Report a task's status

The Tasks element of the diary shows what has to be done in this shift. Your job is not to finish every task — it is to report honestly where it stands. A “Not done” with a reason is worth far more to the next shift than a task left untouched.

Before you start

• Permission: the “Update task status” right (task:update_status).
• An open diary: in a closed or archived diary the status can no longer be changed.

Steps

1. Open the diary and scroll to the Tasks element.
2. Look at the task header. It carries the markers:
   • priority (e.g. High, Low),
   • Carried — the task rolled over from an earlier shift,
   • “shift 121” — how many shifts the task has been alive. This number is the most telling signal: if it is large, the task has been open for a long time.
   • history — opens what earlier shifts reported about it.
3. Pick the status from the four:
   • Not started — you did not begin it during the shift,
   • In progress — you began it but did not finish,
   • Done — it is complete,
   • Not done — you could not carry it out.
4. Write the text part — this is what the next shift will read:
   • for In progress: “How far did they get?”
   • for Not done: Reason — “Reason — why wasn’t it done?”
5. Click Save.

If it worked

The task takes the chosen status, and the text goes into the diary history: the next shift can read it back with the history button. A “Carried” task shows up in the next diary too, and its shift counter goes up by one.

Common problems

What you see	Why	What to do
“No tasks for this shift.”	No task was issued for this shift.	Nothing to do. Recurring tasks are issued by the system according to their schedule.
You cannot change the status	Either you do not have the task:update_status permission, or the diary is closed.	If the diary is open, ask your admin for the permission; in a closed diary the status is fixed.
The task is there again next shift	This is deliberate: an unfinished task carries over.	If it is complete, report it as Done — that closes the chain.
You are not sure what to write as the reason	—	Something concrete: “stopping the pump was left to the afternoon shift because the tank had not drained yet”. You are writing it for your future self.

Worth knowing

• There are four task kinds: One-time, Recurring, Scheduled and Carryover. A recurring task is issued by a template on its own; a carryover is one that came across from an earlier shift.
• “Not done” is not a failure. The failure is when nobody can tell why. The whole point of a shift diary is that the next handover knows where the work stands.
• Management sees it aggregated. On the Reports “Tasks” tab the site’s tasks appear as chains with their current status, together with a status summary.