Settings
Services and tasks
Build the services your business offers from tasks and subtasks, activate them, and add them to clients.
Services and Tasks (Template) is what your business sells and how each thing is delivered. A service, such as a VAT return or a payroll run, is made of the tasks and subtasks that deliver it. When a service is picked on an engagement, those tasks become real work.
For business administrators
You need permission to view engagements to open this page. It sits under the Practice tab of Settings.
Getting services right is the highest-leverage setup in Orin. Every engagement afterwards draws its work from them.
Steps at a glance
Building a service
Step 01
Open Services and tasks
Go to Settings, choose the Practice tab, then Services and tasks. The list shows each service's manager, how many tasks it has and its status. Filter by Active or Inactive, or search.
Three ways to start a service. 1: New service. 2: Add from the Irish deadline pack. 3: Generate with Aiden. Besides building one yourself, Add from the Irish deadline pack adds services for common Irish filings, and Generate with Aiden drafts a service from a description for you to check.
Step 02
Start a new service
Press New service. On the first step enter the Name (required), a Description and the Service manager, then press Continue.
The new service wizard. Step 03
Add main tasks and subtasks
Each main task sets its task type, effort and recurrence. Under it, add subtasks with Add subtask; Effort split shows how the hours divide between them. Add more with Add main task.
Step 04
Review and save
The Review step lets you check it before saving. A new service is saved as a draft.
Step 05
Activate the service
Open the draft and activate it. Activating records that somebody has checked it, and it can then be picked on an engagement. If anything required is still blank, the dialog lists what to fill in first. There is no way back to draft; deactivate it instead if you change your mind.
Working with an existing service
Select a service to open it. The right-hand side lists the tasks it expands into; use the pencil beside one to change it, its billing, or what it captures. A task without hours shows Unestimated.
The menu at the end of a row offers:
- Add to clients: raises a draft change to each ticked client's engagement, adding this service. Nothing is sent to a client until each change is approved and signed.
- Clone service: copies the whole service, every task, subtask and the effort split.
- Deactivate service: stops it being offered on new engagements. Existing engagements keep it, and you can activate it again later.
- Delete service: removes it and its tasks for good. Orin refuses if anything still uses it, and offers Deactivate instead.
Next steps
- Pick services on an engagement in Engagements and periods.
- Manage the task types tasks are classified with in Task types and Document types.
Common questions
I cannot pick a service on an engagement.
Check that it is active. Drafts and inactive services are not offered.
Can I undo activating a service?
No. Deactivate it instead, which stops it being offered on new engagements.