Tasks
Tasks are always on — the Core module can't be disabled, so every project has the same task system underneath it regardless of which feature modules you've turned on. That matters because tasks aren't just a to-do list bolted onto the side of ema: exhibitor onboarding, speaker preparation, meeting follow-ups, and a chunk of financial process all are tasks under the surface, generated and completed through the same mechanism you'd use to remind someone to test a microphone.
One task, five views
A task has a title, an assignee, a due date, a status, a visibility (internal, client, public, or private), and belongs to one task list. Everything you see about a task — board, list, calendar, Gantt, or timeline — is the same underlying data shown a different way; switching views never changes what a task is, only how you're looking at it. Filter to a task list once and it holds across every view you switch to.
The full reference: creating tasks, the five views, task lists, subtasks, and filtering.
What actually closes a task
A plain task closes with a checkbox. Everything past that is a completion type, set on the task or on the template it came from:
| Completion type | What the assignee must do |
|---|---|
| Checkbox | Toggle it done — no extra evidence required |
| File upload | Attach a document before the task can close |
| Form submission | Fill out and submit a linked form |
| Acknowledgement | Confirm they've read or understood something |
| Approval required | Completing the action submits it for review — an admin must approve before the task officially closes |
This is where tasks stop being a standalone system: a file-upload task hands off to documents, a form-submission task hands off to forms, and an approval-required task hands off to the shared approval engine. A task is often the trigger, not the destination.
Tasks you didn't create by hand
Most of the tasks in a busy project weren't typed in one at a time:
- Checklists generate a fixed set of tasks the moment you apply them to an exhibitor, speaker, or other entity — the same "New Exhibitor Onboarding" checklist produces identical tasks for every exhibitor, so nobody has to remember the list each time.
- Meeting action items — ema's AI can extract action items from meeting notes and turn them into tasks with one click.
- Integrations can sync tasks in from external project management tools.
Build reusable checklists that generate the same tasks for every exhibitor, speaker, or team onboarding.
Tasks and the budget
If Financials is enabled, a task can be linked to a project budget line. Once linked, time your team logs against that task counts toward the budget line's worked and billable hours automatically — a task with no linked budget line still tracks time normally, it just never rolls up into a budget total anywhere.
How budget lines, commitments, and actuals fit together — and where linked-task time shows up.
Timesheets roll up to the same budget line the same way a linked task's logged time does.
Where clients and attendees see tasks
A task's visibility setting decides who besides your team can see it. A client-visible task shows up in the client portal's task list; a task assigned to an exhibitor, speaker, or attendee shows up in their Me portal alongside their other personal items. Everyone sees the same task record — visibility controls who it's shown to, not a separate copy of it.
The self-service view of tasks assigned to you, across every project.
What a client organisation's contacts see when you assign or share a task with them.