# Getting started What the app does, what every figure on the dashboard means, how to create your first project and add tasks fast, and how Today and Upcoming pick their tasks. Taskstand keeps the work you do for clients in one place: every project with its tasks, the hours you spent on it and what you still have to invoice. Tasks stay as light as a to-do list, while the dashboard shows at a glance which project is running late, which one is over budget and where unbilled hours are waiting. This page walks you through the screens you see first: the dashboard, **Today** and **Upcoming**, quick add and search. ## Find your way around The sidebar on the left holds everything. On a phone it folds away behind the menu button, and a bar at the bottom of the screen takes you to the dashboard, Today, Upcoming, your projects and search. | Item | What it shows | |---|---| | **Search** | Finds projects and tasks. See [Search for a project or task](#search-for-a-project-or-task). | | **Dashboard** | Every project you work on, with its figures. | | **Today** | Tasks that are due today or earlier, and tasks that have already started. | | **Upcoming** | Tasks due in the coming days, one block per day. | | **My tasks** | Every open task assigned to you, with or without a date. See [Tasks](). | | **Timeline** | All your projects on one time axis. See [Timeline](). | | **Hours** | Your hours across every project. Only shown on a plan that includes it and when you log time somewhere. See [Time and invoicing](). | | **Invitations** | Only shown while an invitation is waiting for your answer. See [Members and roles](). | Below that you find **Projects**: your folders and projects. Folders are your own, nobody else sees how you arranged them. See [Projects](). ## Create your first project 1. Click the **+** next to **Projects** in the sidebar and choose **New project**. 2. Give it a name and, if you like, pick a folder. 3. Click **Create**. The project opens right away, with one section called **Tasks** to put your first tasks in. You can add more sections, a client name, a deadline, rates and a budget later, see [Projects](). How many running projects you can have depends on your plan, see [Plans and limits](). ## Read the dashboard The dashboard has one row per project you can see. Above the table sits a strip for today: how many of today's tasks are done, how much time you logged today and a bar with the timers of the day. A link under it takes you to the tasks waiting for today. A column only appears when at least one project has something to show in it, so a quiet dashboard stays narrow. | Column | What it means | |---|---| | **Project** | The name, with the client under it. Click anywhere on the row to open the project. | | **Attention** | How much the project asks for your attention, as a meter of one to three bars, with the main reason next to it. Hover over it to see every reason. | | **Status** | The project status. The owner can click it to change it. | | **Tasks** | Open tasks out of all tasks. | | **Progress** | The share of tasks completed. Recurring tasks are left out, because they are never done. | | **Mine** | Open tasks assigned to you. | | **Overdue** | Your late tasks, then the late tasks of the whole project. | | **Hours** | Hours logged, next to the budget when there is one. Red when the hours go over the budget. | | **Unbilled** | Billable hours that have not been marked as invoiced yet. | | **Deadline** | How long until the project deadline. Red once it has passed. Hover to see the date. | | **Activity** | When something last happened in the project. Grey after two weeks of silence. | **Hours** and **Unbilled** are only visible to the owner and managers of a project, and only when the plan of the project owner includes rates and invoicing. See [Time and invoicing](). ### What raises the attention meter These reasons add up. The dashboard is sorted on attention by default, so the project that needs you most is on top. - tasks that are late - a project deadline that has passed, or one less than two weeks away while work is still open - tasks due in the coming week - more hours logged than the budget allows - an active project in which nothing happened for two weeks A project that is **On hold**, **Waiting on client** or **Invoiced** counts for half, because the next step is somebody else's. A completed or archived project never asks for attention. ### Sort, filter and group - Click a column heading to sort on it. Click again to reverse the order. - The status menu at the top shows one status only. **All statuses** shows them all again. - **Folders** groups the table by your folders, with a total per folder. - **Completed** and **Archived** show the projects that are hidden by default. - A project with several sections gets a small arrow in front of its name. Click it to see the figures per section. The dashboard remembers these choices for you. Clicking a folder name in the sidebar opens the dashboard with only the projects in that folder. ## Add a task quickly Press **q** anywhere, or click the bar at the bottom of a task list, to open quick add. Type the title and add details in the same line: | Type | For | Example | |---|---|---| | `#` | the project | `#Webshop` or `#"Website redesign"` | | `@` | a label | `@bug` | | `!1` to `!5` | the priority: 1 Urgent, 2 High, 3 Medium, 4 Low, 5 None | `!2` | | a date word | the due date | `today`, `tomorrow`, `day after tomorrow`, `next week`, a weekday such as `friday`, or a date like `2026-10-01` | So `Call about the quote tomorrow !2 #Webshop` adds a task with high priority, due tomorrow, in Webshop. Dutch words such as `morgen` and `vrijdag` work too. **next week** means next Monday. While you type after `#` or `@`, a list of matching projects or labels appears. Pick one with the arrow keys and Enter. Labels belong to a project, so pick the project first. If a label does not exist yet, say `@bug`, the list offers **Create label "bug"**, provided you may manage labels in that project. When you open quick add from inside a project, the task goes to that project unless you type another one with `#`. Within a project you can also type straight into **Add task** under a section. ## See what to do today **Today** shows every open task you can see that: - is due today, or - is due earlier and still open, or - has already started: its start date is today or earlier, even when it is only due later. Tasks that are past their due date are gathered at the top under **Overdue**. With **Reschedule all** you move all of them at once to **Today**, **Tomorrow**, **Next week** or a date you pick. A task that has started but is not due yet is never overdue, it simply shows its due date. You can group the list by **Project** or by **Date**. The assignee filter decides whose tasks you see: - **Mine or nobody's** (the default): tasks assigned to you, and tasks nobody has picked up yet - **Assigned to me** - **Assigned to others** - **Everyone's** "Today" is always today in your own time zone, which you set in your profile (see [Account]()). ## Plan the coming days **Upcoming** shows the next seven days, one block per day, with the open tasks due on that day. **Show 7 more days** extends the view, up to sixty days ahead. Drag a task onto another day to give it that date. The same assignee filter as on Today applies. A task without a due date never shows up in Today or Upcoming. It stays in its project, and in **My tasks** when it is assigned to you. Tasks in archived projects are left out as well. ## Search for a project or task Press **/** or **Cmd+K** (**Ctrl+K** on Windows and Linux), or click **Search** in the sidebar. Type at least two letters to find projects by name and tasks by title. Type a task reference such as `WEB-12` to jump straight to that task. Completed tasks come after open ones; archived tasks are not searched. Everything you find is limited to what you are allowed to see. For all keyboard shortcuts, see [Tasks](). ## Where to go next - [Projects](): sections, statuses, folders and views. - [Tasks](): dates, priorities, labels, subtasks, comments and recurring tasks. - [Members and roles](): invite a colleague or a client. - [Time and invoicing](): log hours and keep track of what to invoice.