A task is something that needs to be done, tracked right on the record it relates to. Use tasks so follow-up doesn't live in someone's head or a separate to-do app.
Add a task from any record - a person, organization, donor, client, and so on. Give it a clear title, an owner (the teammate responsible), and a due date.
Every task has a Person field showing who it's about. CoolFocus fills this in automatically based on the record the task was added to (a person, a request, a service received record, a contribution, a conversation, an appointment, or a visit), so tasks stay tied to the right person even when they're logged from a related record. You can change the Person field by hand if needed.
Every task has an Activity Type field - a shared classifier also used on notes, calls, and attachments. Use it to tag what kind of task this is.
If your organization restricts a particular activity type (for example, to keep a sensitive category limited to certain staff), only user groups granted access to that type can see, create, or edit tasks tagged with it. See User Groups and Permissions for how access is granted.
Viewing and creating are separate grants. When you add a new task, the Type picker only offers activity types your user group is allowed to create with, so you won't see a restricted type that your save would then be rejected for. Opening an existing task keeps showing its current type even if your group only has view access to it; you just can't retag it to another restricted type you lack create access to. If a save is still rejected because of a restricted type, CoolFocus now shows the specific reason instead of a generic "failed to create task" message.
The Activity Type field doesn't appear on tasks for Love INC (outreach) organizations. It's a CPC-oriented classifier that isn't relevant to community assistance work, so it's hidden automatically for those tenants.
Organizations set up for Love INC: Community Assistance don't see the Activity Type field on tasks at all. The default Activity Type values are geared toward pregnancy center medical contexts and aren't relevant to community assistance work, so CoolFocus hides the field automatically for these organizations rather than showing values that don't apply. No setup is needed on your end; this is based on your organization's configuration.
The Tasks grid offers a built-in All view alongside any saved segments (like "Open" or "Overdue"). The All view shows every task, including completed tasks and tasks with due dates in the past, so you can look up something you finished weeks ago without switching filters.
Saved segments still apply their own filter, for example a segment built to show only open tasks keeps hiding completed ones. Switch to All when you need the full history for a record instead of just what a segment is scoped to show.
The Tasks grid and export now include the linked person's contact details as their own columns: Contact First Name, Contact Last Name, Contact Email, and Contact Phone. These are filled in automatically from the task's Person field, so you can see or export who a task is about without opening the record. They're display-only columns pulled from the linked contact, so they don't appear as fields when importing data.
The Tasks grid can be exported for every client at once instead of one client at a time. Each row includes Contact First Name, Contact Last Name, Contact Email, and Contact Phone columns pulled from the linked Person, so exported tasks are attributable and filterable by client, and searchable by the client's name.
A task added from an appointment's panel in the Scheduler is linked to that appointment and shows up on the appointment's own activity timeline, not just on the client's record. CoolFocus also fills in the task's Person field from the appointment's client automatically, so the task is attributed and reportable the same way as a task added directly on a client record.
Task events live under Your notifications in the Activities area, for every organization, on every plan. Open your profile menu, choose Your notifications, and expand Activities to turn on:
• Task Assigned, so only the person a task lands on hears about it, rather than everyone with access to the record.
• Task Created
• Task Completed
• Task Deleted
Each event stays off until you turn on a channel for it. See Choosing What You're Notified About.
• Assign each task to whoever owns the next step.
• Use the due date so nothing slips.
• Mark a task complete when it's done - it stays in the record's history.
• Write the task as an action ("Call to confirm appointment"), not a vague reminder.
• Put the next step in the title so anyone can pick it up.
• If a task keeps getting pushed, decide whether it still matters.
