The Task Page

A task is the smallest record in Outlaw, and, once started, it is a time entry (see Tasks and time entries are the same thing). Its page has three sections: the task’s own fields, and two tabs, Notes & Attachments and Private Comments.

The Top Row

The page opens with the working controls, not the paperwork:

• The timer: start, pause, and accept time; mark the task complete (and adjust the completion date if you’re logging after the fact). Starting is the moment the task becomes a time entry, permanently assigned to whoever started it.
• The review flag: the firm owner can flag a task for review. The assignee sees it, revises, and sends it back for approval; the task carries the review trail.
• Emojis: if your firm has task emojis turned on in Task Settings, a quick reaction bar.

Two warnings can appear here too: a banner if the task belongs to a closed case (“don’t add billable time to it”), and the page itself takes on a warning tint when the case’s trust is running low against its unbilled work, the same early warning the case page gives you.

If the task is tied to a case, the case’s Financials summary (unbilled, billed and paid) shows right on the task, so you can see the money context without leaving your work.

The Task’s Fields

What and When

• Title: a short description of what needs to be done, used wherever the task is listed, in the grid, table, and calendar views and inside any lead, case, or campaign. A good title is something like “Email and texts with opposing counsel about resetting the hearing.” The title is also the default invoice text: if you leave the billable description blank, the title is what the client sees on the bill, so it’s worth writing the title for the client’s eyes too. On a new task the title field doubles as a template picker: start typing and pick one of your task templates to prefill the whole task, or just keep typing to name it fresh. (A task made from a template notes which one, at the bottom of the page.)
• Description: the longer write-up, where you show the steps involved and justify the time spent. Think of it as expanding the title into the story of the work. Where the title says “Email and texts with opposing counsel about resetting the hearing,” the description for a few hours of work might read: “Review emails with client and witness about availability. Email and texts with opposing counsel about resetting the hearing. Revise the order to include the new hearing date of July 2, 2023 and send to opposing counsel for signature. Review and save the signed order. Forward to the duty judge for court approval.” On a billable task this is the text that appears on the invoice, so write it for the client’s eyes; there’s a one-click button to copy the title down into it as a starting point. One warning: never put privileged information in the billable description, because it can end up in front of opposing counsel.
• Due Date: when the task must be done. Outlaw expects a due date by default (you can relax that in Task Settings).
• Estimated Time: your best guess at the hours required. The Tasks page adds these up into your total committed time for the day, color-coded by how realistic the day looks; tasks without an estimate count as zero, and the total shows a ”+” to admit it.
• Start Time: optional. Give a task a start time and it turns from an all-day calendar item into a scheduled appointment on your calendar (start time + estimated time).

Priority: Impact and Urgency

Outlaw prioritizes work by two ratings you set, each low, medium, or high:

• Impact is what the task means to the business: money, reputation, risk. High impact is a significant swing either way, a big payday if the task is done on time, or a grievance or sanctions if a deadline slips. Medium impact is a smaller move, like launching a marketing campaign you expect to bring in ten percent more business over the next six months. Low impact doesn’t really move the business, like deciding on a better list of drinks for the office fridge.
• Urgency is the timeframe: due today or tomorrow is high; “when you get to it” is low. Be honest about it, though, because something feeling urgent doesn’t make it urgent. A scathing email from a client who has no intention of paying you is not high urgency.

Together they drive the priority order on the Tasks page, so the list starts with what’s both consequential and pressing. Behind the scenes the two ratings combine into a single ranking from 1 (highest priority) down to 9 (lowest): high impact with high urgency is group 1, low impact with low urgency is group 9. The habit to build is to clear out everything in group 1 before you start on group 2, and so on down the list.

Categories Drive the Connections

Categories classify the work, and they steer the form. Pick a client-work category and the task asks for its case; a sales category asks for the lead(s); a marketing category asks for the campaign(s). The right Activity types for the chosen categories follow the same way. Categories and activities are managed in Settings, and they’re what make the time-by-category and time-by-activity reporting possible.

In the picker, global categories (the ones the whole firm shares) show in bold, while personal categories you’ve made for yourself, visible only to you, show in plain text.

You can select more than one category, but in almost every case you shouldn’t, because splitting a task across categories splits its time into equal portions for reporting and billing. Put both a billable category and a non-billable one on a single task and you end up with half the time billable and half not. Pick the one category that best fits the work unless you have a strong reason not to.

People and Place

• Assigned To: who owns the task. This can be a user, or a group, where any member can claim it. A task can only be assigned to a group while no time has been logged: once someone starts it, it’s theirs.
• Participants: other people directly involved, like the opposing counsel you called. No need to repeat the client; the case connection covers that. Searches find tasks by these names.
• Docket and Room Number: for case tasks, which docket call the task belongs to; pick a docket and the room number field appears.
• Private: a private task is visible only to its creator (and an assignee, if assigned to someone else). For sensitive matters and personal errands alike.

The Billing Fields

A Billable toggle controls the money column, available when the task is tied to a case (or a paid consult on a lead). Turn it on and the billing details open:

• Description: the invoice-facing text (this is where the description lives on a billable task). These entries should read like lines in a story, because that’s exactly how the client reads them on the invoice.
• No Charge: keeps the entry on the invoice at $0, so the client sees the work but isn’t charged for it. Common No Charge time includes a call to discuss the client’s invoice, a call about concerns over how the case is being handled, sub-minute tasks when you bill by the tenth of an hour, and drafting out-of-office or vacation letters. Exclude From Invoice: removes the entry from the invoice entirely, also at $0, for work the client shouldn’t see at all, like a junior attorney asking a senior how to do something, fixing a mistake you caused, drafting a motion for withdrawal, scheduling phone calls, or checking in after a distressing event. Either way, never delete a zeroed task: it’s still part of the case’s billed-and-paid story, and your time was still spent.
• Labor and travel: rate and time for each, prefilled from the case’s rates and the recorded time. Any of them can be overridden: cap a long courthouse drive at an hour, or write the time down. The invoice shows the overridden amount, but Outlaw still tracks the full time underneath, so your reports show what the write-down actually cost you.
• Total Cost: calculated from the rates, times, and your firm’s billing increment and rounding method (set in Invoicing settings), with an Override checkbox of its own.
• Flat Fee: on a flat-fee case, pick which flat fee this work belongs to; the entry itself bills at $0 because the fee, not the hours, is the price.

Once the task is on an invoice, the page shows the invoice number and date, and the billable fields lock when that invoice is finalized. An invoiced task can’t be deleted at all.

History and Templates

Like every record, the task carries its change history: every version, who made it, and when. At the bottom, Create Template from this Task turns a well-built task into a reusable template (a Global template is visible to the whole firm; templates get a Make a Favorite option so your go-to ones surface first).

The Two Tabs

• Notes & Attachments: notes and files specific to this task. Part of the case file like any other notes, and they roll up to the related case.
• Private Comments: internal notes about the task. These roll up too, so a comment here also surfaces on the task’s case, and is never part of the client’s file.

Unlike a case or lead, a task has no Time Entries section: there’s nothing to list, because the task is the time entry.

How This Connects

• Flows in. A task can be built from a template that prefills its estimate, assignee, and billing treatment, and its category ties it to a case, a lead, or a campaign — so the same kind of record carries marketing, sales, and case work alike.
• Flows out. A started task is the time entry: a billable one rolls into the case’s invoice (its description becomes the invoice line), and its hours feed the productivity and realization reports. A campaign or lead task counts as that effort’s labor.
• In time. Starting a task permanently assigns it to whoever started it; its billing fields lock when the invoice is finalized, and an invoiced task can’t be deleted — it stays part of the case’s billed-and-paid story. Like every record it keeps a full Blame Log. See How Outlaw Fits Together for the loop.