Managing Your To-Dos

Creating to-dos across projects, statuses, priorities, what overdue means, who can see and change them, and why completing one never moves the schedule or clears a QC gate.

Help Center location: `/help/todos/todos-page-guide` — category **To-Dos**.
Stored unpublished for administrator review. Editable source: `docs/help/todos-page-guide.md`.

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**To-Dos** is your own running list of jobs: call the inspector, chase the window quote, order the
tub before tile starts. It is deliberately simple, and it is deliberately separate from the
construction **Schedule**.

Unlike most of OwnerDraw, this page is **not** limited to one project. It shows your to-dos across
every project you are on, plus any you created with no project at all. A project badge on each row
tells you where it belongs.

Nothing on this page moves a construction date, satisfies a QC check, or releases a payment.
Ticking a to-do off is exactly that: your note to yourself that it is done.

Start here

1. Select **New To-Do**.
2. Type a **Title** — the only required field. Write it as an action: "Order tub", not "Tub".
3. Optionally set **Priority** (Low / Medium / High), **Status**, **Due Date** and **Project**.
4. Select **Create To-Do**.
5. Tick the checkbox on a row when it is done. Select the row's title to reopen and edit it.

Leave **Project** as **Global (no project)** for anything that is not about one build — your own
licence renewal, a lender phone call, insurance paperwork.

Common actions

| I want to | Do this |
|---|---|
| Add a job | **New To-Do** → **Title** → **Create To-Do** |
| Mark it done | The checkbox on the row (it moves to the **Completed** tab) |
| Reopen it | Untick the checkbox, or open it and set **Status** back to **Open** |
| Edit anything | Select the row's title, change it, then **Save Changes** |
| Break it into steps | Open the to-do and add **Sub-tasks** (only available once it exists) |
| Attach a photo or file | Open the to-do → **Upload File** or **Camera** |
| Delete it | The bin icon on the row, then confirm |
| Narrow the list | **Search to-dos…**, **All Status**, **All Priority**, **Assigned to** |
| See one project only | Open To-Dos from that project's dashboard card |

The three numbers at the top

| Number | What it counts |
|---|---|
| **Open** | To-dos with status **Open** — not started |
| **In Progress** | To-dos you have moved to **In Progress** |
| **Overdue** | Not done, and the due date is *before* today |

**Overdue means yesterday or earlier.** Something due today is not overdue. The three counts cover
everything the page loaded for you, not just the rows left after filtering.

Statuses and priorities

  • **Open** → **In Progress** → **Done**. You move a to-do yourself; nothing moves it for you.
  • **Priority** is Low, Medium or High, shown as the coloured dot at the left of the row. It sorts
  • nothing automatically — it is there so you can filter to **High** on a bad week.
  • A completed to-do is greyed out and struck through, and lives under the **Completed** tab.
  • Nothing is ever deleted by completing it.

Who sees a to-do, and who can change it

| Your to-do | Who can see it |
|---|---|
| With a project | You, anyone it is assigned to, and everyone on that project whose **To-Dos** permission is read or better |
| **Global (no project)** | You, and anyone it is assigned to |

Changing a project to-do — title, status, due date, sub-tasks, attachments — needs write permission
for **To-Dos** on that project, or you must be its creator or its assignee. A seat on the project on
its own is not enough. Deleting is tighter still: the person who created it, or the project owner.
Where you are not allowed to act, the tick box is switched off and the bin icon is not shown, and
the same rule is enforced on the server, so nothing can disappear from your screen while it stays
stored.

**Clients cannot see or change to-dos at all.** The client portal has no To-Dos section, clients are
not offered in the assignee list, and a client's own request for project to-dos is refused. Do not
use a to-do to ask a client for something — send them a message, or an invoice, or a document to
sign.

**Assign to.** The **Project** list only offers projects you may add work to, and once you pick one,
**Assign to** lists the people on that project you are allowed to assign — never the whole user
directory, and never clients. Assignment is for project to-dos only; a **Global (no project)** item
stays private to you. An assignee finds the work on their own To-Dos page and can update or complete
it, but cannot delete it. If someone has left the project or has no name recorded, the row reads
**Unavailable member** rather than showing blank.

How this differs from the Schedule and from QC Checklists

This is the distinction that matters most, so it is worth being blunt:

| | To-Dos | Schedule | QC Checklists |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it holds | Your errands and follow-ups | Construction activities with dates | The checks you make on finished work |
| Dates | A single due date | Start and finish, with dependencies that shift other tasks | No dates |
| Effect elsewhere | **None** | Moving a task moves what depends on it | Gate items clear the draw pre-flight warning |
| Who it is for | You (and your team) | The build | Your quality record |

Completing a to-do does **not**: move a schedule task, mark a phase complete, tick a QC checklist
item, satisfy a payment gate, record an expense, or approve or release any money. If a job needs to
change the build's dates, do it on **Schedule**. If it is a check on work in place, do it on **QC
Checklists**.

*Professional builder note:* keep the Schedule for anything a sub's start date depends on, and use
To-Dos for the surrounding admin — permits, orders, calls, submittals. Mixing errands into the
Gantt is what makes a schedule stop being believed.

Notes, sub-tasks and attachments

  • **Description** is your free-text notes field, visible to anyone who can see the to-do.
  • **Sub-tasks** appear only after the to-do exists — create it, then open it again and add them.
  • Ticking sub-tasks does not complete the parent; you do that yourself.
  • **Attachments**: **Upload File** for anything on your device, **Camera** on a phone to photograph
  • something on site. Deleting the to-do deletes its sub-tasks and attachments too, and that cannot
  • be undone.

What is not here

  • **No reminders of any kind.** No email, no text, no push, and nothing in the notification bell. A
  • due date colours the row red once it passes; that is the whole reminder system.
  • **No recurring to-dos**, no start dates, no time estimates, no dependencies between to-dos.
  • **No sorting controls** — the list order is fixed; use the filters and the search box.
  • **No links to a budget line, vendor or schedule task** that you can set from this page.

On a phone

The page works on a phone: the three counts sit side by side, the filters stack, and rows stay
tappable. The project badge and assignee badge are hidden on narrow screens to keep titles
readable, so open a row if you need to check which project it belongs to. **Camera** on the to-do
form is the fastest way to attach a site photo to a job.

What do I do next?

| Situation | Do this |
|---|---|
| The job affects when a trade can start | Put it on **Schedule** as a task, not here |
| It is a check on completed work | Use **QC Checklists** for that trade |
| Someone else has to do it | Pick the project, then **Assign to** them — and tell them, because assignment does not notify anyone |
| It is really a cost | Record it on **Budget** or **Expenses** |
| It came out of a conversation | Create the to-do, and reply in the thread saying so |
| The list is unmanageable | Filter to **High** priority, clear the overdue rows first |

Common questions

**Do I get a reminder when something is due?** No. Nothing emails, texts or notifies you. The row
turns red and the **Overdue** count goes up.

**Is a to-do due today overdue?** No — overdue starts the day after the due date.

**Can I use to-dos without a project?** Yes. Choose **Global (no project)**.

**Can my team see my to-dos?** Project to-dos, yes — everyone on that project with To-Dos
permission. Global ones, no, unless they are assigned.

**Can my client see them?** No. There is no To-Dos page in the client portal, and their requests for
project to-dos are refused.

**Does ticking a to-do change my schedule or clear a QC gate?** No. It changes nothing outside this
page.

**Can I get a deleted to-do back?** No, and its sub-tasks and attachments go with it.

**Why can I not change or delete a to-do somebody else made?** Because you do not have write
permission for To-Dos on that project, or it is not yours to delete. Ask the project owner to change
your permission, or ask them to remove it.

**Can I sort by due date or priority?** Not yet. Use the filters.

Related guides

  • *Talking to Your Team with Messages* — where conversations belong
  • *Building and Updating Your Construction Schedule* — dates, dependencies and phases
  • *Using QC Checklists to Check Work* — checks on work in place, and payment gates
  • *Understanding Your Project Dashboard* — where your project to-dos also appear