Make a task wait for something

A “dependency” records what a task waits for: another task, a document, an outside party, an approval or a date. You add it to a draft “template” version, on Dependencies. Every project started from the version after it is published has it. You need to be a department manager or a company administrator.

• The version is a draft. A published version cannot change: revise it first.
• The task that waits, and any task it waits for, are already on Tasks.

1. 1.
   Open the template from Workflow Templates and select Edit on the draft. In the left menu, select Dependencies.
2. 2.
   Under Add a dependency, below the list, in What kind of waiting, choose what it waits for (see the table below). The form asks this first, with nothing chosen, and shows the other fields once you choose.
3. 3.
   In Task, choose the task that waits, then fill in the fields that appear. Here, a task waits for Legal's approval:

   Template editor · Dependencies · Add a dependency

   Example · sample data

   Add a dependency

   What kind of waiting *

   Waiting on an external party

   Waiting on an external document

   Waiting until a date

   Waiting on approval

   Invalidated by another task

   Blocked by another task

   Task *

   Review the assessment notice

   Gather the income statements

   Value the property

   Prepare the hearing evidence

   File the appeal

   Approver *

   Legal

   Accounting

   Executive

   Enforcement

   Blocks the task

   Shown only, does not block

   Allowed, marks the output provisional

   Add dependency

   1. 1
      What kind of waiting. Waiting on approval.
   2. 2
      Approver. Who must approve: Legal, Accounting or Executive.
   3. 3
      Enforcement. Blocks the task, the choice the form starts with.

4. 4.
   In Enforcement, choose how strict the wait is.
5. 5.
   Select Add dependency. The new row is in the list, and the form asks the kind of waiting again for the next one.

For a date, the form says “Negative means before the anchor, positive means after.” So an Offset (days) of 30 with the Anchor Project started waits until 30 days after the project starts. With the Anchor Pre-reassessment call and an offset of 0, the task waits until the day of the call, three months before the state's notice date.

The list under What each task is waiting on has a new row: the task, the kind of waiting and what it waits for. The line under the title counts one more dependency.

• Add dependency cannot be selected: a field marked with a star is still empty. For Other (describe below), also type what the document is in Which document.
• There is no Add a dependency section: the version is published or retired. Revise it first: Change a published template.
• A message at the bottom right says the dependency was not added. The form keeps what you chose, so you can try again. If you ticked several documents and some saved, the message says how many, and the form keeps only the rest.
• Publish later refuses because tasks wait for each other in a circle: change or delete one of the dependencies in the circle. See Publish checks.