Task Categories
Route: /org/taskconfig?tab=categories · Manage permission: Manage task categories
1. What a task category is
A task category is a group of work with an owner and a billing default — Glass Work,
Civil Works, Support. It is the only piece of task vocabulary that carries anything beyond a
label:
- a supervisor, who may be an internal user or someone outside the organization
- a billable default, inherited by every task created in the category
That second point is why this tab matters more than it looks. Categories are the bridge between task tracking and resource billing.
| Category | Type | Status category | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers | Which group of work? | What kind of work? | Started / doing / finished |
| Has an owner | Yes — a supervisor | No | No |
| Affects billing | Yes | No | No |
| Stored as | A record with its own API | An entry in a config blob | A fixed enum |
| Editable list | Yes | Yes | No — three fixed values |
A task category is this page. A status category is one of the three fixed buckets
To Do / In Progress / Done on the Statuses tab. They are unrelated.
2. How categories spread across the application
| Surface | What it uses |
|---|---|
| Create Task drawer | The list of active categories |
| Task list — Group by → Category | Categories become group headings |
| Resource Bills → Drilldown | Group by → Category is one of five groupings |
| Task Analytics | The Category Progress section |
| Notifications | The supervisor, if triggers are configured |
3. Managing categories — step by step
Step 1 · Read the grid
Categories are cards in a three-column grid, not a list or a table — the only configuration tab laid out this way. Each card shows:
| # | On the card | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A coloured spine down the left | The category's theme colour |
| 2 | Folder icon in a tinted tile | Same colour, tinted |
| 3 | The name | |
| 4 | A green BILLABLE pill | Present only when billable by default |
| 5 | Description | Clamped to two lines |
| 6 | SUPERVISOR block | The internal user, the external contact marked (External), or "No supervisor assigned" in italics |
| 7 | Edit / Delete | Hover-only, and only with Manage task categories |
Empty, the grid shows a dashed panel: No Categories Yet — "Start by creating your first task category to better organize your work." with a Create First Category button.
Step 2 · Create one
New Category opens a wide right-hand drawer — New Task Category, "Configure group properties and responsibility owners." — in three sections separated by rules.
This drawer is wider than the other four, because it carries three sections rather than one: the basics, the responsibility owner, and the billing default.
Only Category Name is validated. Everything else — including the external supervisor's email — is accepted as typed.
Step 3 · Choose a responsibility owner
A two-way toggle picks where the supervisor comes from:
| Choice | Fields |
|---|---|
| Internal User | A single Select Project User dropdown |
| Outsider | Full Name, Email Address, Phone Number |
Switching between them changes what is saved: choosing Internal clears the three external fields; choosing Outsider clears the user reference. You cannot have both.
Selecting Outsider also shows an amber notice:
External supervisors will be contacted via email/phone for task updates related to this category if notification triggers are configured.
Naming an external supervisor does not, by itself, send them anything. It records who they are. The sending happens only when notification routing is set up separately.
Step 4 · Set the billing default
The Billing Defaults section carries one control — Billable by Default, subtitled "Inherited by new tasks". It is on for a new category.
Step 5 · Save
The button reads Create Category or Update Category, and Saving… while in flight.
Step 6 · Delete
Delete Category — Are you sure you want to delete this category? Tasks assigned to this category will become uncategorized. This action is irreversible.
Deleting a category uncategorises its tasks — they are not deleted, and nothing else about them changes. Priorities, types and statuses give no such warning and leave tasks pointing at an ID that no longer resolves.
4. Field reference — the category drawer
| Field | Control | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category Name | Text | ✅ | Placeholder e.g. Glass Work. The only validated field |
| Description | Textarea | — | Placeholder "Briefly describe the purpose of this group…". Clamped to two lines on the card |
| Theme Color | Swatch picker | — | Nine fixed swatches, shown as large rounded tiles |
| Responsibility Owner | Toggle | — | Internal User or Outsider |
| Select Project User | Select | — | Internal only. See below |
| Full Name | Text | — | Outsider only. Placeholder e.g. John Doe |
| Email Address | — | Outsider only. Placeholder [email protected] | |
| Phone Number | Tel | — | Outsider only. Placeholder +1 234 567 890 |
| Billable by Default | Toggle | — | Defaults on |
Where the supervisor list comes from
Despite the label Select Project User, the options are all active organization users — the list is not filtered to the project's team.
So you can name a supervisor who has no access to the project whose categories you are editing. Nothing warns you, and nothing grants them access.
The first option is Select User, which stores no supervisor at all.
Where the colours come from
Nine fixed swatches, a different palette again from priorities, types and statuses:
#4F46E5 indigo · #7C3AED violet · #DB2777 pink · #DC2626 red · #EA580C orange ·
#CA8A04 yellow · #16A34A green · #0891B2 cyan · #2563EB blue
Validation
| Rule | When | Message |
|---|---|---|
| Name required | Name empty on save | Category name is required |
| Server rejection | Create fails | Failed to create category: <server message> |
| Server rejection | Update fails | Failed to update category: <server message> |
| Server rejection | Delete fails | Failed to delete category: <server message> |
Notably not validated: the external email format, the phone format, duplicate category names, and whether a supervisor was chosen at all.
Success toasts: Category created successfully, Category updated successfully,
Category deleted successfully.
Fields the drawer does not expose
Two fields exist on a category but have no control in the drawer:
| Field | Behaviour |
|---|---|
icon | Always saved as Folder, and the card always draws a folder |
status | Always active. There is no way to deactivate a category from the UI — the only way to remove one is to delete it |
5. The admin contract
| Prerequisite | Why |
|---|---|
| Page Access of Task Configuration | Page access |
| Manage task categories | Manage — otherwise the grid is read-only |
| A selected project | Categories are per project |
| Active organization users | For an internal supervisor to be selectable |
6. Downstream
| Change | Effect |
|---|---|
| Create | Immediately available in the Create Task drawer |
| Change the colour or name | Cards and groupings redraw |
| Change Billable by Default | Applies to new tasks only — existing tasks keep the flag they were created with |
| Change the supervisor | Future notifications route to the new one |
| Delete | Tasks become uncategorised; their own billable flag is unchanged |
The flag is copied onto a task when it is created. Flipping the category later leaves every existing task exactly as it was, which is usually what you want for already-billed work and almost never what people expect.
Fixing historical tasks means editing them, or handling it in Resource Bills → Adjustments.
7. Don't confuse this with…
| Thing | Where | Why it is different |
|---|---|---|
| Task category (this page) | ?tab=categories | A project group with a supervisor and a billing default |
| Status category | Statuses | One of three fixed buckets |
| Task type | Types | What kind of work, not which group |
| Budget category | Organization Settings → Budget Categories | Finance's own list. Resource Bills can group by either |
| Supervisor | Here | The category's owner — not the task's assignee, and not an approver |
8. Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| A category is missing from the Create Task drawer | Wrong project, or it was deleted |
| A supervisor cannot open the project | The dropdown lists all organization users, not project members. Grant project access separately |
| The external supervisor gets no email | Recording a contact does not create a notification route |
| New tasks are not billable | The category's Billable by Default is off |
| Old tasks did not change when I flipped the flag | The flag is inherited at creation only |
| Cannot deactivate a category | There is no status control in the drawer — only delete |
| Tasks disappeared after deleting a category | They did not; they are uncategorised |
| No New Category button | Missing Manage task categories |
Related
- Resource Bills — where the billable flag is spent
- Drilldown — grouping billing by category
- Types — the list categories are most often confused with