Creating Quick Tasks: Fields, Statuses, and Filters

In brief: You create a Quick Task inline in the table: name, assignee, service type, due date, LOE, and a Client or Internal anchor.

Applies to: Everyone in the workspace.

See also: Quick Tasks vs Job Tasks vs My Lists: Which to Use decides whether the work belongs here at all, and Completing, Archiving, and Deleting Quick Tasks covers how it ends.

You create a Quick Task inline, right in the table. There is no side panel and no separate form. You click the plus button in the header, a row appears with empty fields, you fill them in, and you click Create Quick Task. Everything on a saved row edits in place afterwards, so changing a due date or a status is a click, not a trip through a dialog.

You will find them under Quick Tasks in the left navigation. If you are not yet sure that a piece of work belongs here at all, Quick Tasks vs Job Tasks vs My Lists: Which to Use sorts that out first.

Creating a Quick Task

Click the + button at the top right of the Quick Tasks page. A new row opens at the top of the table with every field editable at once.

Across the row you fill in:

Task name, with a status selector directly underneath it
Assignee, exactly one person
Service type, exactly one
Due date, from the calendar picker
LOE, your estimated effort in hours

Underneath the row, a panel holds the rest:

Context, a Client and Internal toggle
Company and Person, when Context is set to Client
Description

When it looks right, click Create Quick Task. If something required is missing, the field tells you so and nothing saves until it is filled.

The Client and Internal anchor

Every Quick Task is anchored to one of two things, and there is no third option.

Client means the work is for someone outside your shop. A Company is required. A Person at that company is optional, useful when you want to remember who actually asked.

Internal means the work is your own. Ops, admin, the thing that keeps the lights on. No company, no person, just a clear label saying this one is on us.

The anchor is why Quick Task effort is worth capturing at all. Without it you have a pile of hours with no idea whether they went to clients or to yourselves. With it, the answer is one filter away.

The Company and Person you pick come from your contact directory, using the same lookup Net Net uses everywhere else. See Adding and Editing Contacts (Including Quick Add).

Required fields

A Quick Task will not save without all of these:

Task name
Exactly one assignee
Exactly one service type
LOE greater than zero
Due date
Client with a Company, or Internal

There is no draft state on a Quick Task. It is either fully defined or it is not created yet. If you are not ready to commit that much, capture it in My Lists instead and promote it later.

Creating from a list item is the same inline flow, prefilled. The list item's name becomes the task name and its description carries over. See Turning a List Item into a Task: Quick or Job Task.

Statuses

Quick Tasks use the same four statuses as Job Tasks:

Backlog, planned but not started
In Progress, underway
Completed, finished
Archived, out of your active views

New Quick Tasks default to In Progress, because the usual reason you are creating one is that the work is already on your plate. Change it in the create row if that is not true.

Status is editable inline on every saved row. Click the status chip under the task name, pick a new value, and it saves immediately. No confirmation step, no form.

What each status means for time tracking is covered in Which Tasks Can Accept Time (and Which Cannot), and the rules for finishing and clearing tasks are in Completing, Archiving, and Deleting Quick Tasks.

The table

Left to right, a saved Quick Task row carries:

Task name, editable in place, with the status chip beneath it
Description, a short preview
Context, either the Company name or an Internal badge
Assignee, as an avatar
Service type
Due date, editable in place
LOE / Timeline, the two meters
⋮, the actions menu

Nothing on the row looks like a form until you touch it. Click the name and it becomes an input. Click the due date and the calendar opens. The row does not jump around while you work in it.

The LOE and Timeline meters

One cell, two stacked meters, two different questions.

The LOE meter answers how much of the estimate is used. It reads as tracked hours against estimated hours, so LOE 3 / 8h means three of the eight you expected.

The Timeline meter answers how close is the date. It reads as Due today, Due in Nd, or Overdue Nd, and it goes loud when the due date has passed.

The two are separate on purpose. A task at 90 percent of its LOE with a week left is fine. A task at 30 percent of its LOE that is due tomorrow is the one worth looking at. Collapsing both into one number would hide exactly the case you need to see.

An LOE meter reading over 100 percent is not an error and nothing stops you logging past it. Net Net never caps hours. The meter is there to show you the shape of the drift, not to block the work.

Finding what you need

The header carries four controls.

Status filter. Defaults to All, which shows everything. Narrow it to Backlog, In Progress, Completed, or Archived when you want one slice.

Assignee filter. Defaults to all assignees. Pick a person to see only theirs.

Due date filter. All due dates, Overdue, Next 7 days, or Next 30 days. Overdue is the one most people live in on a Monday.

Search. Free text across your Quick Tasks.

The filters stack, so Overdue plus one assignee plus In Progress is a perfectly reasonable thing to ask for.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I create a Quick Task?

Click the plus button at the top right of the Quick Tasks page and fill in the row that appears. Creation is inline in the table, not in a side panel. Name, assignee, service type, due date, and LOE go in the row; the Client or Internal anchor and the description go in the panel underneath. Click Create Quick Task to save.

What status does a new Quick Task start in?

In Progress. Most Quick Tasks are created because the work is already happening. If you are planning ahead rather than starting now, change the status selector in the create row to Backlog before you save.

Do I have to pick a company?

Only if the task is Client work. Set the Context toggle to Internal and no company is needed. If you set it to Client, a Company is required and a Person at that company is optional.

What do the two meters on each row mean?

The top one is effort, the bottom one is time. The LOE meter shows tracked hours against your estimate. The Timeline meter shows how close the due date is, reading Due today, Due in Nd, or Overdue Nd. They are separate because a task can be fine on one and in trouble on the other.

Can I log more hours than the LOE?

Yes. Net Net never caps hours. The meter simply passes 100 percent and shows you the overage. Capping effort would only teach people to log time somewhere else, which is how effort data stops being true.

How do I change a due date or status after creating the task?

Click it on the row. Both edit in place. The status chip sits under the task name and opens a small picker; the due date opens a calendar. Changes save as soon as you make them.

Where do Quick Tasks show up besides the Quick Tasks page?

In My Tasks, alongside your Job Tasks. That is the single list of everything assigned to you regardless of where it lives, which is where most people actually work from day to day.

If you are still deciding where a piece of work belongs, Quick Tasks vs Job Tasks vs My Lists: Which to Use is the article that sorts it, and Completing, Archiving, and Deleting Quick Tasks picks up once the work is done. Day to day you will see these tasks alongside everything else in My Tasks: Every Task Assigned to You, in One List, and Which Tasks Can Accept Time (and Which Cannot) explains which of them will take an entry. Quick Tasks carry no conversation thread, so if you are wondering where the talking happens instead, read Chat on Completed, Archived, and Quick Task Work.

Updated on: 08/04/2026

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