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View Tasks for a Managers Team

  • 1.  View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 10:31
    I created a Tasks table initially in my app assigning tasks to a Assigned To field that was a List User Type (as there are occassions where I can have more than one assignee on a task).

    That worked great until one of my directors asked if they can get a report showing all of the tasks assigned out to their team for workload planning.  The request makes perfect sense except my current workflow has no way of doing it (oops).

    Good news is this is test data while we are building this app so what I am learning is my methodology is not sound.

    Quickbase support recommended creating a departments table with a list of my departments.  Each team member can be a member of a department.  Put a checkbox on the Team Member if they are a department head (so it knows if they are a supervisor basically).  They also recommended a join table between department and Team Member for the data flow (but this does not entirely make sense to me as an employee can only be part of one department.

    So now I am stuck on how I can generate a report showing all tasks assigned to someone's team.  I am coming here because I am not 100% sure the support sent me in the wrong direction and actually made this way more complicated than it needs to be.  I would have to imagine a zillion people have done this before me lol

    Is this the correct way to represent this data?  I would like creating a department multi select text field on the team member table would be simpler.  In lieu of the join and departments table.  But even if I do that, where do I go from there?

    Thanks for the help!


  • 2.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 11:55
    This part does not make sense to me.

    They also recommended a join table between department and Team Member for the data flow (but this does not entirely make sense to me as an employee can only be part of one department.

    But it does make sense to have a join table called Resource Assignments between Tasks and  Resources to be able to assign multiple staff to a Task.  Then the Resource Assignment Join table will know the Department via a lookup from the Team member table.




  • 3.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 13:59
    Agreed and I am going in that route.  So now the question is how do I filter based on the current users department.

    So for example Marcy is our Director of Marketing.  She is logged in.  When she views the report My Team's Tasks she wants to see a list of tasks for her team (Marketing department) sorted and grouped by user (or Employee)

    Its that filtering part I am struggling with.  Right now I can sort and group by department and use that as a dynamic filter.  But I want it to know based on log on


  • 4.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 14:12
    If you use create the department manger as a user field, you can use that field for an initial filter. The initial  filters would be:  Department manager  is the current user


  • 5.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 17:34
    So I dont have that.  I have Team Members (and the key is a user field on that table) and I have departments as a multi select text as well as a checkbox to indicate if they are a department head.

    In English I need the filter to be.

    Show record when department = current user - department


    Just dont know how to get there


  • 6.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 17:49
    You have a table of Team Members already and they should have a field to say which department they are in.  I'm not understanding why a Team Member would be in multiple Departments as you said that was a multi-select field on the Team Member table.  It seems to me that should just be selection of a single Department off a table of Departments.

    That means that the Resource Assignments can know the Team Members Department via a lookup.

    I suggest that your Departments Table have a user field Type for Manager.  So now the Team Member can have a lookup field for the Manager's Userid.

    So now you can make a report of Resource Assignments where the Manager's userid is the current user.

     


  • 7.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 17:58
    Sorry I meant text multiple choice.  That is the field type I am using for Departments.

    With that methodology I got rid of the Departments table.  So each user has an employee table record (with their user field in the Team Members table as the key).  On that same table is a checkbox if they are a department head and a text multiple choice for what department they are in.

    i do not have a standalone Departments table.


  • 8.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 18:00
    I think that you need a stand alone department table.  If you already have a lot of data entry on the Team Members table for the department, then set the Key field of the new Department table to be the the Department Name and set the relationship up based on that field.


  • 9.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 18:04
    Okay so before I build that out again the thought is:
    • Create a departments table with a record for each department
    • Create Relationship:  Departments can have many Task members
    • Look Up Department from the Task Member table
    • And Since the Team Member key field is a User Name that would enable me to filter the Department of the current logged in user and compare that to the Team Members Departments?

    Is that logic correct?


  • 10.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 18:16
    Create a departments table with a record for each department  -YES
    Create Relationship:  Departments can have many Task members - YES 
    Look Up Department from the Task Member table NO, look up the Department down to the Team Member, and also look up the Manager userid down to the Team member.And Since the Team Member key field is a User Name that would enable me to filter the Department of the current logged in user and compare that to the Team Members Departments?  NO
    Lookup the Manager userid down to the Resource Assignments form the Team Member.
    Make a report of the Resource Assignments where the Manager userid is the current user.


  • 11.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 19:56
    Okay so about confused.  I dont have a table for Task Members.  I apologize as that was my error in my earlier typo.  I have Team Members (which are what you are referring to as Resources earlier) and I have Task Assignees (which is the join table for tasks)

    So in your second relationship I am assuming you mean Departments can have many team members.

    Where am I getting the manager userID from?  Am I self relating Team members?


  • 12.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 20:08
    Ahhhh I just got it!  I added a user field in the departments table, that is what I was missing.  No now I can pass the data back and forth.

    Thanks so much Mark, I need to test this a bit more but I think that did it.  

    Now I probably will need to post some help on fixing my url buttons as I just completely changed my structure on my tasks, but we'll see if I can figure that out.  If not I will start a new thread.


  • 13.  RE: View Tasks for a Managers Team

    Posted 07-30-2019 20:18
    Sorry, Yes i did mean Team members.  OK so what you call Task Assignees was what I called Resource Assignments

    Yes 1 Department has many Team Members.

    The Managers UserID starts as a field on the department and gets looked up down to Team Members and then gets looked up again down to Task Assignees.  Nothing fancy, just a double hopper lookup from a Grand Parent Department to the Parent Team Member to the Task Assignee Child.