"Tasks" in Planhat are also known as "planned activities". "Task" is a specific Planhat data model that's used to store/display data about activities that are due to happen in the future, or are ongoing. (Activities that have already happened are then recorded using the Conversation data model. You can read more about the relationship between these two models here.)

Tasks can be either:

Tasks can either be standalone, or part of a Workflow.

You can view Tasks in the "Calendar" Home feature, and on each Company Full-Page Profile, among other places.

There are two main types of Tasks: "Task" and "Event" (the latter being associated with calendar integrations).

In this article, we are going to focus on the "Start Date" and "Due Date" (equivalent to "End Date") fields on Tasks.

Tasks are usually scheduled for specific dates. For example, you might run a kick-off call for a new customer Company on January 1st, and then run your first training session with them on January 5th. (It is possible to have a Task without a Due Date - in the Planhat UI, this is referred to as being due "someday".)

There are actually two different Task fields related to this:

This means that Tasks can have a duration - e.g. you can set a Task to start on February 14th and end on February 16th, rather than only being associated with one specific date.

This applies to both Task types (i.e. Tasks and Events).

You don't need to use both fields for a Task if it's not necessary - you can simply set a Due Date.

Although we have so far given the example of simple, whole-day Start Dates and Due Dates, you can actually get even more granular and add specific times, allowing you to more precisely record the duration of a Task.

To do this, when setting one of these fields, turn off the "All day" toggle switch at the top right of the calendar picker (which is on by default), and you will be able to set a time at the bottom.

The "Calendar" Home feature is a key place where you will review your own Tasks, or the Tasks of your team. You can check out our article here if you would like to learn further details about the Calendar more generally.

If you have the Calendar set up so that each lane (column) is a day/weekday, you will find that multi-day Tasks show along the top, across the relevant days, like you may be familiar with from a general calendar tool outside of Planhat.

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If you click on such a Task to open up its Preview, you will see both its Start Date and Due Date (End Date equivalent) stated near the top.

Within a Company Full-Page Profile, you can customize the columns shown in the Tasks tab (shown below), to display both Start Date and Due Date.

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Planhat Workflows (formerly called Playbooks) are a series of structured steps. Tasks are one of the two main step types (the other being automatically-sent emails); Tasks are particularly relevant to the "Project" Workflow type.

You pre-configure Workflows via Workflow Templates. Workflow Templates are then applied, either manually or automatically, to relevant records (e.g. Companies), creating Workflow records and associated Tasks.

So far in this article, we have looked at standalone Tasks, but how do Start Dates and Due Dates apply in the context of Workflows?

The Start Date (startTime) and Due Date (endTime) fields apply to all Tasks, including Tasks in Workflows.

When you are configuring a Workflow Template, when considering simple step timings (so we are taking step dependencies and conditions out of the picture), you set up the scheduling via:

Let's take a look at a practical worked example.

None of these Task steps are dependent steps, and so the "Start After Days" starts counting from the date the Workflow Template is applied (in this case, to a specific Company) and a Workflow record is created. This then defines the Task "Start Dates" in the Workflow.

The Workflow Template was applied to a Company, and a Workflow record was created for them, on April 29. The "Integrating Data" step is set to start 5 days later, on May 4. The "Structuring Workflows" step is set to start 10 days after the Workflow Template was applied, so that's April 29 + 10 days = May 9.

For the Task "Due Dates", we refer to the Duration Days specified in the Workflow Template, and add that to the Start Dates.

As you can see, if the Duration is set to 0 days or - days, then the Due Date is the same as the Start Date. Where the Duration is set to 1 day (for the "Insights and Reports" Task step), the Due Date is a day after the Start Date; where the Duration is set to 2 days (for the "Automation and AI" Task step), the Due Date is 2 days after the Start Date.