Advanced project settings - progress and task rules
Advanced Settings controls how a project measures progress and who can create, assign and advance tasks. Use it when the defaults do not match how your team works, for example when leads should control assignment. Everything here applies to one project only.
At a glance
| What it is | Four cards: Progress Settings, Task Settings, Access Control, Phase Assignees |
| Where to find it | Project settings, Advanced Settings |
| Who can use it | Owners, Admins, Project Managers and Team Leads |
| Saves with | Update (the page then reloads) |
| Plan | All options work on every plan except Access Control, which needs Business |
Which progress method should you pick?
Only one method can be active at a time. Turning one on turns the others off. Turning the active one off leaves all three off. All start off.
| Option | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Manual Progress | Lets people update progress by hand on tasks without subtasks | Off |
| Weighted Progress | Calculates progress from the weights of subtasks | Off |
| Time-based Progress | Calculates progress from estimated time | Off |
Task settings
Assign Tasks to Creator automatically assigns a new task to the person who creates it. It is off by default.
How does Access Control work?
Access Control has one switch, Restrict task assignment to Admins and Team Leads. When it is on, only Admins and Team Leads can create and assign tasks. Team Members can only view tasks assigned to them.
Details to know:
- Owners, Admins and Team Leads are never restricted. The rule follows a person’s team role, not their membership of this project.
- It blocks adding tasks (including quick add), changing assignees and editing dependencies. A restricted person sees “Task creation is restricted. Please contact admin for access.”
- If your organisation also turns on the same restriction at workspace level, the project is restricted when either one is on. The project setting cannot override the workspace one.
- It needs the Business plan. Below that, the switch is disabled and a blue banner reads “Business Plan Required” with an Upgrade plan button.
How do Phase Assignees work?
Turn on Enable Phase Assignees to give each phase a default assignee.
- In Advanced Settings, switch on Enable Phase Assignees and click Update.
- Open Phases. A picker now appears on each phase.
- Choose a default assignee per phase.
With it on, and a default assignee set on the phase:
- Only that assignee, or an Owner or Admin, can move a task to a Done status.
- When a task is marked done, it moves on to the next phase and is assigned to that phase’s default assignee.
- In the last phase, finishing the task completes the pipeline.
It does not stop other people from editing or commenting on the task. See statuses and phases for the phase list.
Example
A design agency runs a three-phase pipeline: Design, Review, Delivery. Mo turns on Enable Phase Assignees and sets Sam as the Review assignee. When a designer marks a task done, it moves to Review and lands with Sam. Only Sam or an Admin can then mark it done.
Best practices
- Pick one progress method at the start and keep it, because only one method can be active and switching turns the others off.
- Choose Manual Progress when most tasks have no subtasks, because that is the case its tooltip describes.
- Before restricting assignment, give your leads the Team Lead role, because Team Leads and Admins are the only people exempt.
- Pair restriction with Project Privacy on purpose, because restriction stops creating and assigning while Privacy hides tasks.
- Set a default assignee for every phase before relying on the feature, because a phase without one has no enforced mover.