Articles on: Practice Manager

Understanding Task Management in Practice Manager

COUNT’s Practice Manager helps you organize and track the work required to serve your clients and run your firm. Tasks can be assigned to clients or staff, grouped into projects, or generated from templates.

Creating a Task

Tasks can be created from several places:

From a client profile inside practice manager
Within a client's workspace in the Tasks tab
Within a project
Inside a project template
Or directly from the Tasks tab in Practice Manager, where you’ll see all tasks across your firm

Whenever you click Add Task, a pop-up form appears where you can define the task type, title, assignee, due date, status, and description.

💡 Pro Tip: If you’re not sure where to place a task, create it in the general Tasks tab. You can always link it to a project later if needed.

Task Types in COUNT

There are three task types in Practice Manager. Each has its own purpose, visibility, and actions.

1. Client: Ask a Question

When you need a direct answer from your client—simple questions like “Have you filed for the business license renewal?” or “What’s your preferred payroll frequency?”

Visibility: The client sees this in their workspace. Accounting firm's staff also see it in the general task list.
Client experience: The client clicks the task and is prompted with a simple text box to type their answer.
Firm actions: Firm staff can review responses, leave comments, and mark the task complete.

💡 Pro Tip: Keep questions clear and specific. Instead of asking “Send me your tax info,” ask “Upload your 2024 W-2 form.” This reduces back-and-forth.

2. Client: Securely Request Documents

When you need to securely collect files from your client—bank statements, receipts, signed agreements, or payroll reports.

Visibility: The client sees this in their workspace. Accounting firm's staff also see it in the general task list.
Client experience: The client is presented with an upload field where they can attach one or more documents and add comments.
Firm actions: Staff review uploaded files, reply in comments, attach additional files, and complete the task once satisfied.

💡 Pro Tip: Use document request tasks for recurring needs (e.g., “Upload monthly bank statements”). Combine them with project templates to standardize workflows across many clients.

3. Firm: Internal Team Task

For work that needs to be completed by your staff but doesn’t involve the client—for example, “Reconcile payroll journal,” “Review financial statements,” or “Draft engagement letter.”

Visibility: Only staff members see these tasks—clients do not.
Team experience: Tasks appear in the assignee’s list, with full details such as due date, status, description, attachments, and comments.
Firm actions: Staff can add comments (with @mentions), upload files, track progress, and mark the task as Not Started, In Progress, Prepare, Review or Complete.

💡 Pro Tip: Assign tasks by staff role in templates (Preparer, Reviewer, Client Manager). COUNT automatically routes tasks to the correct person for each client, saving you from manual assignment.

Projects and Templates

While tasks can stand alone, grouping them into projects helps organize complex workflows (e.g., year-end tax return, monthly bookkeeping close).

Projects let you set deadlines, track time, and monitor all related tasks together.
Project templates allow you to mass-create standardized sets of tasks across multiple clients, automatically assigning each task to the right staff role.

Where to See Tasks

Tasks tab: All tasks across the firm with the ability to filter by status, priority, client or assignees.
Client profile: Tasks linked to a specific client
Project view: Tasks grouped by project

💡 Pro Tip: Use tasks not just for bookkeeping work but for firm operations too (e.g., onboarding checklists, engagement letters, compliance reminders). This turns COUNT into a true practice management hub—not just an accounting tool.

Updated on: 04/09/2025

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