Standard vs. Action Tasks

Cattle360 has two kinds of tasks. Both share the same basics — title, due date, priority, assignees, and subscribers — but they finish in very different ways.

At a Glance

Standard Tasks

A standard task is exactly what it sounds like: a job that needs doing. It doesn’t touch your animal data. When the work is done, you open the task and mark it complete. Use standard tasks for anything from “pick up vaccine” to “walk the south fence.”

Action Tasks

An action task pairs a due date with a bulk action and a set of target animals chosen when you create it. Nothing happens on its own — when the due date arrives, you open the task and click Execute, and Cattle360 runs the saved action against those animals. This lets you line up herd work in advance (“wean this year’s calves on the 15th”) and carry it out with one click when the day comes.

Action tasks are created from the Bulk Actions dialog rather than from a blank task form: you select the animals first, then choose to create an action task. The supported actions include weaning, recording death, recording a sale, promoting or demoting animals, castrating bulls, deleting animals, and updating sire or dam. See Creating an Action Task.

How to Tell Them Apart

• The task list shows a Type column (Standard or Action).
• On the dashboard, action tasks carry a bolt icon and standard tasks a checklist icon.
• Standard tasks offer a Mark Complete action; action tasks offer Execute.

Tips

• Reach for an action task when the work ends in a data change to many animals at once. Otherwise a standard task is simpler.
• Action tasks never fire by themselves. They wait for you to execute them, so a due action task still needs a person to run it.