Completing, Archiving, and Deleting Quick Tasks

In brief: Completed marks a Quick Task finished, Archived removes it from every view and freezes its time, and Delete permanently destroys every logged hour.

Applies to: Everyone in the workspace.

See also: Creating Quick Tasks: Fields, Statuses, and Filters covers the table these endings happen in, Quick Tasks vs Job Tasks vs My Lists: Which to Use explains what a Quick Task is for, and Why Some Things Can't Be Deleted: Archive, Retire, Move sets out the wider pattern.

A Quick Task has three possible endings and only one of them destroys anything. Completing it marks the work finished and takes it out of your active tracking list. Archiving it takes it out of every active view and freezes its time. Deleting it removes the task and every hour ever logged against it, permanently. In almost every case, the ending you want is Completed.

All three happen from the Quick Tasks table, which is covered in Creating Quick Tasks: Fields, Statuses, and Filters.

Completing a Quick Task

Click the status chip under the task name and choose Completed.

Two things happen. The task drops out of your active working list, which is the point. And Net Net stamps the completion, so the record of when the work actually finished is kept without anyone typing a date.

That stamp matters more than it looks. Months later, the difference between a task that finished on time and one that limped over the line is the only evidence of how the week really went.

Reopening

If the work turns out not to be finished, set the status back to In Progress. The completion stamp clears and the task rejoins your active list. Complete it again later and it takes a fresh completion date.

The start stamp is different. The first time a task moves to In Progress, Net Net records when work began, and that original date survives every later status change. You cannot accidentally rewrite the day something started by reopening it.

If real work is still happening on a task you already marked Completed, reopen it rather than piling manual time onto it. The status stays honest and the effort lands where anyone reading it later would expect to find it.

Completed tasks and time

A Completed Quick Task leaves the normal In Progress tracking list. The general Time Tracker shows In Progress tasks by default, and a Show completed tasks control temporarily brings Completed ones back into view so you can add something you forgot.

The rule for that missed time is simple: an entry added to a Completed task should be dated on or before the day the task was completed. It is time you forgot to log, not new work. New work means reopening the task.

The full picture of which statuses accept which kind of time is in Which Tasks Can Accept Time (and Which Cannot).

If a timer is running

Stopping a timer never saves silently. The tracker holds the captured time and asks you to CONFIRM or DISCARD it, with the option to resume if you stopped by accident. Time only becomes a real entry when you say so. See My Time: Log Your Effort and Fix What You Missed.

Archiving a Quick Task

Archiving is the same control, one step further. Set the status to Archived and the task leaves your active views entirely. Filter the status control to Archived when you need to find it again.

Archiving is housekeeping, not a daily habit. Nobody needs to archive every finished task. Marking work Completed is the transition that actually matters day to day, because that is what keeps everyone's active list worth looking at.

Archiving freezes the task's time. While a task is archived, the entries logged against it cannot be edited or deleted. The history is still there and still counted; it is just no longer something anyone can quietly adjust. If you genuinely need to correct an entry, move the task out of Archived first.

The natural order is Completed first, then Archived once you are sure the work and its time are settled. Archiving something that was never actually finished leaves you with a task nobody will ever look at again in a state that says nothing about what happened to it.

Deleting a Quick Task

Delete lives in the ⋮ menu at the end of the row.

Deleting a Quick Task deletes the time logged against it. Those hours leave your reporting for good, and there is no undo. If anyone tracked effort on this task, deleting it makes your own record of the week quietly wrong.

Delete is the right call for exactly one situation: a task created by mistake that nobody has worked on. A typo, a duplicate, a row somebody started and abandoned. Nothing was logged, so nothing is lost.

For everything else there is a better ending:

The work happened and is done. Complete it.
The work happened and you are tidying up. Complete it, then Archive it.
The work is not happening after all, but time was already logged. Complete it and let the record stand. The effort was real even if the outcome changed.
The task belongs in a Job instead. Build it as a Job Task and handle this one separately. Read the next section before you delete anything.

When a Quick Task belongs in a Job

There is no conversion between Quick Tasks and Job Tasks. Net Net cannot turn one into the other, in either direction, and no menu anywhere offers it. If a Quick Task should really have been part of a Job, you rebuild it by hand.

Create a new Job Task in the Deliverable it belongs to, carrying over the title, assignee, service type, estimate, and due date
Handle the Quick Task according to what has been logged against it

Nothing logged yet? Delete the Quick Task. There is nothing to lose, and leaving it behind just puts a duplicate on someone's plate.

Time already logged? Complete it and leave it where it is. Do not delete it. Those entries are the only record that the effort happened, and deleting the task takes them with it.

The hours do not come with you. Time logged against the original Quick Task stays on that record permanently. It still counts in the assignee's own effort totals, but it will never appear in the Job's plan against actual, and nothing can move it there. That gap is real, and it is the reason to file work in the right place the first time rather than counting on cleaning it up later.

Job Task to Job Task is a different story, and Net Net does move those for you with all of their time intact. That is covered in Moving a Task Without Losing Its Time or History. The broader principle behind Net Net's reluctance to remove things outright is in Why Some Things Can't Be Deleted: Archive, Retire, Move.

Which ending to pick

Situation	Do this
Work is finished	Completed
Finished and you want it out of view	Completed, then Archived
More work turned up	Reopen to In Progress
Forgot to log an hour last Tuesday	Add manual time dated on or before the completion day
Created by mistake, no time logged	Delete
Belongs in a Job, nothing logged	Build a Job Task, then delete this one
Belongs in a Job, time already logged	Build a Job Task, then complete this one and leave it

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I complete a Quick Task?

Click the status chip under the task name and choose Completed. Net Net stamps the completion moment automatically and the task drops out of your active tracking list. There is no separate finish button and no form to fill in.

What happens if I reopen a completed task?

The completion stamp clears and the task rejoins your active list. The original start date survives, so reopening never rewrites when the work actually began. Complete it again later and it takes a fresh completion date.

Can I still log time on a completed Quick Task?

Yes, for time you forgot at the time. The Time Tracker has a Show completed tasks control that brings Completed tasks back into view so you can add a missed entry, dated on or before the day the task was completed. If the work is genuinely still happening, reopen the task instead.

What is the difference between archiving and completing?

Completed means the work is finished. Archived means you are done looking at it. Completing is the daily transition that keeps active lists clean. Archiving is optional housekeeping that takes the task out of every active view and freezes its time entries so they can no longer be edited or deleted.

Can I edit time on an archived task?

No. Archiving locks the entries against edits and deletions. The hours are still there and still counted in your history; they just cannot be quietly changed. If you need to correct something, move the task out of Archived first.

What happens when I delete a Quick Task?

The task and every hour logged against it are removed permanently. There is no undo. Deleting is only safe when nothing was ever tracked on the task, such as a duplicate or a typo. If effort was logged, complete or archive it instead so your record of the week stays true.

Can I convert a Quick Task into a Job Task?

No. There is no conversion between Quick Tasks and Job Tasks in either direction. Net Net does not offer this action anywhere. To move work into a Job you create a new Job Task in the right Deliverable and deal with the Quick Task separately, and any hours logged against the original stay on the original.

I put this task in the wrong place. Should I delete it and start over?

Only if nothing has been logged against it. Build the Job Task you actually need first. If the Quick Task has no time on it, delete it and move on. If it has hours on it, complete it and leave it alone, because deleting it destroys those entries and they are the only proof the effort happened. Either way those hours stay on the Quick Task and will not appear in the Job's numbers.

If you are new to this surface, Quick Tasks vs Job Tasks vs My Lists: Which to Use explains what a Quick Task is for and Creating Quick Tasks: Fields, Statuses, and Filters covers the table these endings happen in. Completing and archiving change what you can still say about a piece of work, so Chat on Completed, Archived, and Quick Task Work is worth reading alongside this. And if you keep running into things Net Net will not let you remove, Why Some Things Can't Be Deleted: Archive, Retire, Move sets out the principle behind it.

Updated on: 08/04/2026

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