Tasks & interactions overview
Tasks and interactions are the same kind of record pointed in opposite directions in time.
- A task is something you are going to do.
- An interaction is something you have already done — or a note about something that happened.
Tick a task off and it becomes an interaction automatically. That’s the whole model, and it’s why you never have to log the same phone call twice.
Why this matters
Section titled “Why this matters”Karani’s most useful reports are built on interactions:
- Out of Touch Donors looks for donors with no interaction in the last N months.
- Unthanked Donors looks for donors who gave but have no thank you interaction since.
- The Communication Timeline on each contact profile is the interaction history.
- What’s Next uses both to decide who you should contact.
If you don’t log interactions, those reports have nothing to work with. Logging takes ten seconds and is the highest-return habit in the whole product.
Both tasks and interactions are typed by the kind of communication involved.
Interaction types: Note, Ask, Thank You, Email, Facebook, Mail, Text, Call, Voicemail, Meeting, Service.
Task types: Task, Note, Ask, Thank You, Email, Facebook, Mail, Text, Call, Meeting.
Priorities
Section titled “Priorities”Tasks can carry a priority: Highest, High, Medium, Low, or Lowest. It affects ordering on the Tasks page so the things that matter float up.
Where you’ll create them
Section titled “Where you’ll create them”| From | Best for |
|---|---|
| The Tasks and Interactions box on a contact profile | The single fastest route, when you’re already looking at the person |
| The + next to Tasks in the navigation | Creating a task when you’re somewhere else |
| Bulk tasks & interactions | The same thing across many contacts — “mailed the newsletter to everyone in this group” |
| Repeating tasks | Anything on a schedule |
| A CSV import | Bringing history in from another system |