Adding Questions to Tasks

This article explains the process of adding Questions to tasks. These are the fields which users complete whilst following a workflow. In order to manage questions within tasks, you'll need the relevant permission - explained in this article: Managing Workflows - Permissions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Adding Existing Questions
• Adding From Elsewhere (Other Modules)
• Adding New Questions
  • Entity Types
  • Code
  • Name
  • Report Name (if different)
  • Sequence
  • Type
  • Access
  • Is Summary
  • Show in Journal
  • Notes
  • Options
  • Answers (Unique to Attribute Questions)
  • Add Answer to Task Title
• Creating Headers
• Related Articles

Adding Existing Questions

The reason we've started this article with how to add Existing Questions is because its good practice to check whether the question you'd like to add to your Task already exists. Utilising existing questions, means if an officer answers the question in Task A - the answer will also appear in Task B. This saves on duplication and keeps your system consistent. To search for and add Existing Questions, follow the below steps:

1. Select the Task you'd like to add questions to
2. Click the "Add" button on the Questions menu
3. Choose "Add Existing"
4. Search for your question
5. Select and add to your task

Did you know: If you know it, you can search for your question with it's "Code". This is a unique identifier for the question, and will narrow the search to just that question. 

Adding From Elsewhere (Other Modules)

Similar to adding existing questions from your current module, you can add questions which exist in other modules your local authority has. For example, you could add questions asked in the Lettings module to your HPA2 workflows. The benefit of this is that if you ever export clients between modules, any data held on these shared fields will transfer between modules when exporting the record. Follow the below steps to "Add from Elsewhere".

1. Click "Add" under the question menu
2. Choose "Add from Elsewhere"
3. Either search for the field you'd like to use, or choose from the dropdown options
4. Add the field by selecting it

Adding New Questions

If the question you'd like to add doesn't exist, the below steps explain how to add new questions into tasks. We recommend that only users who have had Super User training from an experienced local system admin or Locata Housing Services create new questions. 

1. Click "Add" under the question menu
2. Choose "Add New" - this step opens a new configuration panel at the bottom of the page. You may need to scroll down. We will go into detail in this section on how to configure questions

Entity Types

Dependent on the module you're accessing the tasks setting from, the available entity types will vary. Most entity types give a clear indication what they are used for - for example "Landlord" fields relate specifically to landlord questions. If you're unsure on which entity type to select, you can always ask our advice at [email protected] 

Note: If this is the first question you're adding to a task, you will have the option to add a "Person" entity type question - this will make it so only Person type questions can be added to the task. For more information see this article.

Code

The code of a question is it's unique identifier. Two questions cant have the same code. 

Name

The name of a question is how it appears to users within a task. For example "Date of Homelessness Application".

Report Name (if different)

This option can be used to have your questions appear different when configuring reports versus how they appear within a task. For example, you could name the question "Details" and give the report name as "Details of pets in the household". For the user, "Details" suffices because there would be other contextual information in the task to tell them to add details of pets, but you would need the field to have more information when searching on a report. 

Sequence

This is the order in which questions appear. The lower the number, the earlier they show in the page. 

Type

There are 5 types of question:

1. Text - This is free text, with no restrictions on what can be entered
2. Number - Only numbers can be inputted into these fields
3. Date - These fields give a "Date Picker" for users to choose a date within
4. Yes / No - These questions are simple Yes / No questions
5. Attribute - These are questions with multiple possible answers, AKA "Dropdowns"

Wherever possible, we recommend you build your tasks using Number, Date, Yes/No and Attribute questions. Text questions can then be added in for qualitative details as appropriate. 

Access

You can determine whether this question would be editable (or not) by users with limited permissions to do so.

Is Summary

You can set which questions appear in summary sections - for example the Client Details page on HPA2 - with this option. 

Note: This option doesn't currently work with Case Entity Type questions.

Show in Journal

It’s possible to have the answers to questions post to the journal automatically. Set this option to "Yes" to set this up.

Note: Here's the results of setting up a question this way. The below question is set as "Show in Journal - Yes". 
This is the Journal entry that is created when the task is completed. 

Notes

You can use notes to provide additional guidance to officers on how to answer the question. Notes are particularly useful for newer officers, who can fall back on this guidance in the absence of more experience. 

Options

Options text can be used to change the behaviour of a question, or to have the answer to this question cause the behaviour of another question to change. It is more complex, and we will explain some ways it can be used in our Advanced Configuration article, available here: 

Answers (Unique to Attribute Questions)

Once you have clicked save on an attribute question, an additional menu appears enabling you to configure the question's answers. 

Add Answer to Task Title

Once you've saved a question, an additional option appears which if "Yes" is selected, will add the answer to the question to the task title.

Below is an example of this in action.

Creating Headers

Headers are a great way to add structure and clearly define the different parts of a task. They're also very easy to create, following the below steps:

1. Click "Add" under the question menu
2. Choose "Add New" - this step opens a new configuration panel at the bottom of the page. You may need to scroll down. We will go into detail in this section on how to configure questions
3. Fill in only the "Name" section
4. Save

Did you know: Adding a code to this element will create it as a true question, not a header. We only need a name - or description of what the header will say. Note how once we click save, the other configuration options disappear for our header. 

Related Articles

Tasks and Task Groups

Completion Rules

Advanced Question Configuration