If you have tasks that need to happen on a regular basis (e.g. monthly audit reports or annual reviews of templates or policies), use this tip to make sure you never miss your deadline!
Start with a matter that already has the correct list of tasks you need to complete on a recurring basis (e.g. the list of tasks for this month's audit reporting). You can also consider using task templates to ensure you have saved a consistent task list. We suggest the final task in your list is to duplicate the matter in order to set up the work for the next time period (e.g. next month or next year).
Duplicate the matter, ensuring you tick the box to have tasks duplicated. You can also elect to copy files and members if these are relevant to the new matter.
Name the new matter to reflect the new timeframe (e.g. the new month or the new year).
All you have to do now is set new due dates for the matter and its associated tasks. This would include setting a new date for the task to duplicate the matter for the future.
Navigate to the old matter and tick to complete the task to duplicate. If your work is complete for the old matter, you can mark the matter as completed.
If you prefer not to create separate matters for each month or each year, you could consider having a task template that contains all the recurring steps. The last task should be to add a further copy of the task template, instead of steps 2 and 3 above. However, continuing to use a single matter will affect your reporting as you will have this really old matter that hasn't been completed (or which continues to be re-opened).
Our colleague David Webb illustrates a straightforward workflow for monthly audit board reports in the accompanying video, which you can view here:
Stay organized, stay on schedule!