Tasks

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What this helps you do

Tasks keep operational work moving from request to completion. Use them for cleaning, maintenance, inspections, supply work, owner requests, guest issues, and anything your team needs to track.

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Before you start

• Add your properties and team members.
• Set up departments or vendors if your team routes work by group. Common departments include Cleaning, Maintenance, Inspection, and Front Office.
• Create task templates for repeat work, such as turnovers, inspections, and repairs.
• Connect inventory if you want tasks to update supply usage.

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Create a task

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Task stages

Most tasks move through the same simple path:

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Task templates

A task template is a saved blueprint for work you repeat across properties. Common examples include a turnover clean, a pre-arrival check, or a seasonal filter change. When you create a task from a template, Trellis fills in:

• Title and description
• Department and priority
• Estimated time and number of people
• Checklist
• Default supplies and costs

That way, a new task takes a few clicks instead of a few minutes. You can start any task from a template. This works everywhere tasks are created: by hand, on the mobile app, in automations, and in workflows. Common templates teams set up:

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Where to find templates

In the left navigation, open Tasks, then choose Templates under the Operations group. This opens the Task Templates screen, where you can search templates, filter by department, and create, edit, duplicate, or delete them.

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Create a template

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Apply, switch, or clear a template on an existing task

You do not have to choose a template when the task is created. Open any task, find the Template picker in the Details panel, and apply, switch, or clear it at any time.

• Apply a template to a task that had none. Trellis generates the template’s checklist and fills in its default supplies and costs.
• Switch to a different template if you picked the wrong one or the work changed. The current checklist is cleared and rebuilt from the new template.
• Clear the template (the X in the picker) to remove it. The checklist is cleared and the task is left with no template checklist.
• Re-selecting the same template does nothing, so you can open the picker without risk of wiping work.

Switching a template does not overwrite the task’s title, priority, or department. If the new template has a different description, Trellis asks before replacing the task’s description.

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Templates from connected integrations

If you connect an integration like Breezeway, the template picker groups templates by where they came from so you can tell them apart:

• From Breezeway (or another connected provider) - templates imported from that account. Choosing one keeps the checklist and requirements aligned so they carry over when the task syncs back to that system.
• From Trellis - templates you built in Trellis. These work for tasks managed entirely in Trellis, but their checklists do not appear on the connected provider’s side.
• PMS templates and Custom templates headers may also appear, depending on your connections.

Only active templates appear in the picker.

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Checklists

A checklist breaks a task into clear steps so the person doing the work knows exactly what to do and what “done” looks like. You can add a checklist to a single task, or build it into a template so every task of that type starts with the same steps. Each checklist item can include:

• A title and an optional description with instructions
• A step type that controls how the worker responds. Common types are a simple done check, yes/no, a number or count, a rating, a short text answer, and a photo step.
• A reference photo that shows what a finished step should look like
• Required photos (for example before, after, an issue photo, or a general photo) the worker must capture
• AI photo verification, which flags photos that look wrong, missing, too dark, or hard to verify so a manager can review before the task closes

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Checklist sections

Checklist items are grouped into sections so the team can work through them in a logical order. There are two kinds of section:

• Room-type sections are tied to a kind of room, such as Bedroom, Bathroom, Kitchen, or Living Room. These adapt to each property (see Room fan-out below).
• Custom sections are free-form groupings such as Amenities, Exterior, or Final Walkthrough. These always appear as written.

Within a section, an item can also be linked to an element (like a grill or hot tub) so it only appears at properties that have that element. When a worker opens the task, the checklist is grouped by section so they can move through it room by room.

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How templates adapt to each property

This is what makes one template work for a whole portfolio. Instead of building a separate template per property, you build one template and Trellis adapts its checklist to each property using that property’s rooms and elements (set up on the property detail page).

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Room fan-out

When a checklist item is in a room-type section (such as Bedroom or Bathroom), Trellis creates one copy of that step for each matching room at the property. So one “Deep Clean” template with a Bedroom section works everywhere:

• A studio gets no bedroom steps
• A 2-bedroom condo gets “Bedroom 1” and “Bedroom 2”
• A 5-bedroom villa gets “Bedroom 1” through “Bedroom 5”

Where the room count comes from:

• If the property has detailed rooms set up in its Rooms tab (often imported from a connected system), Trellis uses those rooms, including their names and photos.
• If it has no detailed rooms, Trellis falls back to the property’s room counts (bedrooms, bathrooms, and similar) from the property record.

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Element-aware steps

A checklist item can be linked to a specific property element, such as a grill, hot tub, pool, or washer. When a task is created, Trellis checks the property:

• The element is present and active - the step appears on the task.
• The element is missing or marked inactive - the step is skipped.

You maintain one template, and each property automatically gets only the steps that apply to it.

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Set up rooms and elements first

Room fan-out and element-aware steps only work if each property’s rooms and elements are set up. You do this on the property, not on the template: See Rooms and elements for the full setup steps.

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Per-property template settings

Even with automatic room and element adaptation, some properties need different defaults than others. The Templates section on each property lets you override a shared template for just that property, without creating a separate template. To override a template at a property: What you can override per property:

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Schedule and assign work

• List view is best for scanning work by status, assignee, property, priority, or due date.
• Calendar view is best for daily schedules, visit planning, and moving work between days.
• Mobile visits help field teams see the work grouped by property and date.
• Unassigned work should be reviewed often so nothing sits without an owner.

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Visits

When the same person has more than one task at the same property on the same day, Trellis can group those tasks into a visit. This gives the field worker one trip to follow instead of several separate cards. On mobile, field workers can open My Visits to see upcoming and past visits, task progress, property details, and assigned work. If a visit needs to move, use Reschedule on the visit so every task in that visit moves together.

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Calendar planning

Use the calendar when you need to plan a day, week, or month:

• Use Visits mode to plan trips to properties.
• Use Tasks mode to see each task by itself.
• View the calendar by property when you are checking coverage at each home.
• View the calendar by team member when you are balancing workloads.
• Drag work to another day, property, or team member when plans change.

The Unassigned row stays easy to find in the team-member calendar, so managers can quickly spot work that still needs an owner.

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Mobile task work

Field teams can create and update tasks from mobile. When creating a mobile task, they can choose a property, date, department, priority, assignee, and template. If the property has bookings shown in Trellis, the calendar helps the team avoid scheduling work during a guest stay. Admins can also update assignees and dates from the mobile task detail page.

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Communicate on a task

Each task has an activity feed for comments and updates. Use it to keep notes, questions, photos, and manager decisions in one place. Type @ in a comment to mention a teammate. Mentioned teammates receive a focused notification, even if they are not assigned to the task. Team members can manage how they receive task comment notifications in their own notification settings. If your team works in more than one language, task auto-translation can show titles and descriptions in each teammate’s preferred language while keeping the original text.

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Track time, supplies, and cost

Use time tracking when you need to know how long work took. A field worker can start time tracking while working on a task, and managers can later compare planned time with actual time. Use supply tracking when cleaners or technicians use items from inventory: If your team stores supplies in more than one place, use warehouse transfers in Supplies to move items from one warehouse to another and keep counts accurate. Mark work as no-charge when the cost should stay in your records but should not be billed onward. You can use no-charge for one task or for a whole visit, depending on what should be excluded.

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Export and report on tasks

Use filters to narrow the task list, then export tasks when you need a spreadsheet for owners, accounting, or internal review. Large exports show progress while the file is prepared, then download when ready. Common filters include status, date, property, assignee, department, priority, and vendor.

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Use live tracking responsibly

If location tracking is enabled for your workspace and your team has given permission, managers can use the live map to see active workers and route work more clearly. Location sharing depends on the worker’s permission and device settings. If a worker denies location permission or ends their shift, tracking stops.

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Keep connected systems aligned

When a connected property system supports task updates, Trellis can help keep work status and related notes aligned. What syncs depends on the integration and your workspace settings.

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How to check it worked

• The task appears in the list with the right property, assignee, due date, and status.
• The calendar shows scheduled work on the expected day.
• Checklist items, comments, photos, supplies, and time entries appear in the task history.
• Visits group same-day property work correctly.
• Exports include the tasks that match your current filters.
• Closed tasks show who completed the work and when.

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Common problems

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