Action items

An action item is one thing that needs doing to move a piece of work forward. Work says what you are delivering; action items say what has to happen next, who is doing it, and by when.

Adding one

On a piece of work, the Action items section has a single row for adding: type it where it says What needs to be done? e.g. Send the proposal, choose who it's Assigned to, set a Due date, and press Add.

Opening an existing item gives you the rest: What needs to be done, who does it, Assigned to, Due, notes, and whether Nothing can move until this is done. Save it with Save.

Who does it is one of three: Us, The customer or A third party. That choice decides whether the item counts as yours or as something you're waiting on.

Assigning to your team

Action items are assigned to the people in your business — the ones listed under Settings → Team. They don't need a sign-in to be assigned work, which is the point: your list should match who actually does the job.

Finishing, reopening, cancelling

• Tick it to mark it done.
• Cancel this action item when it no longer applies.
• Both stay in Done and cancelled on the work, where Reopen brings one back.

What the labels mean

An item shows its own state: To do, Waiting on them when it's with the customer or a third party, and Done or Cancelled once it's closed. Items that came from a customer's request are marked as such, with a link back.

Website clients working in their own portal add two more, Under review and Sent back by the customer, which appear only for that kind of work.

Seeing everything at once

All action items on any piece of work, or the Action items link on the Work page, opens one list across all your work, with views:

Open · Overdue · Due today · Due this week · Waiting on customers · Assigned to me · From requests · Recently done

Views with nothing in them are left out. Nothing is created on this page — it is for reading and finishing, and each item links back to the work it belongs to.

Finishing work that still has open items

You can finish work whose action items are still open. CLEO doesn't stop you, and it doesn't quietly tidy up either:

• The stage moves, and the work is finished.
• The open items stay open, exactly as they were.
• CLEO tells you how many are still open, and suggests completing or cancelling the ones that no longer apply.
• Afterwards it points out that finished work still has open action items, until you settle them or reopen the work.

Action items, next steps and follow-ups

Work and its action items say what you're delivering. The other half of most days is time: the appointments you've agreed with customers.