Creating and Managing Tasks in DeskFactor

Tasks are the individual units of work inside a project — the things people actually pick up and do. This guide covers creating a new task and working with one afterward, from the Tasks tab of a project.

Who can create and manage tasks?

Like Epics and Sprints, task actions are governed by granular permissions under Settings → Roles & Permissions — expect a Tasks permission group with separate toggles for Create, View, Edit, Delete, and Assign Tasks.

Before you begin

Make sure you have:

An existing project
A clear task title
The epic and/or sprint you want to attach it to, if any

Step 1: Open the Tasks tab

Open your project, then go to Execution → Tasks. This lists every task across the project’s epics and sprints, with a stats bar across the top: Total Tasks, Open Tasks, In Progress, Review Queue, Completed (with its completion percentage), and Avg Completion (in days). New Task sits next to Bulk Upload, DeskFactor’s option for importing many tasks at once — worth its own article separately.

Step 2: Create a new task

Select New Task. The Add New Task panel is organized into collapsible sections — you only need Task Basics to save; everything else is optional detail.

Task Basics

Title * — Required.
Description — Rich text, up to 5,000 characters, with basic formatting (bold, italic, lists, quote).
Acceptance Criteria — Same rich text editor, up to 5,000 characters.
Type * — Task, Change Request, Enhancement, Story, or Spike. Defaults to Task.
Priority — Low, Medium, High, or Critical. Defaults to Low.

Assignment & Scheduling

Assigned To — Search and select the user doing the work. Only users already added to this project’s team appear here — this list pulls from Team Management, active users only. Adding a user to a project is covered separately.
Reviewer — Search and select a reviewer.
Start Date / Due Date — Optional scheduling dates.

Important: Only users with the Tester role can be set as a task’s Reviewer. There are two ways a task gets a reviewer: someone with the right permission explicitly assigns a specific Tester from the pool, or a Tester viewing an unassigned task can claim it as their own review — this is the “Unassigned — in pool” state you’ll see on a task’s detail view before a reviewer is set.

Associations

Epic — Link this task to an epic. Optional.
Sprint — Pull this task into a sprint. Optional.

Estimation

Estimated Hours — Optional.
Story Points — Optional.

Advanced Options

Custom Fields — Add your own key/value pairs (key up to 64 characters). Select Add Another Field for more than one. Suggested examples shown in the form: tech_owner (text), review_required (boolean), release_phase (text).
Dependencies — Link this task to others it depends on.

Select Create Task to save.

Step 3: Open and edit a task

Select any task from the list to open its detail view. The header shows the task’s key (e.g. #PRJ0063-T-047), Status and Priority badges, its title, and quick links for Assignee, Sprint, and Epic. Four tabs sit below: Overview, Comments, Attachments, and Activity.

The Overview tab shows the same Description and Acceptance Criteria fields (editable inline) plus a preview of recent comments. The panel on the right — Task Details — lets you change Status, Reviewer, Priority, Assignee, Sprint, and Epic directly from dropdowns, followed by Dates & Effort (Start, Due, Est. Hrs, Actual, Story Pts) and Tags & Metadata (Tags, plus read-only Created by / Created at).

Step 4: Track time on a task

A Time Tracking bar sits at the top of the task detail view with a Start Timer button. Selecting it begins tracking time against that task — the button changes to Timer Running with a Stop option, and the elapsed time also appears in the main app header (top right), staying visible even if you navigate away from the task.

You don’t need to open the task at all to start timing it — the Tasks list itself has a play button in the Actions column for exactly this, letting you start or stop a timer directly from the list.

Note: Actual Hrs on the task detail is most likely populated by this timer rather than being freely typed in — worth confirming whether manual entry is also possible, and whether only one timer can run at a time per user across their assigned tasks. Time Tracking and Timers is substantial enough to warrant its own dedicated article; this covers the basics as they show up on the task itself.

What happens after?

The task appears in the project’s Tasks list and in its linked Epic and Sprint, if set
It moves through your project’s task statuses as work progresses
A Tester can claim it for review, or a specific Tester can be assigned directly
Comments, attachments, and activity history accumulate on the task over time

Common Issues

Create Task button is disabled
Title and Type are the required fields — check both are filled in.

Reviewer search shows no results
Only users with the Tester role can be selected as Reviewer. If none appear, no Tester has been added to this project yet — add one under the project’s team, then try again.

Can’t claim a task as reviewer
Self-assigning as reviewer is only available to users with the Tester role. If you don’t see a claim option on an unassigned task, this is likely why.

Assigned To or Epic/Sprint dropdown is empty
These only show users or items with the relevant access/association to this project — check the user has been added to the project team, or that the epic/sprint actually exists in this project.

Timer doesn’t seem to be running, or won’t stop
Check the main app header (top right) — a running timer stays visible there across the app, so it’s easy to lose track of which task it’s attached to if you’ve navigated elsewhere. Confirm with your Admin whether DeskFactor allows more than one timer running at once per user.

Expected Result

A new task exists with the correct title, type, and priority
Any assignee, reviewer, epic, sprint, estimation, and tags set are saved and visible when reopening the task
The task can be edited, commented on, and tracked through its full lifecycle from its detail view