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The deadlines board

Deadlines shows every filing, payment and meeting your clients have coming, worked out from the services you set up for them. Use it to see what's coming, catch what's late and record each filing.

Read the board

  1. In the sidebar, click Deadlines.
  2. Choose Board for columns of cards, or List for a table.
  3. Group by Week (six weeks from this one), Month (six months) or Client (a column per client for the next three months, the soonest first).
  4. Use the arrows to go earlier or later. Today brings you back.

A deadline is overdue when its due date has passed and it's still To do or In progress. By week or month, overdue deadlines gather in an Overdue column on the left while the dates on screen include today. By client, each column says how many are overdue.

Each card shows the due date, the client, the deadline and its type: Filing, Payment, Contractual or Meeting. A due date on a weekend or a public holiday also shows the next business day, when it's still on time. If the deadline has tasks, the card shows how many are done.

Deadlines the client files themselves, set by Who files it? on the client's service, are greyed out and marked Client handles. They stay on the board so you can remind the client.

Type in Search a client or a deadline, or open Filters:

  • Status: Open to start, or Overdue, Behind on tasks (one of its tasks is late), Done or All statuses.
  • Client, Client type and Team member. Mine keeps the deadlines of clients whose team you're on.
  • Type and Category.
  • Show payroll: payroll deadlines stay hidden until you tick it or choose the Payroll category.
  • Show tasks: puts tasks on the board, by their own dates.
  • Hide client-handled.

Each filter in force shows as a chip; click its cross to remove it.

To keep a set of filters, click Save this view, name it and click Save view. It keeps the filters and the layout, for you only, under Views.

Mark a deadline done

On the board, click the round tick at the top right of the card. In the list, click Done. If the deadline still has open tasks, Firmdesk asks first.

To record the filing date and the confirmation number:

  1. Click the deadline's name to open it.
  2. Set Status to Done.
  3. Check Filed / completed on. Left empty, it takes today's date.
  4. Type the number in Confirmation #, and add any Notes.
  5. Click Save.

To close several at once, switch to List, tick them, and click Mark done or In progress in the bar that appears.

A deadline that doesn't apply this time can be set to Not required, under Status on its page. To undo Done, click Reopen there.

Add a one-off deadline

For a meeting, a one-off deliverable or anything that isn't on a schedule, such as an ROE:

  1. Click Add a deadline.
  2. Choose the Client, and the Engagement (optional) it belongs to.
  3. Choose its Type, then type a Title and the Due date. A meeting can also have a Time.
  4. Click Add.

To delete a deadline you added, open it and choose More actions (⋯) › Delete this deadline. Deadlines that come from a service can't be deleted: set them to Not required.

Under More actions at the top of Deadlines:

  • Print these deadlines prints what's on screen as a list, headed by the dates, the filters in force and the day it was printed.
  • Clients by next deadline opens Clients sorted by each client's next open deadline, leaving payroll aside.

Good to know

  • Everyone on the team sees every client's deadlines. With Show tasks, managers, partners, admins and owners see anyone's tasks. Everyone else sees their own, and the box reads Show my tasks.
  • While a deadline is Done or Not required, its open tasks are hidden from My work and Deadlines. They come back if you reopen it.
  • Filing and payment dates that come from a service can't be changed on the deadline. Edit the service instead.
  • A saved view opens at today's dates. You can keep up to 20 views of the board.
  • If your client portal shows deadlines, the client sees the ones you mark done, with the date and confirmation number.