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Task Templates Overview & Use Cases

Mitchell Paul-Soumis Updated by Mitchell Paul-Soumis

Read Time: 3 mins

For a more general overview on tasks, take a look at our article on Notes & Tasks: Best Practices & Use Cases here.

Creating the Task Template

Task Templates are created in Settings → Misc -> Task Templates.

The Task Template is a section of Sonar created in two steps:

  1. Creating the Template title. The title is used to identify the Template when populating the template, in addition to selecting the template on the job type.
  2. Populating the template with task items. These items will be what needs to be completed by the technician during the dispatch

Once the main template is given a title, a container is created which can then be populated:

Applying and Managing Template Items

Creating a Task template item is easy - simply click on "Edit Task Template Items" from the template created in the last step. This opens the Edit Modal, and from here you can click on the "Create Task Template Item" button:

After clicking, you'll be able to enter the text for the task you're adding, and any completion requirements, if necessary.

With the information entered, click on "Create" to add the new task to the template.

Completion Requirements
Tasks with completion requirements cannot be undone, however, you can still edit the task description, user assignment, and due date.

For each task within a template, a completion requirement can also be set; if a completion requirement is in place for a task, it will prevent the task from being completed until the requirement is met. There are 3 different types of completion requirements that can be added, which are outlined further below:

  1. Attaching a File Completes the Task: Typically, this requirement will be used when you are looking to have your field techs upload a physical document or a device config file. For example, you could have your field techs upload the configuration file for a customer CPE anytime they perform an install job - that way, if the device fails, you have the previous configuration ready to quickly upload into a replacement device.
  2. Attaching an Image File Completes the Task: This requirement is typically used when you are looking to have your technicians provide photographic documentation for the work that was completed. An example of this might be requiring a picture from the device to the tower for all wireless installs, or a picture of the customer's router from behind for all residential installs to simplify future troubleshoots.
  3. Providing the Configured Field Value Completes the Task: Typically, this requirement is used when you are looking to have your technicians confirm a value for the sake of quality control. An example of this might be requiring technicians to record upload and download values from a local device after an install or repair.
When using the "Providing the Configured Field Value Completes the Task" completion requirement, you must have an existing custom field for the same entity type that it will be applied to. For example, to use this completion requirement on an account, the custom field must also be associated with the Account entity.

To learn more about custom fields and how they can be created, refer to the Custom Fields Overview & Use Cases article here.

Using Task Templates

Task Templates are a collection of actions that your technicians need to complete while they're on the job, listed on the assigned job in no particular order.

Task templates can be added on the fly. When adding a task to an entity, you will also have an option to select a task template. This will add all the tasks in the template to the entity immediately. Task templates can also be associated with some other items to be added automatically. For example, if you associate a task template with a job type, all jobs created with that type will automatically have those tasks added.

Re-Ordering Tasks within a Template

When adding tasks to a template, you may want to dictate the flow of how your users perform these tasks. Sonar allows you to re-order your tasks as they're added to a template, even if they're added to the template after its initial creation.

For any Task Template, all you need to do to change the order of the tasks is click the "Edit Task Template Items"

Once the Edit modal is open, you can click, hold, and drag any task to shift the spot it appears in.

Task Template Examples

Equipment Change

The Equipment Change template would be used for technical service technicians, who have arrived at the customer premise to replace either their antenna or their router. The following steps might be added to such a template:

Install Tasks

The install tasks would be used on a residential installation, designed to ensure a quality installation and that service is reaching the customer.

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