Tracking Defaults: Due Dates, Assignees, and Review

Tracking defaults are the settings on an event type that turn its attributes and roles into work for your team. They decide which items become tasks until they are filled, which values need review, when each task is due, and who it is assigned to. You set them once on the type, and every event of that type starts with the same plan for collecting its details.

Without them, someone has to open each new event, find the gaps, and create and assign a task for each one by hand. With them, a new Full production arrives with its ship date due 30 days before load-in and assigned to the operations lead, and nobody has to remember to set that up.

Tracking defaults live in the type editor. From within your organization, open Settings, select Events, and open a type from the Types tab. On the Details tab, each section lists its attributes and roles with the columns Required, Tracked, Review, Due, and Assignee. Every change saves on its own as you make it.

Track an attribute or role as a task

Turn on Tracked for an item when the event cannot run without it. A tracked attribute becomes a task until its value is filled in. A tracked role becomes a task until someone fills the role. The tasks appear in project management alongside the rest of the team's work, and on the event's profile, where each item shows its status as To do, In review, or Done.

Turning on Tracked opens the Due and Assignee cells for that item. Turning it off clears the item's Review setting, due date, and default assignee, and sets aside its tasks on existing events. If you turn Tracked back on, those tasks return.

Changes to Tracked and Review apply to events that already use this type, not only to new ones.

Require review of a value

Turn on Review for an item when a value should be checked by someone before it counts as done. When a reviewed item is filled in, its task moves to In review instead of Done, and stays there until a reviewer approves it from the event's profile.

Use Review for details where a value affects someone else's work. A ship date is a good example: it decides when the shop has to have everything prepped, so operations should see it before it is final. With Review on, the operations lead can check the date, confirm the shop can hit it, and push back if it is not possible.

Review is only available when Tracked is on, because what gets approved is the item's task. The type does not choose the reviewer. The reviewer is set on the task on each event, the same way as on any other task.

Set a default due date

The Due column gives a tracked item's task a due date on every event of the type. A cell with no rule shows No due date.

A relative rule is what keeps due dates honest as plans move. Each event's due date is worked out from that event's own value, so when the load-in date changes, every task counted from it moves too. If the date it counts from is empty, the task still exists but has no due date until the date is filled in. A rule of zero days reads as "On" that date.

Relative is unavailable, with a tooltip, when the type has no Date or Date & time attribute to count from. Place one on the type first. An attribute that a due date counts from cannot be removed from the type until you change or clear that rule.

Changing a rule updates the due dates on events that already use this type. When one event needs a different date, set it on that event instead, as described in Task-Tracked Attributes.

Set a default assignee

The Assignee column chooses who a tracked item's task is assigned to on every event of the type. A cell with no assignee shows Unassigned.

Hover over a set assignee to see who joins which collaborator on every event of this type. To remove the default, open the picker and select Clear default assignee.

A crew member as assignee is the right choice when one person always handles an item, such as the operations lead for ship dates. When the task is created on an event, they are assigned to it. If they are not on the event yet, they are added to it under the collaborator you chose. A crew member marked No account is still added and assigned, but they cannot sign in to see the task.

A role as assignee is the right choice when the person changes from job to job. The task goes to whoever fills that role on each event, at the moment they fill it. A role that holds several people assigns everyone in it. While the role is empty, the task stays unassigned.

A default assignee is applied when an item's task is created on an event. It is added to the task and never removes anyone already assigned, and changing the default later does not take the previous assignee off existing tasks. If someone removes a default assignee from a task by hand, they are not added back.

Choose what a default assignee can access

The shield icon beside an assignee controls the access that person is given when the default adds them to an event. A filled shield means access is granted. A muted shield with a plus sign means the assignee gets no access yet. Hover over the shield to see their access level on the event and on the collaborator they join.

This access is granted only when the default assignee brings someone onto an event. A person who is already on the event when the task is created is assigned to it and keeps the access they already have. For what each permission allows, see Permissions.

What an individual event can change

Tracking defaults are the starting point, not a lock. On an event's profile, your team can track or stop tracking a single item, require review, set a different due date, or return an item to the type's default. Those changes affect only that event. See Task-Tracked Attributes for how tracked items look and work on an event.