---
title: "Tasks and Projects Guide"
slug: "tasks-and-projects-guide"
description: "The Tasks and Projects module is designed to help you be proactive in your IT management.Tasks are the individual work items in a project, and each task belongs to one project."
updated: 2026-07-20T06:55:50Z
published: 2026-07-20T06:55:50Z
canonical: "documentation.sysaid.com/tasks-and-projects-guide"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://documentation.sysaid.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Tasks and Projects Guide

The Tasks and Projects module is designed to help you be proactive in your IT management. Whereas the helpdesk is a very responsive process, the Tasks and Projects module helps you to plan your future IT objectives and to ensure that they are implemented smoothly and on time. You can also stay on top of your maintenance tasks using the recurring notification feature of Tasks and Projects.

As its name suggests, Tasks and Projects is organized into two components, namely, tasks and projects:

#### Projects

Projects are composed of tasks. Each project has a manager, a status, a completion percentage, and a timeframe. You can easily view a Gantt chart of your project's tasks to get an overview of timeframes and dependencies.

For the Project List help page, click [here](/v1/docs/project-list). For the Project Form help page, please click [here](/v1/docs/project-form).

#### Tasks

Tasks are the individual work items in a project, and each task belongs to one project. Tasks have assigned users, statuses, completion percentages, and timeframes. You can also log activities on a task. The activities are your notes about what work has been done and how long it's taken.

For the Task List help page, click [here](/v1/docs/task). For the Task Form help page, please click [here](/v1/docs/task-form).

## Creating Projects and Tasks

Go to **Settings** > **Customization** > **Tasks & Projects** > **Projects**. This takes you to the [projects list](/v1/docs/project-list). The project list allows you to view a list of your projects with their associated tasks. You can also view a Gantt for the timeline of all of your projects (once you've created some projects).

1. Click the **plus icon** to create a new project. This opens the **General Details** tab of the Edit Project screen.
2. Enter a project title and click **Apply**. This gives your new project a number and enables the **Tasks** tab.
3. Fill out the rest of the **General Details** tab, and then fill out the **Description** tab. Go [here](/v1/docs/project-form) for a description of the fields on the project form. When you are done filling out the form, click **Apply** again.
4. Click on the **Tasks** tab. The **Tasks** tab shows the [tasks list](/v1/docs/task) embedded in a frame.
5. Click the **plus icon** to create a new task. This opens the **General Details** tab of the Edit Task screen.
6. Fill out the **General Details**, **Description**, and **Users** tabs. Go [here](/v1/docs/task-form) for a description of the fields on the task form. When you are done filling out the form, click **OK** (make sure to click the **OK** button inside the task frame).
7. Repeat steps five and six until you've created all tasks for the project.

## Creating and Sending Custom Task Notifications

The Task and Project module can send out custom notifications regarding your various tasks. Notifications are created independently of your tasks and then chosen from within a particular task. Projects send only automated notifications, not custom notifications.

- Go to **Settings** > **Tasks & Projects** > **Notifications** and click the **plus icon** to create a new notification. For complete instructions on creating a notification, please click [here](/v1/docs/edit-notifications).
- Go to **Settings** > **Customization** > **Tasks & Projects** > **Projects Tasks** and click on the task that will send the notification.
- Go to the **Notification** tab.
- Select the desired notification from the drop-down list.
- From here, there are three ways you can send the notification. Continue by choosing option A, B, or C :
- Click **Send once; now** to immediately send the notification.
- Choose a start time and choose the frequency that the notification should recur, then click **OK/Apply**. The notification will be automatically resent each time the specified time occurs (e.g. every Monday). This is a great option to use for recurring tasks such as maintenance.
- The third option is as follows:
  1. Uncheck **Enable a notification** and click **OK/Apply**.
  2. Open the parent project for that task and go to the **Notification** tab.
  3. Enter a **Notification Title** (this will be inserted in the title field of the SR or subject field of the email) and click **Apply**.
  4. Click **Send notifications for all tasks**. This will send out the assigned notification for each task in the project, including the one you just configured. If this is a recurring project, you might use this button each time the project restarts to resend all notifications. On the other hand, if this is a one-time project with many tasks and notifications, it might be better not to use this button, as you will be spamming all of your administrators with emails/SRs/SMSes.

### Automatic task and project notifications

Go to **Settings** > **Tasks & Projects** > **Settings**. This page allows you to determine if automatic task and project notifications are sent or not. Please click [here](/v1/docs/project-settings) for a description of the options this page offers you.

## Using Tasks and Projects

After creating tasks, projects, and notifications, it's time to start using the Tasks and Projects module.

### Recording activities

Open a project that you've created, and then open one of that project's tasks. As you can see, the task specifies a particular job or amount of work that must be done for the project to progress. You will do the work outside of SysAid, and when you are finished, you will record what you've done in SysAid.

1. Click on the **Activities** tab for the task you have just finished working on.
2. Enter the start and end times for the work that you've done. This automatically calculates the total activity time.
3. Enter a description of the work you've done.
4. Click **Add** to save your new activity. Activities and activity times appear on task progress reports, viewable from **Analytics** > **Overview** > [**Reports**](/v1/docs/customize-and-run-a-report).

After recording the activity time, go back to the **General Details** tab of the task. Make sure to update the **Progress %** field to reflect the work you've done, and update the status of the task if it has changed.

### Viewing task and project progress using a Gantt chart

As you progress through your various tasks and projects, you may find it useful to view a visual progress report. You can do this using a Gantt chart. A Gantt chart shows start and end times and completion percentages for the tasks/projects shown. Note that tasks/projects must have both a start and end time to appear on a Gantt chart.

There are three Gantt layouts: **All projects Gantt**

1. Go to **Settings** > **Customization** > **Tasks & Projects** > **Projects**.
2. Click the Gantt icon ![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/52d3cb6c-cc81-43c2-b6f7-cbabcb449271/Images/Documentation/image%2872%29.png) in the top right corner.
3. You will see a Gantt chart for all of your projects. **Note**: The completion percentages for the projects in this Gantt chart can be determined by either the **Progress** or **Calculated Progress** field on the project form. You may choose which of these two fields to use under **Settings > Tasks & Projects > Settings**.

**All tasks Gantt**

1. Go to **Settings** > **Customization** > **Tasks & Projects** > **Tasks**.
2. Click the Gantt icon ![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/52d3cb6c-cc81-43c2-b6f7-cbabcb449271/Images/Documentation/image%2873%29.png) in the top right corner.
3. You will see a Gantt chart for all of your tasks. Tasks are grouped by task category.

**Single project Gantt**

1. Open a project that has associated tasks.
2. Click on the **Gantt** tab.
3. You will see a Gantt chart of all tasks for that project, as well as task start/end time dependencies.

Single project Gantt chart ![](https://cdn.document360.io/52d3cb6c-cc81-43c2-b6f7-cbabcb449271/Images/Documentation/image-8R8U3MO5.png)
