Task Manager: Use groups to manage your staff

As companies grow, there's an increased need for structure. People begin to specialize, teams form, and work is divided. Most larger agencies feature complex hierarchies of people. To manage it all and ensure the right person does the right job, it's important that your task management software matches the way your organization works in the real world.

We're introducing groups to Task Manager. With this first release, managers will have a few new tools at their disposal to help manage their staff.

When was this released?

This feature was released on July 6, 2020.

What do groups let managers do?

For now, groups have two primary purposes:

1. Managers can structure their staff just like they do in real life
2. Managers can filter the Tasks > Overview page in Partner Center by group

We'll expand this in the future to include further functionality.

How do managers use groups to monitor productivity?

In Partner Center, managers can filter both the Overview and Productivity Report to showcase information on their groups.

For details on how these two areas can help you, see our articles on the Task Manager Overview and Productivity Report.

What does a group consist of?

Groups can contain Task Manager users and other groups. The relationship isn't one-to-one either, so you can add each user and group to as many groups as you'd like.

Take the following scenario:

In Group 1, you have...

• John Ellis
• Sam Brady
• Sara Lint

In Group 2, you have...

• Group 1
• Kathy Convo

Because Group 2 contains Group 1, everyone from Group 1 is included in Group 2. This makes the list of users associated with Group 2 the following:

• John Ellis
• Sam Brady
• Sara Lint
• Kathy Convo

In Group 3, you have...

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Sam Brady

We already listed the users for Group 1 and Group 2. Let's plug those into Group 3:

• Group 1
  • John Ellis
  • Sam Brady
  • Sara Lint
• Group 2
  • John Ellis
  • Sam Brady
  • Sara Lint
  • Kathy Convo
• Sam Brady

If we remove duplicate entries, we get:

• John Ellis
• Sam Brady
• Sara Lint
• Kathy Convo

Let's say in this instance, Sam Brady has gotten a promotion and is leaving the division, though he'll be handling a few clients for the foreseeable future. If the manager wanted to stop reporting on Sam Brady in Group 3, they would need to do one of the following:

• Option A: Remove Sam Brady from Groups 1 and 3
• Option B: Remove Group 1, Group 2, and Sam Brady from Group 3
• Option C: Remove Sam Brady and Group 1 from Group 3. Remove Sam Brady from Group 1.

The reason we can't just remove Sam Brady from Group 3 is that he's also listed in Group 1. If any group he is a part of has access to another group, Sam Brady will also have access.

How do managers create groups?

1. Sign in to Partner Center
2. Go to Tasks > Users
3. Click Create Group
   
4. Name the group
5. Add users and other groups
6. Click Create Group

Can I utilize groups directly in Task Manager?

At this time, groups can only be utilized in Partner Center. The groups you configure will be usable within Task Manager at a future date.