Often it is necessary to perform some acquiring tasks for the company. These tasks can be delegated to a certain specialist – purchasing manager. For example in case when estimator or some technical specialist creates the list of required materials and goods (for example house building estimate) and sends it to purchase manager in order to find suppliers which offer best possible prices and make all required purchase procedures. This process can be described as follows:

• Purchase manager receives checklist of needed merchandise with estimated prices
• Purchase manager calls different suppliers (looks through price lists, visiting web-sites etc.) and finds out what they offer
• As soon as sufficient price is found purchase manager makes an order, if price differs from estimated the purchase manager should register actual price
• Then purchase manager reports about task performance
• The price difference should be calculated and summed up by all items of checklist to know if company exceeded the expenses limits or managed to economize.

VIP Task Manager is team task and time management groupware that owing to its flexibility can be used for sales/purchase planning and tracking. VIP Task Manager allows creating additional task attributes of various types and custom fields with formulas. It allows creating checklists of goods that should be purchased, assign these checklists to purchase manager and allows purchase manager to report the progress, add information and attach files if required.

In order to organize purchase workflow in VIP Task Manager you need to:

• start your task management application
• create task group "Purchasing checklist", assign task group to Purchase manager
• allow your purchase manager View and Edit tasks in this group
• create numeric task attributes "estimated price", "actual price"
• create calculated custom field "price difference" with formula that subtracts "actual price" form "estimated price"
• create additional purchasing task statuses for task group ("Ordered", "Delivered" etc.)
• open Task List mode, set filter to show "Purchasing checklist" group
• create tasks within the "Purchasing checklist" group so each task represents one item of checklist
• enter estimated prices in each task if required, check the estimated total amount
• monitor in real-time the state of purchasing checklists by checking out each item’s status
• compare estimated prices vs. actual with a help of Bar or Column diagrams
• see the total amount of actual prices and price difference

Majority of team management specialists say that one of the key factors which can help you to make your team project performance effective is visibility of the progress. This means that progress monitoring should be available not only for team managers, but for average team members as well. It is important to keep everyone informed about common progress because this allows team members to be aware of the situation. Often people assess their achievements in comparison with achievements of other team members and try to work efficiently to overtake the leader's results. Besides visibility of the common progress lets team members to be satisfied with their achievements.

VIP Task Manager is time and task management groupware that can make progress within project visible for each team member because it is important for stimulation of work productivity. It can make each team member instantly informed about project progress and task execution.

In order to keep each team member in touch with team work performance you need to:

• start your team task management application
• define key activities or project stages that influence common team project the most
• open Task Tree mode and ensure that Permissions panel settings allow all team members to view key project stages and tasks
• you can make tasks of employees that perform equal job visible for each other, so they can monitor and compare each other's work progress
• set e-mail and in-system notifications for important events that can happen with tasks of key importance

If you are a Project Manager or Manager involved in controlling business tasks which require you to use a team task and project management software, you will need to import your tasks from MS Outlook into your new task management software. It seems more rational and obvious to have task management software as an application which offers solutions to manage tasks and processes. But what if you used to keep all your tasks in MS Outlook before, and now you need to retain these tasks because of their importance?

The simplest solution around this problem is to use VIP Task Manager which has a functionality of imparting tasks from MS Outlook. In other words, you can just paste all your tasks created in MS Outlook into the task management software VIP Task Manager. Your task list will be imported into VIP Task Manager together with journals, appointments and contacts, so you will be able to retain all previous data and continue to work with them in more convenient software. VIP Task Manager offers the best solutions for task and project management and gives easy way to retain your tasks which were created in MS Outlook.

Action plan:

• Start VIP Task Manager
• In Task Tree view, create a new task group or choose existing one in which tasks from MS Outlook will be imported into
• Go to 'File' - 'Import from Outlook'
• In opened window, check items and select a path to the task group in which tasks from MS Outlook will be imported into
• Press 'Ok' to start importing procedure.

Enterprises deal with a big amount of business processes. In the context of large volumes of work, absence of a single coordination and, what the most important, a lack of solutions for customizing task statuses and task workflow, managers of various departments find it increasingly difficult to manage processes and control task performance of their subordinates. The work of each particular department has different tasks and processes which create specific workflow. An enterprise should consider a workflow management software that can help effectively execute, track and complete business processes within a department, and make tasks more accessible to the employees.

VIP Task Manager is a workflow management application that can ensure an increase in productivity and efficiency of your enterprise’s departments. VIP Task Manager customizes and continuously improves business processes, arranges information on task progress according to standards and goals of an enterprise. One of key features of VIP Task Manager is to simply adapt business processes within a department to any enterprise workflow, and also be able to adapt the workflow to the continuous changes in the business. VIP Task Manager supports customizations of task workflow and provides the enterprise with a flexible ways to organize its departments with processes-oriented model.

Action plan:

• Launch VIP Task Manager
• To manage workflow, go to Tools-Customize Workflow
• In the opened workflow editor window, you can create a new workflow and add new task statuses. For example, if your enterprise has Sales department, you can create new workflow "Sales Department" and specify task statuses, such as "Draft", "In Progress", "Sold", etc.
• Close the workflow editor window
• In the Task Tree view, create task groups for each department and set appropriate workflow to all tasks related to a particular task group. For example, create the task group "Sales Department" and set workflow "Sales Department".

Price movements are the channel through which a company or its purchasing department gets information about increase or fall of the prices on purchase orders. This is the signal that determines resources and materials consumptions. The company needs to analyze the price trend and purchasing activity in order to adjust business processes and enhance profitability. By using Line chart, the company management can build the trend of price changes during some period of time and analyze which the drops and raises of prices on orders.

With VIP Task Manager you can build Line chart and evaluate price movements of your company's orders. VIP Task Manager allows to create and manage sales and purchase orders, track their progress and make calculations. In Task Tree View of VIP Task Manager you can use task groups and tasks as a mechanism for adding new orders and managing existing ones. For example, you have some orders say Order 1, Order 2, etc. In Task Tree View you need just to create task groups Order 1, Order 2, etc. and add positions of each order to the task groups. With help of Custom field feature, you can make calculations with the orders, e.g. compare prices and costs, or build line chart on price movements.

Action plan:

• Run VIP Task Manager
• Go to Task Tree View and create common group "Orders". This task group will contain all orders of your company
• Add new task group "Order 1", "Order 2", etc. in the task group "Orders"
• Add positions to orders by creating tasks in each task group "Order 1", "Order 2", etc.
• By using Custom field feature, create price of an order
• When all orders are added in the common task group "Orders", select the task group.
• Go to Charts Panel, choose Linen Chart and select Price in the drop-down list on the Panel.

Pie charts are used to display groups or classes of task data in proportion to the whole data set. The entire pie chart represents all the data, while each piece represents a particular group or class within the whole. In an organization Pie charts can be used to get imagination about values and indicators in proportion to the total sum. For example, Sales department of an organization can use Pie chart to count orders of customers from different countries and find out slices of each customer in the whole pie.

VIP Task Manager is a task management application which provides graphic tools for building Pie charts and evaluating data. The Sales department can use Chats Panel to display order count in Pie chart. In VIP Task Manager you can also customize and print out charts.

Action plan:

• Launch VIP Task Manager
• Create task group and title them according to your buyer's countries. For example, such task groups as " USA", "Canada", "Europe", etc.
• For creating orders, add tasks in each buyer's task group. For example, "Order #1" and "Order #2" in the task group " SA"
• Create fields "Order Count" by using custom field feature
• Select the parent task group in which all task groups with the buyers' orders are located. In our example, it is task group "Customers"
• Go to Charts panel and select Pie chart
• In drop-down list on the panel, select the value "Order Count"

In plenty of various styles of supervision each of the style is based upon two major constituents: giving orientation and providing support. The first constituent “Giving orientation” assumes a one-way communication when the supervisor tells the employee what they must do and within what deadlines. The second constituent "Providing support" assumes a two-way communication when the supervisor communicates encourages and guides his subordinates, discusses any questions or difficulties, and supports the employees to fulfill their tasks efficaciously.

No matter what style of supervision you have in your organization, VIP Task Manager allows to supervise your staff, basing on the mentioned constituents. In VIP Task Manager the constituent “Giving orientation” is conveyed by assigning tasks to employees. When you create a task with instructions in Notes section, you assign it to an employee. The constituent “Providing support” is conveyed by receiving notifications on task changes and possibility to discuss the changes in Comments panel. With VIP Task Manager you are able to supervise and track task status just by receiving alerts to your email box. The system sends notifications once a task was changed.

Action plan:

• Launch VIP Task Manager
• Create/open a task, go to Assignment tab and assign the task to employee(s) listed in Resource list
• To set a supervisor to the task, go to Watch List tab and select a supervisor from available resources
• When all task details are done, press ok to save changes

Note: you can set supervisor to a task as well as to a resource. To be a supervisor to resource(s), go to Resource List view, open the supervisor resource, click on Watch List tab and select supervised resources.

Setting performance objectives per employee is an important part of task management which allows to achieve Strategic Goal by dividing it into a number of sub-goals. The team leader or manager must do some steps to set individual performance objectives:

• Appoint and conduct meeting with each employee to describe his/her job and tasks
• Create and address a list of responsibilities to the employee
• Develop adequate individual performance objectives according to the employee’s major functions and responsibilities

The individual performance objectives must be based on information that is collected for management purposes and during the planning process.

VIP Task Manager is task management software which helps to set individual performance objectives and evaluate task performance per employee. With VIP Task Manager you can maintain appraisal activity and you develop performance objectives that are achievable, flexible, timely and rewarded. VIP Task Manager helps describe the desired results, provides direction and purpose, and defines measure and standard for performance. All these deliver improved performance.

Action plan:

• Start VIP Task Manager
• Create a task, use 'Notes' and 'Comments' tab to word individual performance goal
• Assign the task to an employee
• If needed, attach documentation to the task
• Set deadlines by using due date, start/finish dates, estimated and actual time
• Press Ok to save all changes

Note: use Custom field feature to specify qualitative and descriptive part of the individual performance objectives.

While controlling task performance, a project team leader may need to know a history of all changes over a task. For example, the assigned employee could face certain difficulties which caused the task procrastination or changing the due date to a more realistic one. Also changes may show team leader if assigned employee did something wrong like setting a lower priority for a task or reassigning it to another team member. Task management software will bring additional control over task list of the team members within a project because task history functionality gives extra methods of controlling, tracking and reporting on current task status and the history of changes.

VIP Task Manager is a comprehensive task management tool which gives the project team leader the instruments for tracking and documenting history of task changes. In VIP Task Manager each task has attribute “Task history” where the software logs all modifications. In Task History Panel the team leader can watch all changes of a task and print out the task history. Also task history can be included into the task report. In Task History Panel the team leader can track exact time and date of task changes, the resource who made changes and description of the changes.

Action plan:

• Run VIP Task Manager.
• To see a task changes, select the task and go to Task History Panel.
• To print out task history, press on “Print task history” button on the Task History Panel.
• To document task history, you need to include task history into the task report by checking item “History” in report dialog window.

In large and medium size projects the issue of arranging task list view and storing completed tasks has a significant importance because as much the task list is convenient and arranged as much easily employees can read and fulfil their tasks. The use of task filters and grouping cannot resolve the issue completely because this functionality does not allow to store accomplished tasks and projects.

VIP Task Manager has an "Archive Mode" in which you can store all completed and verified tasks and task groups. This option allows to arrange project and be oriented only on outstanding project tasks. When you are in archive mode of VIP Task Manager, you can apply filters and grouping to tasks and groups. Once a task or group is moved to archive, it disappears from the task list, and this allows the projects team leader and the team to be concentrated only on current uncompleted tasks.

Action plan:

• Run VIP Task Manager software.
• Filter all tasks by status field "Completed" and "Verified". You can press "Ctrl + A" to select all filtered tasks.
• When tasks are selected, right-click on them and choose "Move to archive".
• To get into the archive mode, go to File-Archive mode.
• While the tasks are archived, they cannot be modified .
• To get the tasks back from the archive mode, select the tasks, right-click and choose "Restore from archive".

Team task management requires intelligible planning, organizing, and managing of resources to achieve the successful completion of a task or a project. To ensure effective work performance, team management should take care about rational spending of these resources. The main resource within the project is time. Team coordinator should decide how to delegate tasks to multiple employees sufficiently in order to save these resources and at the same time do not harm the work performance.

You should not set narrow bounds for your employees by delegating them strong limits of time. This will put psychological pressure upon your employees and can harm work quality. Time bounds also should not be too broad because it can weaken your employees and (especially in combination with lack of discipline) can entail task postponing and delays. Time should be delegated in balanced way, so certain part of time resource that can be potentially delegated to employee should be "hidden". Saved resources can be directed to eliminate unforeseen issues or to perform extra-work.

VIP Task Manager is project resources management groupware that allows managing personnel, time and costs within your team projects.

To be sure that your tasks are delegated efficiently:

• Start project resources management software
• Make brake-down structure of your project with a help of Task Tree mode
• Delegate tasks to employees
• Estimate and set each task time scopes with a help of Scheduler(Calendar)
• Define the most problematic tasks and delegate enough time for them, so if they will be delayed this will not delay the whole project
• Use Time Grid View of Scheduler to set and assess time lags
• Use different time views of Scheduler to check out each employee's daily, weekly and monthly workloads

Team task management requires establishing of common project schedule visible for all team members involved in one project. Team members should be in touch with common project workflow - they should distinctly know in what tasks, events and appointments they are engaged and what time scopes are defined for each task. This will mobilize your team and gives them possibility to prioritize their activity by focusing on urgent tasks. Traditional on-wall paper schedule can help, however it is inconvenient and slow to update.

VIP Task Manager is task and time scheduling and execution tracking groupware that offers the Scheduler (Calendar) mode which can be accessed by multiple team members to view, plan and edit their tasks. This is the most convenient mode to see the duration of your tasks and lags between them using time grid with customizable scale, view your tasks duration (like Gantt chart), see tasks in day, week, month and year view, see task priorities, notes and info.

To ensure proper team scheduling you need to:

• start task scheduling software
• create new task in any of 3 available regimes (Task List, Task Tree, Scheduler)
• plan task by Start and End dates
• set estimated task duration and task recurrence if required
• set in-system/e-mail reminder if required
• assign task to team member
• ensure that team member possess system rights to view this task

When planning your tasks within project schedule, first of all define the time you have available, in other words define time-scopes of your project. Then you need to:

• Find out what tasks (activities, processes) are vital and basic for successful achievements of your goals.
• Estimate time that may take execution of each task.
• Prioritize your tasks, set tasks order.
• Fill project time-scopes with tasks according to your plan.

Try to leave enough time lags between successive tasks, to be sure that if some of your important tasks will be delayed you will not run out of project scopes.

VIP Task Manager is task and time management groupware thatfeatures the Scheduler (Calendar) mode.

You are able to plan and view your tasks on Calendar. This is convenient mode to see time length of your tasks and lags between them on time grid with customizable scale. Besides you can see your tasks duration on Time Grid view like on Gantt chart. You can view tasks in day, week, month and year view. Scheduler makes you able to operate with your tasks time lengths manually by drag-and-drop method.

• Start your team scheduling software
• Switch into Calendar mode
• Choose Time Grid View (Ctrl+5)
• Select required time period on Calendar
• Create tasks by clicking on time grid.
• Set task names, assignments, priorities and time scopes

Team coordinator should allocate workloads according to each employee’s effectiveness. Individual effectiveness is possibility of employee to perform maximum of tasks during certain period owing to such factors as optimized work process and appropriate professional skills. Increasing of team effectiveness is strongly related to improving of personal effectiveness. Excessive workloads assigned to ineffective employee can break the whole working plan.

It is necessary to detect the ineffectiveness of employee at the right time to prevent problems and define the possible reasons. One of the methods to define ineffectiveness is to discover irregularity in work results of employee. This means that employee fulfils vastly different volumes of typical work at the end of certain periods, especially when it contrasts with equal work performance of colleagues.

VIP Task Manager is team task and time management groupware that allows planning, reporting and tracking tasks and allows controlling of work productivity.

To discover irregularity in work results with a help of VIP Task Manager you can use the following method:

• start task management application
• open Task List mode
• set a value for attribute Date Completed in filter panel to see tasks completed on certain check date
• set task filter to show only tasks assigned to certain employee
• assess the results and print out report
• change attribute Date Completed to next check dates and repeat previous step
• compare obtained reports

When a project is being initiated, it is very important to bring all employees in the common detailed list of human resources involved the project. The list should have employee details like name, contact information (email, address, phone number), and participation in the project (job title, project role, administrator rights, permissions). Such a list can be printed out and the hard copy can be taken to project meetings on which managers define roles and responsibilities for each resource in the list.

Being a project manager, you can use VIP Task Manager software to create printable resource list. In Resource List view of the application there are listed all resources involved in project. You can print out this resource list by simply right-clicking on it and choosing one of available option for printing. For example, you can export the resource list view to MS Excel and edit it (change color, font size, etc.) before the print.

Action plan:

• Start VIP Task Manager software
• Go to Resource List view
• Group resource by department or job title for convenient view
• Right-click on resources and choose one of available options to print out resource list: Print, Print Preview, Export view to Excel, or Export view to HTML
• Print out resource list according to the chosen option

Specific company or department requires specific workflow for its tasks or even several specific workflow types. This is important because Sales department workflow surely differs from Research & Development department workflow and the tasks within these departments definitely feature different statuses within their lifecycle.

Specific software application helps companies to establish very workflows for each of departments. If you have such needs, VIP Task Manager can assist you in creating and implementing your specific task statuses, using custom workflow feature. The software allows to customize your task statuses and to make processes smooth and efficient.

Action plan:

• Open your task management software.
• Go to Tools-Custom Workflow.
• In opened window press "New workflow" ("Ins" key).
• Enter title of a new workflow and press Ok.
• Select the new workflow and press "Create new status".
• Enter new status parameters: Name, Value, Color, etc. and press ok.
• In such a way create a group of statuses to describe your new workflow.

When you create a new task group, you can specify workflow that will be appointed for all tasks inside the task group.

The aim of smart business management is increasing of employee work effectiveness, because this allows increasing of employee productivity. Effectiveness means that employee can organize work process in such way so he/she will be able to perform more work during the same time, even without additional energy consumption. When employee’s effectiveness increases, the workloads can be increased as well.

The simplest way to define if employee works ineffectively is to define evident lack of productivity in comparison with other employees. This can be the backgrounds to discover reasons of ineffective work. Possible reason can be unequal workloads (if employee does not possess required skills yet etc.) and workloads should be temporarily decreased, or perhaps because of inefficient task planning/prioritizing.

VIP Task Manager is task and time management groupware that allows to report and track work performance within the working team. It allows monitoring the common progress to define issues and quickly re-plan workloads if needed.

To analyze employees productivity periodically with a help of VIP Task Manager you need to:

• start work planning application
• choose most convenient mode for this - Task List
• set Filters panel to show only positive task statuses of your workflow like Complete, In progress, Verified and so on
• set Filters panel to show only tasks assigned to certain employee
• monitor the result – assess total number of tasks with positive statuses, how many tasks are completed and verified, how many are in progress and what is average percent of completeness among these tasks etc.
• select in Filter panel all required employees by turns and track/compare their results

Often task management requires not only time and performance management, but costs calculations as well. Frequently it is necessary to plan and report task costs in the context of the team project. For example when certain project stage consists of tasks consecution and each of these tasks has estimated costs, it’s very useful to automatically calculate the cost of the projects or its stages.

VIP Task Manager is task management groupware that allows task and time planning, tracking and reporting. Owing to capability to create additional task attributes of various types and calculated fields with formulas, VIP Task Manager can be set for planning and reporting costs.

To manage costs you need to create custom task attribute, let’s name it "estimated cost". This custom field should be enabled for all tasks and task groups where cost calculations needed.

• start your task management application
• create additional numeric task attribute "estimated cost"
• set "estimated cost" value for each task where cost calculation is required
• control the total amount of estimated costs using Sum function on the table footer in Task List mode
• define minimal, maximal and average cost within the all tasks
• use pie diagram to assess the part of each task within total amount

In general, project manager is a person responsible for success of the project and control over each task of the project. The responsibilities of project manager embrace all phases of the project from initiating tasks to the project closure. Project manager should be oriented to team control and coordination throughout the project lifecycle to achieve project objectives and to meet requirement of stakeholders.

Properly selected project management software should give flexibility to set project manager's role. VIP Task Manager allows to define responsibilities and role of project manager. You can add the role, and define responsibilities by setting overall permissions or make particular restrictions to a task or a task group. The system can set limitation to the project manager's role in viewing, creating, editing or deleting tasks.

Action plan:

• Launch VIP Task Manager Professional edition and log in the database by administrator
• Go to Resource List view
• In Roles Panel create a new role "Project Manager"
• Create a new resource for Project Manager
• Select just created resource and check role "Project Manager" in Roles Panel.
• Go to Task Tree view
• Select the route task group of the project
• Go to Permissions Panel
• Select Project Manager's role and set "Allow" option to all column (View, Create, Edit, and Delete)

Note that you can use default role "Unlimited" which gives the project manager full responsibility for the project and the unlimited permission to all tasks and task groups within given database.

During a project lifecycle there are a number of necessities to restrict or expand appropriate employee's permission level to tasks, and so share them between project participants. For example, such necessities can appear when delegating or re-assigning tasks. Usage of permissions mode in project management software gives obvious advantages to the project and makes project management more flexible and efficient. In VIP Task Manager you can set appropriate employee's permissions to tasks using Permissions panel. Permissions on tasks enable you to assign roles and responsibilities when you want that only select people to be able to watch or change tasks. By using Permissions panel in VIP Task Manager, you can allow some users of the database to perform tasks, whereas denying others of the privilege.

Action plan:

• Launch VIP Task Manager Professional edition
• Go to Task Tree view
• Decide which task(s) and task group(s) are to be restricted or expanded
• Select those tasks and task groups (hold Ctrl key to select various items)
• Go to Permissions panel in which all available resources are listed
• Choose those resources whom you want to restrict or expand permissions
• For the selected resources choose appropriate permission column: View, Create, Edit, Delete, and Setting permissions.
• Select "Allow" or "Deny" in each permission column. For example, you have a project team responsible for task list inside a task group. You can set "Allow" option for "View" and "Edit" columns to this task group. So each team member will be able to work with task list, but not to add new tasks or delete them. Only the project manager can have full permission level to the task list.

Graph reports on task progress are a convenient and quick way to get imagination about how your employees perform their tasks and whether they should be pushed on to meet project objectives. If you are a team-leader, you probably need to know what overall progress of assigned tasks and which employees of your team endanger the whole process.

VIP Task Manager allows to build completion reports for a task or a task group in easy and quick manner. The software has several chart types which help you analyze task performance of your team and get printed copies of charts. For example, In VIP Task Manager you can choose Pie Diagram to graphically represent overall task progress of the task group as a circle divided into zones. Each zone corresponds to a particular task inside the task group. In such a way you will convenient graphic report of task progress.

Action plan:

1. Launch VIP Task Manager and enter your company database.
2. Select a task group that contains tasks to be included in graph report.
3. Go to Charts panel.
4. Choose one of five chart types: Bar diagram, Line diagram, Pie diagram, Area diagram or Column diagram.
5. Select "Complete" value from the drop down list on Charts panel.
6. Go to Print Preview to check how the report will be printed out.
7. In the Print preview, press on Print button to get hard copy of the report.

Often companies that conduct a big number of projects and tasks, confront with the issue of receiving a lot of task notifications regarding each task that should be displayed on convenient and flexible view. An employee can receive dozens of notifications and he needs to be able to quickly find his bearings to proceed with his task list. In such a case the filtering of task notifications, probably, is the best solution. If an employee could cut off task notifications by date or by creator, then it would help him quickly be focused on the hot test and prioritized tasks. VIP Task Manager has Notifications panel with advanced filter. You can filter and sort notifications by date and creator of task notifications so that be quickly focused on current task progress.

Action plan

Filtering by "Dated Created"

1. Activate filter bar in Notification panel
2. Select drop down list next to the "Date Created" field
3. Choose one of the available options: Relative, Date, or Range.
4. For each of those options you can specify a period of time. For example, you can display all notifications received within last week: Date Created-Relative-Last Week; or within a range (e.g. from 2nd till 12th of October): Date Created-Range-Select the days range

Filtering by "Creator"

• Select drop down list next to the "Creator" field
• In the list choose which resource notifications you want to display
• Press Ok

Once you set a filter, you can erase it by clicking on "Clear filter" button on the Notifications panel.

Time is the most important and scarce resource a company has. Better management of time spent on tasks execution allows the company to increase employee productivity and gain more profits. Employees should fully complete their tasks in shor test terms according to the standards and rules of the company. Probably, this is one of key factors of company succeeding. But how to find out what exact time an employee spent to complete a task? If you could have such statistics, you would be able to analyze employee productivity and improve task management. Using VIP Task Manager you can get time duration spent on each task by an employee or a group of employees. The flexible mechanism of custom fields allows you to apply mathematical formulas and logical expressions for building time calculation algorithms.

Action plan:

• Start VIP Task Manager software
• Go to Tools-Custom Field
• In open window create new custom field "Task Duration"
• Set the custom field value type "Duration"
• Input the following expression in the field formula of the custom field: "$date_completed-$date_started"
• Save changes in the custom field
• In Task Tree view right-click on column bar and check custom field "Duration"
• Create a task and assign it to an employee
• Set default task status "Draft" and save changes
• When employee begin to perform, the task the system displays exact date and time in the "Date Created" column
• When employee accomplishes the task, the system displays exact date and time in the column "Date Completed"
• Once task is completed, the custom field "Duration" calculates task time duration and outputs value in days or/and hours format

When a manager is involved in task scheduling process, he needs to be sure that assigned employees will complete their task lists in time and according to the schedule. He should remind employees about important and crucial tasks. The best way to automate this process for the manager is to use task scheduling software which allows to set reminders for exact dates/time or before/after these dates.

VIP Task Manager task scheduling software has reminder which enables employees to fight procrastinations and complete tasks in time. Task reminder is intended to remind you about any action or event. According to reminder parameters, there will be the special window with short description of the event on the screen. Once reminder window is appeared you can dismiss it or put on sleep for a time (e.g. 5, 10, 15 minutes).

Action plan

• Create a new task
• In the open window select "Reminder" tab
• Check Reminder field
• Select reminder options: "At" or "Before"
• If you want the system to alarm you at exact date and time, select option "At"
• Otherwise you can set reminder before the task start time, finish time or Due date. For example, set reminder before 1 day of the task starting: Reminder-Before-Start Time-1day.
• Select resource(s) the system should remind in "Resource" field.
• Input text message that will be enclosed to the reminder alert.

Once reminder is set, the "Info" column displays appropriate icon in the task list so you can quickly check which tasks have reminder.

Some employees within your company can sometimes or often work outside of the office. In this case they should be timely informed of all the tasks they are assign to. The issue of notifying of remote and on-site employee is important so the company should use task management software which allows to inform on-site employees about assigned task list by email.

VIP Task Manager allows to send tasks by email and receive notifications right in your email box. These capabilities make it possible to be out of office database and, however, to know ongoing task progress and to have task list in your hands. For example, you can create a task list for your on-site employee and send him task list. The employee can get this task list in his email box and print it out to have a hard copy. VIP Task Manager uses Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to send tasks and notifications by email. You can adjust SMTP to inform all involved persons about task progress. In VIP Task Manager SMTP setting tool is Database Manager.

Action plan

From your desktop:

• Start-Programs-VIP Quality Software-VIP Task Manager-Database Manager.
• Launch Database Manager.
• Go to SMTP tab.
• Check in "Enable E-Mail sending".
• Fill in all required fields:
• Host
• Port
• Authentication
• User
• Password
• Sender name
• Sender’s email
• Click on Test button to get your setting test ed.
• Click Apply button and close Database Manager

Task progress supposes many changes within its lifecycle, for example, a task should go from initial status till completion status step by step or the deadline of a task can be moved back and forth . Information about any change should be immediately delivered to all concerned. The issue of notifying remote or on-site employees becomes critical if they do not have access to the database and so cannot be aware of their task list progress.

VIP Task Manager has customizable system of automated notifications allowing users to be informed by e-mail in case of any actions with tasks. Administrator or Project Manager can define which types of task event should be sent to a resource. In other words, the manager determines what task modifications a resource should be notified of. For example, a resource can receive notifications if task status was increased, or "Due date" was changed. The full list of event types can be found in "Notifications" tab of "Edit Resource" window.

Action plan:

• Go to Database Manager (Desktop- Start-Programs-VIP Quality Software-VIP Task Manager-Database Manager ).
• Check and fill in all required fields in SMTP tab.
• In VIP Task Manager go to Resource list view.
• Open a resource and select to Notifications tab.
• Check in "Send notifications by E-Mail" option.
• Select event type to be included in notification message once task is modified
• Press Ok.

The project manager is a key person appointed to manage tasks in a project from its initial stage (approval) to project completion. The role of project manager is to manage the development, implementation and completion of a group of tasks or a group of projects. This key project participant takes overall accountability for establishing project base-line, managing project changes and controlling task performance. The area of responsibility of project manager concerns the activities like those:

• Project integration management
• Project scope management
• Project quality management
• Project change management
• Project cost management
• Project risk management
• Project procurement management
• Project time management

Orientation to team collaboration and coordination should be the basic lines of project manager activities. Managing the team task performance, he determines whether overall project progress is recognized as a valid and acceptable against project plan. The project manager collects metrics data (such as baseline, task actual and estimated time, schedule, task priority and task statuses) and reports on project progress to stakeholders. Throughout the project life cycle the project manager is focused on intermediate and final outcomes to lead the project to succeeding. The project manager is involved in planning, controlling and monitoring the project, and also coordinating the assigned project resources to meet project objectives.

Among a variety of project management software VIP Task Manager is distinguished by perfect usability and powerful functionality. The software creates a project in single database with capability to share the project and tasks with all participants and stakeholders. The project manager is able to get full control over the project database. Using Task Tree view he can create a work breakdown structure of the project with any depth and multiple levels. Using Resource list view the project manager can manage resources involved in the project. There are two tools to set role and responsibility to project manager: Roles panel and Permission panel.

Here are some steps to set project manager’s role in the project using VIP Task Manager Professional edition:

• Open a project database
• Go to Resource List view
• Create a new resource for project manager entering Name, Job Title, Email, Password, etc.
• In Roles panel create role "Project Manager"
• Select the resource and check the role "Project Manager" in
• In Task Tree view go to Permission panel
• Select appropriate resource of project manager
• Set allow/deny options to the resource according to the project policy

The sharing task documentation feature is intended to provide project team with required information regarding project tasks and to support them during project operations and management. Project management software should maintain this functionality to guarantee the project succeeding. All task status information, reporting and documentation for decision making are based on project plan and project concept. When this project documentation is done on the initial phase, the next steps of project management are to provide remote access to this documentation and to share it with all responsible and related project participants providing up-to-date status information, as well as details concerning aspects of the project progress. VIP Task Manager allows to attach project documents in any formats to a task and share it with a list of resources registered in the project database.

VIP Task Manager has advanced sharing feature that allows office and mobile workers to communicate and get task statuses updated quickly, and to share multilevel task structure with documents attached, including audio, video, text, graphic documents. The software is based on reliable server technology Firebird and incorporates intuitive user interface with quick information processing. Using the system of tasks emailing you can send by email a task with any project document attached to a remote resource or a group. Without having access to the company database, this resource can get task with attachment to his pocket PC. All he should do is to set his pocket PC on receiving regular email messages . In this way all documentation generated during the project development by management is securely stored in a central company database, however this documentation can be transferred to all onsite and remote users.

Some tips to help you share the project documentation:

• Define who should watch and edit documents on the project
• Define what kind of documentation is needed to be shared
• Define what special information is needed for different project stakeholders
• Define and setting permission (for example, permission to view, edit, create or delete a task with documents attached
• Assign a person responsible for keeping and updating the documents

Action plan

Keep an eye on your To Do List

The tasks in our To Do List have different statuses, some of them are already completed or canceled, others are in process or put on hold, etc. It is a normal working process, but if at some moment it turns out that we have too much tasks that are put on hold or uncompleted for a long time, it’s necessary to take appropriate measures. So, it’s extremely important to control the number of the tasks with different statuses.

"Tracking task statuses" To Do List

• From time to time don’t forget to track your tasks
• Track how many tasks are not completed, put on hold, etc
• Use software to calculate the number of the tasks with different statuses

Action plan

1. Start your task management software
2. Group your tasks by "Status" field
3. Go to Chart panel
4. Track the statistics of your tasks on the chart

See also:

Anchors for effective work start

If you often spend much time before start accomplishing some tasks, try to use some ‘anchor’. It is some subject that is connected with a certain emotional state for you. When we need to start the work on this task, we ‘turn on’ required anchor, ‘come into’ this state and in that way make yourself proceed to the task. If you try this simple advice, you will save much time that you used to spend on ‘switching’ to the work.

"Setting anchors" To Do List

• Most often people use music as an anchor. Try to connect different kinds of music to different kinds of tasks
• Use selected anchor only when you need to accomplish this particular task
• Use software to attach any music files to the task

Action plan

1. Start your task management software
2. Create a new task
3. Open "Attachment" tab and attach some musical file that you connected with this task
4. Open this file and start doing task

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You should realize how much time a new project will take

When you plan a new project, you should estimate how much time it will take. As each project consists of a great number of subprojects and subtasks, it’s difficult to determine its estimated time at once. First, you need to set each task and define the time that it will take and only then you will be able to calculate project’s total estimated time and to set your further working plans.

"Project estimated time" To Do List

• Start project setting from setting its tasks
• Estimate the time that each task can take
• Use software to calculate project estimated time

Action plan

1. Start your task management software
2. Create a new task group, e.g. "Project 1"
3. Create its subgroups and tasks
4. Enter tasks' estimated time
5. At "Estimated time" field of "Project 1" task group you will estimated time total value

See also:

Reports on the sales via several clicks

Creating reports allows the leader to evaluate the work of department or particular managers. For example, if it is a sales company, a report can demonstrate how many products were sold by what team member, what kind of product each of them sold and how much money his/her sales made. Looking at this report a team leader will be able to estimate the productivity of each sales manager and reward his/her efforts according to the merits.

"Making sales reports" To Do List

• Before creating report, define what products you need to report about
• Ask the leader what time interval he/she wants to be reported about
• Use software to create graphic report on arranged sales deals

Action plan

• Start your team management software
• Create a new custom fields 'Quantity', 'Price', 'Total' and 'Product'
• Enter following formula into ‘Formula’ entry field of ‘Total’ custom field

$cf_quantity * $cf_price

• Set filter to display the tasks of required resources and for required time interval
• Enter task custom field values and group the tasks by ‘Assigned’ and ‘Product’ fields
• Go to Charts panel and select ‘Total’ from drop-down list on Charts toolbar
• Print out the chart

See also:

Step by step towards the goal

In order to achieve something in your life first you need to define your goals. You can do it by using sequential switch from ordinary tasks to the goals that include them. For example, ask yourself why you create a report. Obviously, the answer is to consolidate your status in the company. Why do you need it? Probably, you want to achieve career development. Why is it important for ? You want to become independent . So, with the help of several steps from your current tasks you defined your main goal.

"Setting goals" To Do List

• Pay attention to the tasks that you perform
• Ask yourself why you perform them and step by step define your main goals
• Think what else you can do to achieve your goal
• Use software to set your goals

Action plan

1. Start your task management software
2. Create a new task that describes your goal
3. Enter additional information into task notes section, if necessary
4. Continue doing your tasks

See also:

Procrastination may become a system

Let's imagine that you need to back up the information on your computer each week. If you forget to do it once, it doesn't matter. But when some virus attacks your PC and backup copy wasn't created for a long time, the losses can be great. If you regularly tracked your To Do List, you'd discover that this task was ignored for a long time. Overview of your regular tasks and their statuses will give you a warning that some of them are put off too often.

"Tracking regular tasks" To Do List

• Create a schedule of your regular tasks for a certain time period, for example for a week
• Mark completed tasks in order that you will be able to define whether it's accomplished at the end of the week
• Use software to track regular tasks and discover procrastinations

Action plan

1. Start your Task Management software
2. Set filter to display uncompleted tasks
3. Track regular tasks by their Date Created field
4. If some task isn't accomplished for a long time, take appropriate measures

See also:

Project accomplishment should be carefully organized

Usually any project consists of several subprojects each of them can include some more small subprojects and tasks . Each task should be delegated to a certain team member . All tasks must be recorded in the form of To Do List in order to let each person organize his / her workflow . So , the process of project setting and organization can take much time. You can save great part of this time by using specific project management software.

"Setting project" To Do List

• When you set the project , start from dividing it into the smaller subprojects
• Think over the tasks that should be done within each subproject
• Select the most appropriate team members to accomplish each task
• Use software to set project tasks and assign them to required resources

Action plan

1. Start your team management software
2. Create a new task group , for example “ Project 1” and its subgroups if required
3. Set filter by required task group or subgroup
4. Create new tasks
5. Assign the tasks to required resources

See also:

Let your subconsciousness solve complex problem by itself

Tasks can be delegated not only to the people, but to your subconsciousness. Let’s imagine that you have a complex task that can’t be divided into smaller ones. The most effective way for solving such problem is to obtain as much information about it as possible during certain period of time and then completely ‘switch’ to some other tasks and be busy with them for definite time. You will see how desired solution will be found during or after accomplishing the tasks that are not related to your problem as your subconsciousness continues working on it.

"Delegating to subconsciousness" To Do List

• When you have a complex problem, don’t be afraid if you can’t solve it at once
• Obtain as much information about this problem as possible and then turn your attention to some other tasks that are not related to it
• In some time return to this problem and try to solve it again
• Use software to schedule the time for finding the solution of your problem and then accomplishing other tasks

Action plan

1. Start your organizer software
2. Create a new task to solve a complex problem
3. Schedule it to required time interval
4. Create and schedule other tasks to the next time period
5. Return to the problem after you accomplished other tasks

See also:

CPI helps to estimate the effectiveness of your staff

When you compare the time that was scheduled to particular task and the time that this task actually took, you should make definite conclusions about the productivity of employee who the task was delegated to. Calculate the value of cost performance index (CPI), i.e. the ratio between task estimated and actual time, and you will see whether you have any problems with the time of task accomplishment and your staff productivity.

"Cost Performance Index calculation" To Do List

• When you assign the task to your employee, estimate the time that it may take, you can do it together with your team member
• When the task is accomplished, calculate the ration between its estimated and actual time
• Make proper conclusions in accordance with obtained value
• Use software to calculate task cost performance index

Action plan

1. Start your team management software
2. Create new task custom fields ‘Task actual time’, ‘Task estimated time’ and ‘CPI’
3. Enter the value of ‘Task actual time’ and ‘Task estimated time’
4. Enter following formula into ‘Task CPI’ formula entry field

$cf_task_estimated_time / $cf_task_actual_time

5. Estimate the value of CPI

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Take your time under control

Any working process can’t go without permanent time control. If you forget about the time, you can easily procrastinate with the tasks and exceed their due date. Constantly overdue results of your work may cause that your leader and team mates will consider you are non-punctual and irresponsible person. In order to avoid such impression and deserve the respect of your colleagues and direction, get into a habit to control how mush time is left before task due date and how much time you still need to accomplish it.

“Tracking due date and time left” To Do List

• While working on the task, don’t forget about the time
• Periodically estimate what part of the task is already done, how much time you will still need to accomplish it and how much time is left before task deadline
• Use software to track task due date and time left

Action plan

1. Start your task management software
2. Set filter to display only uncompleted tasks
3. Display ‘Time Left’ and ‘Due Date’ columns
4. Compare the time in both columns
5. Take appropriate measures if you discover the procrastination with some task

See also:

Never stand still

In order to constantly produce the highest quality in our changing world, it’s necessary to improve the products you put out and the processes that provide them. Competent company managers always try to find new techniques or methods that can increase the productiveness and quality of company work. So, always assign the time for planning the improvement of work organization and conditions and your company will stay effective and competitive.

"Planning the improvement" To Do List

• Find out what points of your company or department work should be reconsidered
• If you have some ideas what should be done, note them and prepare to discuss with your staff
• Use software to plan the improvement of working processes

Action plan

1. Start your task management software
2. Create a new task 'Work Improvement'
3. Open Notes tab and enter your ideas
4. Click 'Ok'

See also:

The tasks can be assigned to resources automatically

Frequently certain managers in the company work with particular clients and the tasks that are related to these clients should be automatically assigned to team member who had dealings with them earlier. In our days of advance you can simply lighten your working process and save time even on delegating and assigning the tasks to your employees. All you need for that is to have specific team management software that will help to spend less time on work organization and more time on your productivity increase.

"Automatic assignment" To Do List

• When you are delegated the task that is also assigned on your colleagues, start doing your part of the task
• When it's completed, don't hurry up to run to other team members and tell them that you did it or any other details about the task
• Use software to exchange the comments about the task with your colleagues

Action plan

1. Start your team management software
2. Create new task custom fields ‘Assignment’ and ‘Client’
3. Into the formula entry field of custom field ‘Assignment’ enter following formula:

iif ($cf_client=1, 2, iif($cf_client=2, 1, 3))

4. Create a new task and enter its 'Client' field

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How to avoid procrastination

If you often tend to procrastinate with some task and don’t know how to improve your effectiveness, this article is exactly for you. Here is a simple but useful tip. Try to schedule definite time when you have rights to do this and only this task and nothing else. When you start procrastinating with accomplishing the task, you have nothing that can replace it except doing nothing. But by doing nothing you feel how your time is passing, start worrying and finally proceed to the task.

"Scheduling time to the task" To Do List

• Stop procrastinating with unpleasant task
• Schedule exact time that is assigned only for this task
• Even if you procrastinate with task accomplishment during this time, don’t proceed to something else
• Use software to schedule exact time to accomplish definite task

Action plan

• Start your organizer software
• Create a new task
• Schedule it to appropriate time
• Work only on this task during this time

See also:

Encouraging words can greatly motivate employees

Each person needs to be important and valuable for the company and people he or she works with. It can motivate the individual to become more and more productive. Sometimes it’s enough to say one encouraging word and the employee feels that you appreciate his/her professional and personal characteristics. It takes you a moment but may make a great profit in the future. Just deposit several minutes and you will have well-motivated and highly-effective team member.

"Appreciating employees" To Do List

• Think how often you say encouraging words to your employees
• If you didn’t pay attention to it earlier, change your politics now and don’t forget to motivate your team members with some kind and encouraging words. It may be while you are assigning a new task to them or checking already done one, etc
• Use software to add some comments to employees’ tasks

Action plan

1. Start your team management software
2. Open the task that you assigned to your employee
3. Open task Comments section and add some encouraging words
4. Continue your work

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A task is like a meeting

Imagine that you can’t start working on some high-priority task because there is always something that hampers you. Let us suggest a simple but useful tip to you. When you need to meet with a certain person, you will certainly be able to protect this time from other tasks. So, try to schedule the meeting with yourself and treat to the time of this meeting in the same way as you appreciate other meetings – you can’t put off or miss it. Now you can be assure that the task will be started exactly in time.

"Meeting with a task" To Do List

• If you have a task that must be necessary done but you put it off for a long time, change your approach to it
• Imagine that you are assigned to attend the meeting and you can’t miss it or be late
• Use software to schedule the task

Action plan

• Start your organizer software
• Create a new task
• Assign it to the most appropriate time
• Start doing the task

See also:

Reports on completed tasks are useful both for employee and employer

Creating reports is integral part of any work as any team leader needs to control the work of his/her company or department. Reports on completed tasks allows manager to evaluate the work that was carried out by the employee, and team members can demonstrate how much productive they are. When the employee remembers that the work he/she does will be checked, it motivates him/her to work more effectively in order that employer can appreciate spent efforts at their true value.

"Reporting on completed tasks" To Do List

• Define what time interval you need to report about
• Find out what kind of report your employer wants, printed out or exported to Excel
• Use software to make report on the tasks completed during definite time period

Action plan

1. Start your task management software
2. Set filter to display only tasks completed during required time interval
3. Print out the tasks or export them to MS Excel
4. Continue doing your work

See also:

Out of sight, out of mind

The task that you are assigned to do may become non-relevant at some moment and should be put off till the time when it is important again. It’s a normal situation but the problem is that we can easily forget to come back to this task and it will never be accomplished. Postponed once, the problem is put aside and disappears from our mind till we come across it by chance. But when it happens, we probably don’t need it any more. What can be done to avoid such situation?

"Tracking postponed tasks" To Do List

• If you put off a certain task in your To Do List till some time, don’t forget to come back to it
• Get into a habit to track the tasks that were postponed for some time
• Use software to create a recurrent task to track the tasks that you put off

Action plan

1. Start your Task Management software
2. Create a new task 'Track put off tasks'
3. Set it to repeat every week or every month
4. Continue doing your tasks

See also:

Use software to save time and efforts

In our business life we often face the necessity to make some statistics calculations per the projects or groups of tasks. For example, you need to calculate total budget obtained as a result of several sales operations. It takes much time and energy especially when there is a great volume of data. Why waste the time on the task that can be automated with the help of software. It would be more effective to automate the calculation process, use saved time for other more important tasks and in that way increase your productivity and save the efforts.

"Automate calculations" To Do List

• Pay attention what kind of calculations you frequently make to get some statistics per the project or the tasks you’ve done
• Think if it’s possible to arrange this data and calculations in such a way that they can be automated
• Use software to store the data and calculate them

Action plan

1. Start your task management software
2. Create a new task group, e.g. 'Project 1'
3. Create a new custom field, for example 'Budget'
4. If required, make it aggregated per other data, e.g. budget = quantity * price
5. Make it aggregated for the task group, e.g. count the total budget for ‘Project 1’ task group

See also:

Two birds with one stone

When we start a big project, we need some time to draw into it. To relief this process and to use this time rationally, it’s recommended to accomplish some small tasks that are related to the project in one way or another. While working on the task that is similar to the future project, you make up your mind to the right direction and unconsciously prepare yourself to proceed to the project. So, you kill two birds with one stone – accomplish one more task and get ready to start a serious work.

"Proceeding to a big project" To Do List

• Before you start a big and serious project, think what tasks you should accomplish to get everything ready for this important work
• Accomplish these tasks before you proceed to the project and it will be easier for you to redirect your attention to its accomplishment
• Use software to schedule appropriate tasks to the proper time before starting a new project

Action plan

• Start your task management software
• Create a new task
• Schedule this task to the time before you plan to proceed to a new project
• Start doing the task and then switch your attention to the project

See also:

Tracking the tasks can motivate you to accomplish more

Comparing the tasks that you scheduled to this day and the tasks that you actually accomplished is very important part of work organization. Firstly, if the task is overdue and it happens more and more often, you can timely discover problems with your time management and start working on its improvement. Secondly, you will motivate yourself to work more productively when you realize that the task is accomplished in time or even earlier. So, in any case it’s useful for your effectiveness to track your To Do List during the day.

"Tracking the tasks during the day" To Do List

• As you accomplished a task, mark it as completed and record the time that you spent on it
• During the day compare the state of your actual work with your today To Do List
• Make proper conclusions in accordance with your work results
• Use software to track the tasks assigned to this day

Action plan

1. Start your task management software
2. Set filter to display only the tasks assigned to this day
3. As you accomplished some task, change its status to ‘Completed’ and enter Actual time
4. From time to time track the tasks and realize whether you are as productive as you planned

See also:

How to prevent your colleagues from overloading you

Do you suffer from constantly growing list of the tasks assigned to you? You work hard and productively but your To Do List doesn’t become smaller, but bigger and bigger. What is the reason? Maybe your colleagues and employers don’t realize the volume of your current work and constantly add some more one. The only solution is to let them know that you are up to your neck in work. In that case they will first think whether you are able to accomplish one more task without stress and overwhelming and won’t press on you.

"Available task list" To Do List

• Put all your tasks, their due dates and statuses on the list
• Keep this list available for your employers and colleagues
• Use software to keep your colleagues aware of the tasks in your To Do List

Action plan

1. Start your team management software
2. Create the tasks you need to accomplish
3. Enter their statuses and due dates
4. Grant your colleagues the permission to view your task list

See also:

Control the time that you spent on the project

When the project is already accomplished, it’s useful to compare the time that was estimated for its tasks at the beginning of the work and the time that was actually spent. By analyzing the difference between them, you and your colleagues can make up a conclusion about your productivity or procrastinations. Constant control under the time that you spend on the tasks will give you a possibility to discover whether you have any problems with time management, and to start working at your self-improvement in time.

“Reports on Actual and Estimated time” To Do List

• When the project is completed, don’t give it up at once
• Pick out the tasks that are related to this project and record the time that you actually spent on them
• Use software to make graphic report on project Estimated and Actual time and print it out

Action plan

1. Start your task management software
2. Set filter by required project’s task group
3. Enter task's Actual time
4. Go to Charts panel and select ‘Estimated time’ from the first drop-down list and ‘Actual time’ from the second drop-down list on Charts toolbar
5. Print out the report

See also:

'Newmavashy' method

If you think how to increase the productivity of the meetings in your company, we recommend you to try Japanese technique ‘newmavashy’. It consists in holding a meeting to prepare for the main meeting. It means the discussion of the subject within each of several team groups of the specialists. After that one or two persons from each group take part in the meeting. This method allows to effectively discuss the subject of the meeting and save the time of the teams.

"Newmavashy method" To Do List

• Before the meeting where specialists of different groups should take part, assign the meetings within each group
• After these small meetings assign one or two persons of each group to represent their group at the main meeting
• Use software to schedule small meetings within the groups and assign the representatives for the main meeting

Action plan

1. Start your team management software
2. Create new tasks ‘Discuss the subject’
3. Schedule them to the time before the main meeting and assign to required teams
4. Create a new task ‘Attend a meeting’
5. Assign required employees to this task

See also:

Meeting may be replaced by data exchange via computer

Everybody knows how much time can be wasted during the meeting. Frequently the aim of the meeting is to inform the team of some work innovations or project’s details and so on. There is no necessity to hold a meeting in order to spread such kind of information. By using a computer and specific software designed to exchange the data among the members of the team, you can easily provide required employees with new information and save their time for more important tasks.

"Information exchange" To Do List

• Before holding a meeting, stop and think whether it is really necessary
• If you just need to inform the team of some task or project details, don’t waste your employees’ time on attending the meeting
• Use software to provide the employees with required information

Action plan

1. Start your team management software
2. Open a task you need to discuss
3. Add comments to this task comments section
4. Assign required employees to receive notifications about task changes