Mutli-step Task Management

Question

Hi All,

I'm looking for the most efficient way to receive, assign and track tasks for our processing team.

A brief outline of our current task creation/allocation process is as follows:

1. Account manager uses a form on their client spreadsheet to indicate which task items are required for that transaction. An outlook task is created via VBA and assigned to the admin team general outlook account;
2. Admin team leader assigns each task to a team member;
3. Team member uses outlook task to track progress by putting completed dates next to each item

If the account manager has requested all available items be completed, there would be 4 tasks that the admin staff needs to complete by certain dates as follows:

• Task commences no less than 5 days after it is created by Account Manager;
• Item 1 is due 15 days after commencement;
• Items 2 & 3 are due 30 days after item 1
• Item 4 is due 15 days after item 2/3

The problem with this process is that we have no way of effectively tracking the admin staff workloads or performance.

What I am hoping to be able to do is create an effective way for our admin staff to manage their tasks whilst also having a central database of all tasks received for the team, without requiring staff to update multiple platforms (such as their outlook task and a shared excel sheet).

I have looked at using MS Planner and flows to a team task excel sheet but I would need Planner to have multi-step tasks and for it to talk back to the excel database to find the existing task and update it when each step is completed - I've never used Planner.... is this even possible? 

Does anyone have a suggestion on the best way to achieve effective task management & tracking that might work for us?

Answer 1

Hi NiKKitty_85,

In the scenario you described, I think the SharePoint Online Task List might be your solution.

Create and manage a project task list

And here is a YouTube tutorial video of SharePoint Task List to help you get familiar with this feature:

SharePoint Tasks or Issue Tracking List - SharePoint Online from Scratch

Disclaimer: Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology.

Using SharePoint Task List, you could check the current progress on each item clearly and with SharePoint workflow, you could create an email notification if a task is near to the due date.

If you are interesting for a solution via Planner, you could raise a new thread under Microsoft Planner community, hope you will receive help from Planner experts there.

Regards,

Alex Chen