Task Management: Creating & Approving Tasks
Last updated: March 4, 2026
Based on our research, at least 50% of emails to stores are in fact store tasks. But when emails are sent, it’s incredibly inefficient to track what store has done what, when, and how well it has been completed to the expected standard.
Important: Task creation and task metric visibility are based on the user’s location within the location hierarchy. Please ensure a user with Task: Create/Delete permissions is associated with the correct location to assign and review task submissions and metrics.
Creating a Task
Tasks can be created at the Calendar layer of Tasks or the List View, by the bottom right “Create” option as pictured above.
Task Creation Form: Part 1
Select or Create a Task Tag (multicolor square icon). Task Tags categorize the tasks, which is useful as a filtering tool when viewing Tasks by List, Tasks by Location, or via Task Calendar.
The Template dropdown enables you to select a saved template, which all task creation fields will populate based on the contents of the template.
For tasks that have common themes (e.g. Black Friday Window Installation), but have variable attributes (e.g. Unique Publish or Due Dates by store), there is the ability to bulk import the creation of these tasks from a CSV file. Follow the downloadable CSV file instructions for seamless task creation.
Every task requires a Task Name.
Task Creation Form: Part 2
Publish Date: The Publish Date is the date that the task becomes visible to the store via their Task List and able to be accessed via their Task Calendar. You can publish the task immediately, or you can schedule a task in the future by using the date selector. Important: Publish Date is based on each individual assigned store’s timezone.
Recurrence: Recurrence options are determined by the Publish Date. For example, if the Publish Date is a Wednesday, the recurrence options will include “Weekly on Wednesday” among multiple other recurrence options including Daily, Weekdays Only, Bi-Weekly, Monthly, and Annually.
Due Date: Every task requires a due date. A task is considered on-time if it is completed prior to 11:59PM (local store time) on the Due Date.
Watchers: To be considered a Watcher, a user must have task permissions and their location must reside above the assigned stores in the location hierarchy. Watchers receive Task Submitted notifications and therefore have the ability to support the Task Creator in approve/decline workflows. If the task does not require approval (see below), there is little benefit in setting Watchers.
Expiration: Most recurring retail tasks should have expiration activated. For example: if a store fails to complete Wednesday’s daily recurring cleaning task, there is no value in having them complete that on Thursday, as Thursday will have its own task. Expiration moves these tasks to the “Expired” filter, and keeps the store (and Task Creators) “Incomplete” filter clean.
Reminders: Automate reminder notifications to store users with task permissions. Reminder notifications are sent 12 hours and 6 hours before the task is due. For standard tasks, this is 12:00PM local store time and 6:00PM local store time. If the task is completed at any point in time, the store teams will not receive the following reminder notification.
Task Creation Form: Part 3
Description: This field provides expanded context and direction can be provided to the task recipients. Full rich text formatting is available, and Task Creators can link to external content via hyperlink. This is very useful for related task assets such as Google Sheets, SharePoint/Excel docs, Microsoft/Google Forms etc that require the task recipient(s) to perform some degree of data entry.
Attachments: If the task asset does not require data entry, then it is of greater benefit to the task recipient(s) to view this as an attachment natively in Progress Retail. Attach the document (e.g. a visual directive or guide) as prompted in the attachment slide out.
Task Creation Form: Part 4
Store Assignment: Select the relevant store locations intended for the created task. The eligible stores assigned depend on the user’s location within the overall location hierarchy.
Checklist: Define the specific actions or steps the store teams are required to take in order to complete the task. You’ll notice two icons in addition to the “X” which is for deleting the checklist item. When selected, the overall task is marked as “Requires Approval” meaning that once submitted, the task returns to the Task Creator and any defined Watchers for approval.
Paperclip Icon: As pictured above, when selected the checklist item requires a file submission for approval (e.g. a photo).
Text Lines Icon: When selected, the checklist item requires a written response (e.g. a SKU, a short note, etc.)
From here, you can either “Save as New Template” or “Create” the task. The task will be published or scheduled according to the defined attributes.
Task Management: Task Approve/Decline
Tasks that require approval must be submitted to enter the approve/decline workflow. The easiest way to view these tasks is on the Task List view, by selecting the “Review” button in the top right corner of the screen.
A few things to consider:
As pictured above, you can filter the number of tasks to review by selecting a task tag, or filtering by the task creator.
Most retailers have many different types of tasks being created by different people (e.g. Human Resources, Marketing, or Retail Operations), and a particular individual may only want to review the tasks that pertain to their business function. Filtering first is a great way to achieve this so that you only review the tasks you want to see, as opposed to cycling through all submitted tasks.
Upon clicking the Tasks to Review, the task review modal slides out, and will demonstrate task checklist media or task checklist text submissions.
Clicking the media expands the size, and clicking the cloud icon enables the download of the media.
With text submissions, there is the ability to copy and paste the entry to your clipboard.
If the task appears to be completed to standard, selecting Approve will mark the task status as Complete.
If the task does not appear to be to standard, you can Decline the task. There is a requirement to provide a decline note or reason which will be provided to the store. The task status will update to Declined.
Should you wish to leave a comment on the task, you can click the “Link” button pictured above to the left of the blue Task Tag.
Then scroll down to the Conversation section of the store task, as pictured below.
For more detailed information, please watch this end-to-end task execution walkthrough video.