (just the other way around).

You are right: The tasks recur on the 15th, not immediately after you complete them.

The “Preview” option in recurrence is helpful; it helps me to make sure the recur works properly.

However, my normal mode of working with recurrence is to fill out the main page (including the first Due Date), and the go to Recurrence tab — but it seems that the Due Date has no meaning for Recurring items?

I’m not sure of the options to use if I want to have a task due on the 15th of every month; when I finish this month’s task (check the “done” box, I’d like another entry to appear with a due date of the 15th of next month). From reading the above, I’m not sure that is possible.

Anyway, thanks!

How does the new task appear?

Thanks for your question.

The task will recur on 5/15, as specified in recurrence.

The reminder will still happen. The task will be there, it will just be marked as done.

Unfortunately, doing what you describe is currently not possible.

Have a great day, George!

If this is the case, is there a way to have the task created at the first reminder (in this case 4/30) but also automatically advance the due date to show 5/15 each year?

I considered changing the recurrence to 4/30 instead of 5/15, but I would then always have to manually adjust the due date each time the task recurs. I can do this but would like to know if I’m doing something wrong first.

Thanks!

Yes, you can recover the deleted tasks. To “undelete” your recurring tasks, use Manage – Archive.