Epics

An Epic is a container for related Tasks. Epics group work into larger deliverables, making it easier to track scope, progress, and hours across many Tasks at once. Switch to the Epics view by clicking Epics in the toolbar.

Each Epic should aim at a specific goal. The Project "Build Law Library Website" might be made up of dozens of Epics like "Create Design Document" or "Implement SSO", each small enough to measure a specific outcome. Read more about it in the Getting the Most Out of Epics guide.

The Epics Grid

The Epics view lists each Epic as a row you can expand to show its Tasks. Summary chips above the grid show the total Epic count and a breakdown by state: backlog, active, and archived.

An expand/collapse-all button in the first column header lets you open or close every Epic at once.

Columns

The grid shares the same column management as the Ledger: open the column menu on any column heading and choose Manage columns to show, hide or reorder columns.

Creating an Epic

Click + Epic in the toolbar to open Create Epic. The button appears on the Epics tab when you have permission.

Epic Fields

Give the Epic a Title, and optionally a description, a colour, a Priority, and a Lead from the project's members. Click the colour swatch to open a picker; the colour marks the Epic's badges and its Chain Band on the Timeline, which you turn on with Chain Bands in the Timeline configuration. You can drop images and PDFs into the description once the Epic is saved. External Reference links the Epic to a record in another system. When Show Budget Fields is on in Organization Settings, the dialog also has a Budget field. Any budget added to an Epic is attached to the timeline by it's earliest task.

The Epic Page

Click an Epic's reference in the grid (or the View action) to open its dedicated page. The page shows the Epic's title, state, priority, lead, scope (its Tasks' estimated hours added up), and a count of child Tasks. When Show Budget Fields is on in Organization Settings and the Epic has a budget, a Budget line follows Scope. Owners and admins also see how much of the budget has been burnt by the time recorded against the Epic's Tasks; the cost of that time comes from the Cost on the project's categories.

Below the header is a Ledger of the Epic's Tasks with the same columns and actions available on the main Ledger. Navigation arrows let you move between Epics without returning to the grid. If you can manage Epics, Activate, Archive, and Edit buttons appear beside the arrows; Edit opens the Edit Epic dialog. The Back to Epics arrow in the toolbar returns you to the grid.

Adding Tasks to an Epic

From the Epic page, click Add Existing in the toolbar to open the Add Task to Epic dialog. It lists the project's Tasks that are not in an Epic and are not Done or Archived. Select one or more Tasks using the checkboxes and click Add to assign them to the Epic. Click + Task in the same toolbar to create a new Task that is already assigned to this Epic. You can also assign a Task to an Epic from the Edit Task form's Epic selector. To take a Task out of its Epic, set the Epic selector in the Edit Task form to No Epic.

Epic Lifecycle

A new Epic starts in Backlog. Click Activate to make it Active, and its Backlog Tasks move to To-Do. When the Epic is finished or no longer needed, click Archive and choose what happens to its Tasks. Remove from epic (tasks remain active) detaches them, and Archive tasks with epic archives them along with it. Archived Epics can be restored from the archived tasks view.

Promoting a Task to an Epic

You can promote an existing Task into a new Epic. Open the Task and choose Promote to Epic from its menu. This is available for a Backlog Task that has no time entries and is not already in an Epic. The Promote to Epic dialog fills in the Epic's title and description from the Task. Click Promote. The original Task is deleted and a new Epic is created in its place.

Filtering by Epic

When the project has Epics, the filter bar shows an Epic button. Choose All Items, Only Epics (Tasks that belong to any Epic), or a single Epic to show only its Tasks. Epics still in Backlog are marked BL in the list, and archived Epics are not listed.