> ## Knowledge Base Index > Fetch the complete knowledge base index at: https://help.netnet.app/sitemap.xml > Use this file to discover available pages before exploring further. > Pure-Markdown content can be obtained by appending a '.md' suffix to the content URLs listed in the sitemap (without the trailing slash). # Chat on Completed, Archived, and Quick Task Work **In brief:** Completing or archiving a Job keeps its chat channel and history intact, while Quick Tasks have no chat and cannot be tagged or referenced. **Applies to:** Everyone in the workspace, on an active free trial or a paid plan. **See also:** Chat Layout: Stream, General, Job Channels, and DMs covers the channel groups, and Quick Tasks vs Job Tasks vs My Lists: Which to Use covers which surface work belongs in. **Completing a Job does not close its chat. The channel moves into the Completed group and stays open, because a lot of what a Job teaches you gets said in the week after it ships. Archiving moves it into the Archived group with every message, thread, and tag preserved. Quick Tasks have no chat at all, on purpose, so they cannot be tagged, referenced, or given a conversation. Draft Job Tasks do have chat, because planning is worth talking about.** Job Channels are grouped by Job status in the channel list: Active, Pending, Completed, Archived. The rest of that layout is covered in [Chat Layout: Stream, General, Job Channels, and DMs](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/chat-layout-stream-general-job-channels-and-dms-1j8b1n5/). # Completed Jobs keep talking When a Job moves to Completed, one of the stages described in [Job Lifecycle: Pending, Active, Completed, Archived](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/job-lifecycle-pending-active-completed-archived-1jvg51y/), its channel does not lock. It moves into the **Completed** group in the channel list, collapsed by default so it stays out of your way, and everything about it keeps working. New messages, replies, mentions, tagging, filtering, all of it. That is not an oversight. It is the point. The conversation that matters most about a Job often happens after the work is delivered. The invoice question. The thing the client said afterwards. The honest post-mortem note about why the second round took three times as long as anyone planned. If chat slammed shut the moment a Job was marked Completed, every one of those would land in a DM or a Slack channel, detached from the Job it explains, and the Job's record would be poorer for it. The same holds one level down. Completed Deliverables and Completed Tasks keep their chat drawers, and you can still open a finished task and add the note about what actually happened. | Collapsed does not mean hidden. Completed Job Channels still contribute to Stream, still show unread counts, and still turn up when you filter by that Job. Expand the Completed group in the channel list to see them. # Archived Jobs keep their record Archiving a Job moves its channel into the **Archived** group in the channel list. Everything is preserved. Every message, every thread, every tag, every mention. Nothing is deleted, nothing is moved, and nothing is summarized away. You can open an archived Job's channel and read it exactly as it was, filter it by Deliverable or by person, and follow its work references straight into the Job structure they point at. That matters because archiving is what you do to a Job you are finished with, not one you want to forget. Two years later, the question is almost never "what did we bill" and almost always "how did we handle it when this happened before." The channel is the answer. ## When a conversation is closed to writes Net Net can put a conversation into a read-only state. When it is, the history stays completely readable and searchable, but new messages, edits, and deletes are all blocked, and the composer reads `Chat is read-only.` What those three actions normally do is covered in [Chat Threads: Replying, Editing, and Deleting Messages](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/chat-threads-replying-editing-and-deleting-messages-1iejqft/). That is the mechanism behind any conversation you find that you cannot post in. It is not a permissions problem and it is not something you can fix by changing your role. Reading, searching, and filtering all keep working normally. # Quick Tasks have no chat This one is a design decision, not a gap, so it is worth explaining rather than just stating. A Quick Task is deliberately thin. One person, one thing, no Deliverable, no service type, no allocation, no place in a Job's plan. It exists so you can capture something in four seconds without opening the machinery, which is the whole premise of [Creating Quick Tasks: Fields, Statuses, and Filters](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/creating-quick-tasks-fields-statuses-and-filters-1hyqtgz/). That is its whole value. Chat is the opposite kind of feature. It is built for work with structure underneath it: multiple people, Deliverables to attach conversation to, tags that roll up, a Job that gives the discussion an address. Bolting chat onto Quick Tasks would invite people to run genuinely collaborative work inside a surface that was never designed to hold it, and the first sign of trouble would be a task with fourteen messages and no way to see it in the Job's performance, because it is not in a Job. So, concretely: - Quick Tasks have no chat drawer. The chat button on a Quick Task row is disabled and reads **Chat is available for Job tasks only** - Quick Tasks cannot be referenced with `[[` in a message - Quick Tasks cannot be a tag target for a message If a Quick Task turns out to need a conversation, that is usually the signal that it was never a Quick Task. Rebuild the work as a Job Task by hand, and delete the Quick Task only if no time is logged against it, because deleting one that carries time destroys those entries. More on the difference in [Quick Tasks vs Job Tasks vs My Lists: Which to Use](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/quick-tasks-vs-job-tasks-vs-my-lists-which-to-use-1hlzaoy/). ||| The rule is about Quick Tasks specifically, not about tasks that look small. Any Job Task has chat, including a General Job Task that does not sit under a Deliverable. # Draft tasks do have chat A Draft Job Task is a planning note rather than a commitment. It accepts no time, does not affect capacity, and stays out of performance calculations. It does have chat. That is the right call, because the conversation about work you are still shaping is often the most useful conversation there is. "Do we actually need this?" happens before anything is real, and it belongs in the Job's record just as much as the conversation about work already underway. See [Job Tasks: Assignees, Allocations, and Statuses](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/job-tasks-assignees-allocations-and-statuses-1fy1ov5/) for what makes a task Draft in the first place. # Frequently Asked Questions ###### Can I still post in a Job's chat after the Job is Completed? **Yes. Completing a Job does not close its channel.** The channel moves to the Completed group in the channel list, collapsed by default, and keeps accepting messages, replies, mentions, and tags. Wrap-up conversation is some of the most valuable content a Job Channel holds. ###### What happens to a Job Channel when the Job is archived? **It moves to the Archived group in the channel list and every message, thread, and tag is preserved.** Nothing is deleted and nothing moves. You can read it, search it, and filter it exactly as before. ###### Why can't I post in this conversation? **Because it has been set read-only, and read-only blocks new messages, edits, and deletes.** The composer says so directly. Reading, searching, and filtering keep working. It is a state on the conversation rather than anything to do with your role. ###### Why don't Quick Tasks have chat? **Because Quick Tasks are deliberately standalone, and chat is built for work with structure underneath it.** A conversation needs somewhere to attach: a Job, a Deliverable, a tag that rolls up. Quick Tasks have none of that by design, so giving them chat would invite people to run collaborative work in a surface that cannot hold it. ###### Can I mention or tag a Quick Task in a message? **No. Quick Tasks cannot be referenced with double brackets and cannot be a message's tag target.** If a Quick Task needs a conversation, that is a good sign the work should be rebuilt by hand as a Job Task, with the Quick Task deleted only if no time is logged against it, because deleting one that carries time destroys those entries. ###### Do Draft tasks have chat? **Yes. Draft Job Tasks have chat like any other Job Task.** They accept no time and stay out of performance, but the conversation about work you are still shaping belongs in the Job's record. ###### Does chat history count against anything after a Job closes? **No. Chat never affects performance numbers.** Messages, tags, and mentions are a record of the conversation and nothing else. Effort, drift, and profitability come entirely from time and the plan. # Related articles [Chat Layout: Stream, General, Job Channels, and DMs](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/chat-layout-stream-general-job-channels-and-dms-1j8b1n5/) explains the channel groups a Job moves between, and [Job Lifecycle: Pending, Active, Completed, Archived](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/job-lifecycle-pending-active-completed-archived-1jvg51y/) explains what moves it. If you are working out whether something belongs in a Job at all, [Creating Quick Tasks: Fields, Statuses, and Filters](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/creating-quick-tasks-fields-statuses-and-filters-1hyqtgz/) and [Completing, Archiving, and Deleting Quick Tasks](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/completing-archiving-and-deleting-quick-tasks-2ap17s/) cover what a Quick Task can and cannot do. When an old conversation turns out to be filed in the wrong place, [Tagging and Retagging Messages So Chat Stays Findable](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/tagging-and-retagging-messages-so-chat-stays-findable-1avg0p8/) is how you fix it without editing anyone's words.