Simplify actions management with custom task types and fields

@angela.wozniak This is a great next step! Do you know if there are plans to add an API endpoint for action types and allow us to manage default titles, descriptions, priority, etc?

We keep all of our action task types, type descriptions, priority value, etc in a separate database so that we can create consistent actions and accurately report on action type occurrence, late actions, on time actions, avg action duration, etc.

Love it. I stumbled across the new feature last week when I noticed an early access tab so made me take note.

It was perfect timing as we were trying to solve a problem around actions off the back of internal quality and  compliance audits. 

Hey @dataadminpjsm, thanks for your comments.

We will have API endpoints to configure Action Types and to submit Custom fields. However we won’t have default types and titles yet. Do you submit actions through the APIs? What are the use cases when you need the default values for the fields? 

You will definitely be able to export all the information to your separate database with these APIs.

Great to hear you are loving our new Actions features @Andrew Gabb! 🙌

Hello @esusatyo,

Our end goal is to be able to create actions automatically depending on the flagged items within the inspections or some other method of API created action but we do not currently create actions this way. We use the action API for different processes like sending a daily summary of all open actions via email to company executives, sending open action summaries to the individual assignees (in our case, they are our area managers), and tracking action analytics so we can get additional metrics like how late an action was, average amount of time to complete an action by action type, etc. We also use the inspection API to prefill inspections with core data and send our “completed inspection” emails.

For us, the use case would be consistency in action reporting, naming conventions, and efficiency. We currently have 34 different action types the come from our Safety Inspections. Each action has a specific title so that the user (area manager) can quickly understand what needs to get done without extra clicks into a description (which we also have a default description). We also want to better link the associated jobsite to the action since this is highly relevant when trying to resolve an action, but we have not committed to linking that data into “sites” at this time. Also, we have predetermined the priority of each action which is directly correlated to the due date. (ie. High= 24hr completion, Medium= 48hr completion, Low= 72hr completion). This has helped us get accurate analytics into our most common points of failure and reduce the overall time it takes for actions to get created and completed. (Down around 10% qtr over qtr for the last year in action completion time)

I have debated using labels to hold an ID of each action type but I worry about user error. I have looked into reporting off of the inspection item linked to an action, but there are typically 3 action possibilities per question in our inspection so this does not give detailed enough analytics.

That being said, would love to see it in the future as this is one of the last hurdles we have to overcome to fully automate our reporting. 

Thank you for sharing more information about how you use Actions and the APIs to help manage your tasks @dataadminpjs. I know Enrico and the rest of the team working on Actions will take your feedback on board when looking at future builds and we’ll be sure to keep you updated via community when more new things are released for Actions 😊

@esusatyo ,

Is there a way I can understand more how your default description works? I’m trying to understand this more and have built out labels to help the organization of actions for our teams.

Nick

Hi @Nick Ochoa , what I previously meant was that you can have an API that pre-fills the description as you’re creating an action. We currently don’t have a way to insert a default description from the SafetyCulture UI itself. 

We also support multiple labels on Actions so this might help you organise actions for your teams.

Cheers

Enrico

Hi Enrico, 

Will there ever be the ability to change the Action type once created. Noting that currently there not automated and have to be added in manually and the person completing this would need to remember to change the type. 

It would be good to be able to manually change as Administrator for reporting purposes 

Hi @cara.beraldo, 

Thanks for your feedback above. The capability you mention is something that we are seeing increased requests for recently. As a result, this will be a change that we aim to deliver, however will likely be post Q1 next calendar year due to focus in other areas of the product. If you had any time to discuss your use of this feature, I would appreciate it so we can ensure we deliver this in a meaningful way for you. One key aspect is to ensure custom fields that may be different by Type are handled appropriately if the Type is switched. Would be great to understand how this may impact you. 

Thanks, Andrew

Hi @Andrew N  we are in the process of developing our reporting and the teams capabilities and knowledge of digital systems so being able to change these things will allow for more accurate data gathering and reporting