Recurring Tasks

[dschipfel]

Current situation

Many organizations have tasks that need to be completed on a regular basis, such as:

• Monthly reports
• Backup checks
• Security reviews
• License audits
• Maintenance activities
• Inventory checks
• User access reviews
• Documentation updates

Currently, these tasks must be created manually every time they reoccur.

Suggested improvement

Introduce support for recurring tasks, similar to the functionality available in Microsoft Teams Planner.

When a task is completed, FreeITSM could automatically create the next occurrence based on a predefined schedule.

Possible recurrence options:

• Daily
• Weekly
• Monthly
• Yearly
• Custom intervals (e.g., every 3 days, every 2 weeks, every 6 months)

Additional options

• Repeat after task completion
• Repeat on a fixed date schedule
• Define an end date for the recurrence
• Define a maximum number of occurrences
• Automatically copy:
  • Description
  • Checklists/Subtasks
  • Assignees
  • Attachments (optional)
  • Tags
• Preserve links to related assets, projects, or tickets (optional)

Benefits

• Reduced administrative effort
• Consistent execution of recurring activities
• Fewer missed tasks
• Improved compliance and audit readiness
• Better support for operational processes

Many routine activities are recurring by nature. Automating task creation would save time, reduce manual work, and ensure important activities are not forgotten. This functionality would be especially valuable for IT operations, asset management, maintenance processes, and compliance-related activities.

[edmozley]

Hi Daniel @dschipfel

Thanks for this one - it is built and shipped.

Repeats can be daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, every N of them. Weekly takes any combination of weekdays, so "every second week on Monday and Thursday" is a single rule rather than two. Monthly works either by day number, including the last day of the month whatever its length, or by named weekday - first Monday, third Wednesday, last Friday.

There are two ways to repeat and the difference matters. "After this one is completed" counts the next date from the day you actually finish, which is what most people mean by a monthly check. "On a fixed schedule" creates occurrences on their dates whether or not the last one was done, which is what a compliance review needs.

A repeat can run forever, stop on a date, or stop after a set number of occurrences. You choose item by item what carries over to each new one: description, subtasks, assignee, tags, links to tickets and changes, and attachments. Repeating tasks are marked on the board and the calendar, and every occurrence links back to the task the series started from. A Preview button beside Save lists every date the current settings would produce before you commit to them.

One thing you will need to set up: fixed schedules are created by a scheduled job, cron/task_recurrence.php, which should run once a day. A fresh install has no scheduled tasks at all, and if it is missing nothing errors - the repeat simply never happens. Repeats set to fire after completion do not need it, because they are created the moment you complete the previous one.

There is a new section in the in-app help (Tasks, then Help, section 8) and a wiki page:

https://github.com/edmozley/freeitsm/wiki/Recurring-Tasks
https://github.com/edmozley/freeitsm/wiki/Scheduled-Tasks

Please let me know how you get on with this feature and if you have any further feedback on it please let me know!

Ed