Now that you have seen how Scoro handles the flow from a quote to a project, it is time to decide how your team will manage their daily tasks. To support different workflows, Scoro offers two work planning options:
- With subtasks – a bottom-up approach to work planning
- Without subtasks – a top-down approach to work planning
To help you decide which option is right for your business, think about how you want work to be structured: do you need a simple task list, or a two-level hierarchy of deliverables and specific actions?
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Work planning options in Scoro
Option 1: Granular planning with subtasks
This bottom-up approach to work planning is best suited for granular execution and managing multi-step deliverables involving different specialists and dependencies.
In this mode, your workflow follows a structure that keeps your time budget separate from the detailed project plan:
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Create the quote and project:
Add your high-level deliverables using the quote estimation matrix for those involving multiple roles or doers. Once your client confirms the quote, create a project from it. -
Create tasks from the quote:
Convert your quoted deliverables into parent tasks that act as containers with zero planned hours. -
Plan with subtasks:
Break the work down by adding subtasks under the parent tasks. As you set the planned hours to these subtasks, the total rolls up to the parent level. -
Monitor the budget ceiling:
As the quoted hours for each deliverable become the time budget, you can use the Time breakdown chart on the parent task to track the planned hours against what was budgeted. In the chart, the planned hours from subtasks roll up visually next to the budget, showing you exactly how your plan is progressing against the original scope.
Example:
You quote a “Website Discovery” to your client, estimating 40 hours for this deliverable. Once your client confirms the quote, you create a project and parent tasks with zero planned hours. Then, you create subtasks for “User interviews” (15 hours) and “Research” (25 hours), assigning them to the relevant specialists on your team.
Option 2: Simple task management without subtasks
This top-down approach to work planning is best for teams that prefer simpler, single-level planning, ideal for repeatable work where planning speed matters more than granularity.
In this mode, the hours you sold to the client are automatically used as the task's planned hours:
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Create the quote and project:
Build your quote and set the expected hours for each service. Once your client confirms the quote, create a project from it. -
Create tasks from the quote:
You turn your quoted items into tasks. The hours you quoted automatically carry over as the planned hours for each task. -
Distribute the work:
If multiple team members are needed for a single task, you can split the planned time equally among the assignees or use a custom split.
Note! Because it’s single-level, subtasks are not available in this mode.
Example:
You quote a “Strategic Consultation” deliverable to your client at 10 hours. Once your client confirms the quote, create a single task and assign it to two consultants, splitting the planned hours equally.
Which option should I choose?
Here's a simple decision guide you can use if you're unsure which work planning option to select:
- Choose "With subtasks" if you need to break work down into granular steps, have different specialists collaborating on one deliverable, and want to ensure your detailed plan stays under a budget ceiling.
- Choose "Without subtasks" if you want to use a simple single-level task structure where quoted hours equal the planned time, with the option to split that time among multiple assignees.
Because the work planning method is a site-wide setting, select the option that best matches your typical projects today. Don’t worry – you can always adjust your approach over time as you become a Scoro expert.
What if I’m unsure which option to choose?
If you are torn between the two options, we recommend starting With subtasks. It is the most flexible method and provides the most detailed data for your reports. If you later decide you don’t need subtasks, you can easily convert them to regular tasks or delete them, and then switch to the Without subtasks planning option.
What about the “Mixed mode” option?
You may notice a third option called Mixed mode. This is intended for specific, advanced workflows in which different departments require different planning styles (e.g., an architecture team may need subtasks while the admin team does not). We recommend avoiding this during your initial setup, as it can lead to "double-counting" hours in your utilization reports if not managed carefully.
How to set your preference
Your site admin can set the preferred work planning option under Settings > Work and projects > Calendar and tasks. Once saved, Scoro will apply this logic site-wide to all new quotes and projects you create, ensuring your team’s workflow stays consistent.
Each team member can set their own default task durations under Settings > My settings > My calendar and tasks. Scoro uses these defaults whenever you create a new item, but you can always adjust the time manually on the task itself. To ensure your planning stays consistent regardless of who breaks down the work, we recommend agreeing on a team-wide standard for these individual settings.
For example, if you've enabled subtasks on your site, we suggest all team members set their default task duration to zero hours. This ensures that parent tasks added manually will behave exactly like those created from a quote – acting as clean containers, with the planned hours rolling up from subtasks.