A customer (let’s call him Peter) recently asked me about the difference between a Task and a Project Task on his Time Card (see Figure 1). His organization uses Project Accounting and every employee submits time cards for billable hours (i.e., working on project tasks). For non-billable hours (e.g., staff meeting), they book them to project X. The Task column seems like a redundant field so he hid it from view.
Figure 1. Task and Project Task on Employee Time Card
Let us understand what Tasks are and how they are used. The Tasks functionality is a productivity tool for Acumatica users to keep personal “To-do” lists, configure a reminder for a task, track tasks assigned to them or vice versa, and follow up on tasks assigned to others. Tasks can be added through Time and Expenses > Tasks > Tasks.
After a task is created and assigned to an owner (for example, I added a task to write this blogpost), it becomes visible to both the creator and owner in Tasks (see Figure 2), Dashboard, and Time Cards (see Figure 3).
Figure 2. Tasks are visible in Tasks
Figure 3. My tasks are visible in Time Cards
If tasks are added in Acumatica as “To-do” items, then they offer users a consistent data entry format in selecting a project and a task for every time entry. In Peter’s case where he doesn’t create ‘to-do’ tasks in Acumatica, there is nothing wrong with hiding the unnecessary field on his time card.
I hope that helps, contact us if you have any questions.
Eric.