Task Management for Teams That Actually Ship
Give every piece of work an owner, a date, and a place to live. Break big items into subtasks, track them on a board, and keep the conversation on the task itself.
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What is task management?
Task management is breaking work into individual items, giving each one an owner and a due date, and tracking it to completion. Orangescrum keeps tasks, subtasks, checklists, comments, and files together on one record, so the person doing the work has everything they need and the person tracking it can see status without asking.
Why work slips through
Everything a task needs to carry
01Record
Owner, dates, priority, status
Every task has an assignee, a start and due date, a high, medium, or low priority, and a status from your own workflow.
Estimate, time, progress
An estimate in hours, the time actually logged against it, and a completion percentage all sit on the same record.
Type and labels
Give the task a type such as bug, enhancement, or research, and tag it with as many labels as you need.
Custom fields
Add the fields your process needs, of the types it needs. Available on the Pro plan and above, and in Self-Hosted.
Approval
A task can be pending, reviewing, approved, or rejected, with a named approver on the record.
A reason when a date moves
When a due date changes, the person moving it picks a reason from a list you control, and the change is kept.
Arrange the fields
Order the fields on the task form to match how your team reads it. Available in Cloud and Self-Hosted.
02Breaking down
Subtasks
Nest work up to three levels deep, so a large item becomes pieces somebody can actually start.
Promote or demote
Turn a task into a subtask of another, or lift a subtask back out into a task of its own.
Checklists
Add a checklist for the steps inside a task, with reusable templates for work you repeat.
03Relationships
Four dependency types
Finish to start, start to start, finish to finish, and start to finish, with a check that refuses a circular chain.
Linked tasks
Link work as related to, duplicated by, or derived from, and see the count of relations on the task.
Move or copy elsewhere
Send a task to another project, or copy it, and choose what happens to its assignee.
04Collaboration
Comments
Rich text comments on the task, editable after the fact, with files attached to the comment itself.
Mentions
Mention a colleague and they are notified and pulled into the thread, without a separate message.
Files
Upload attachments, preview a PDF in place, download them, and remove the ones you no longer need.
Watchers
Follow a task, mute it, add somebody else as a watcher, and get a digest of what changed. Available in Cloud and Self-Hosted.
Full history
Every field change is recorded with who made it and when, so nothing about the task is a mystery later.
05Repeating
Recurring tasks
Repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, with an interval, chosen weekdays, and an end of never, after a count, or on a date.
Reminders
Set a reminder on a task for yourself or for other people, so a date is not the only prompt.
Rules that run for you
When a task is created or its status changes, assign it or notify someone automatically. Available on the Pro plan and above, and in Self-Hosted.
06Views
Five ways to look at it
A list, a board, a calendar, a subtask tree, and a view of just your own work, with a timeline added in Cloud and Self-Hosted.
Filter, search, and save it
Filter by status, priority, type, assignee, task group, and due date, search by text, and save the set as a named filter.
Group the list
Group by status, priority, assignee, task group, project, or due date, and collapse the groups you are not in.
Choose your columns
Pick which columns the list shows, so the view carries the fields your team actually reads.
07Data
Change many at once
Select tasks and set a status, reassign them, change their approval state, archive them, or delete them together.
Import from a spreadsheet
Upload CSV, XLS, or XLSX, map your columns to the fields, preview the result, then confirm. Available in Cloud and Self-Hosted.
Export
Export the task list to CSV or PDF, with XML and Word formats added in the Self-Hosted edition.
Archive and restore
Archive finished work to keep the list clean, and restore it when somebody needs it back.
43 task permissions
Separate rights for creating, editing your own, editing everyone's, closing, archiving, deleting, linking, uploading, replying, and moving a due date.
How work gets done
Task management for any team
Which edition includes what
| Capability | CloudManaged SaaS | Self-HostedOn-premise / private cloud | Open SourceCommunity Edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tasks, subtasks, and checklists | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Owner, dates, priority, and status | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Comments, mentions, and attachments | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Approval status and approver | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Due date change reasons | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Recurring tasks and reminders | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Filters, search, saved filters, and group by | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bulk actions, archive, and restore | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kanban board | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Task dependencies and linked tasks | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Watchers and digests | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Import from CSV, XLS, and XLSX | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Task templates from project templates | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Custom fields | Pro | ✓ | ✗ |
| Custom task statuses | Pro | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rules on create and status change | Pro | ✓ | ✗ |
| Export to XML and Word | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
Task management FAQ
What is task management software?
Task management software organises work into individual items with an owner, due date, and status, so a team can see what needs doing and what is finished. Orangescrum adds subtasks, checklists, comments, files, dependencies, and boards on top.
Which editions include task management?
Task management is core to Orangescrum and available in every edition, including the free Community Edition you can self host. Dependencies, watchers, custom fields, and spreadsheet import are in the Cloud and Self-Hosted editions.
Can I break a task into smaller pieces?
Yes. Tasks can have subtasks up to three levels deep, you can promote a subtask back into a task or demote a task into a subtask, and each task can carry a checklist for the steps inside it.
Can one task depend on another?
Yes. Orangescrum supports finish to start, start to start, finish to finish, and start to finish dependencies, and refuses a chain that would loop back on itself. Dependencies appear on the Gantt chart as well as on the task.
Can I make a task repeat?
Yes. Set a task to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, with an interval, chosen weekdays or days of the month, and an ending of never, after a number of occurrences, or on a date.
Can I add custom fields to tasks?
Yes. Custom fields are available on the Cloud Pro plan and above, and in the Self-Hosted edition, so you can capture the data your process needs.
Can I move tasks in from a spreadsheet?
Yes. Upload a CSV, XLS, or XLSX file, map your columns onto Orangescrum fields, preview exactly what will be created, then confirm. A sample file is provided. Import is in the Cloud and Self-Hosted editions.
How do people know what to work on?
Each person can filter to their own tasks by assignee, priority, or due date, use the my work view, watch the tasks they care about, and get notified when something is assigned or changes.
Can several people own one task?
One person is the assignee, which keeps accountability clear. Anyone else who needs to follow it can be added as a watcher, and subtasks let you split a piece of work across several owners.
Is there a limit on how many users I can add?
No. Every Orangescrum plan includes unlimited users, so adding your whole team, clients, or contractors does not change the price.
Where do files and discussion live?
On the task itself. Comments, mentions, attachments, and the full change history stay with the work rather than scattering across email and chat.
Can I control who can do what to a task?
Yes. There are 43 separate task permissions, including editing your own tasks against editing everyone's, closing, archiving, deleting, linking, uploading files, replying, and changing a due date.
Can I use it for free?
Yes. The Community Edition is free and open source and includes projects, tasks, subtasks, checklists, filters, bulk actions, and Kanban boards, and the Cloud edition has a free forever plan.
Get your team organised
Task management with unlimited users on every plan. Free forever plan available.