Managing Your Flow Board

The Flow Board is Time Flow's board view of a single project: every task sits in a column matching its state — Backlog, To-Do, Doing, Done — and cards move between columns as work is started, timed, and finished. This guide covers reading the board, moving work through its states, and filtering the board down to the work in front of you.

Opening the board

In the sidebar, open Time Flow and select Flow Board. The toolbar groups Flow Board with Timeline, and Ledger with Epics; the project selector sits on the right, and the board shows only the selected project.

To create a task directly on the board, click + Task. The Create Time Flow Task dialog asks for a Title and a Category (required) and lets you choose the task's starting state: Todo places it on the board as ready work, Backlog holds it for later. Click Save and the card appears in the matching column. The full create form, with every other field, is covered in Tasks.

Reading the columns

Each column is a task state, arranged left to right; when they don't all fit, the board scrolls horizontally.

• Backlog — work that isn't scheduled for now. The column is hidden while it's empty, unless its stages are spread.

• To-Do — work that's ready to start but has no time recorded yet.

• Doing — work with time recorded against it. Tasks enter this column by having time recorded, not by being placed here.

• Done — work you've marked finished.

• Archived — appears only while archived cards are shown; the archive icon in the board header shows or hides them.

An empty column reads No tasks. Each card shows the task's reference and title, its category, its tags and priority when set, a state label (Backlog, To-Do, Doing, Done, or a stage name), and its logged hours against the estimate. When a task has scheduled dates, the label also carries a day count, and a blocked task's card is outlined in red.

When Stages are enabled, the Backlog and Doing columns carry a Spread stages / Collapse stages tab on their right edge. Spreading splits the column into one column per stage, with unstaged cards remaining under Backlog or Doing; collapsing returns them to a single column. The tab only changes the layout — stages themselves are managed in Settings → Stages.

Moving work

Click a card — or the vertical dots on it — to open the task; archived tasks open read-only. The horizontal dots in the task header open Task Actions, the menu that moves a task between states.

• Move to To-Do — available on Backlog tasks, when the work is ready to start.

• Move to Backlog — available on To-Do tasks, when the work should wait.

• Doing isn't chosen from the menu: a task moves there when time is recorded against it, through Enter Time (the calendar icon) or Start Timer in the task header. Start Timer isn't available on Backlog tasks.

• Mark as Done — available on Doing tasks with time recorded. Confirm with Confirm Mark as Done.

• Reopen — available on Done tasks for owners, admins, and managers. Confirm with Confirm Reopen; the task returns to Doing.

• Archive — available on any task that isn't already archived. Confirm with Confirm Archive.

Stages subdivide Backlog and Doing; they aren't additional states. The Transition To control on the task's right rail assigns a stage, or clears it back to plain Backlog or Doing, and is unavailable on Done and Archived tasks. The stages themselves — adding, renaming, archiving, and each stage's Type of Backlog or Doing — are managed under Settings → Stages; there is no stage management on the board.

For work that's held up, Mark Blocked and Unblock sit on the same Task Actions menu. The remaining actions there — merge, split, and promote — are covered in Tasks.

Filtering the board

The filter bar under the toolbar narrows what the board displays; it never changes a task's state.

• Search... — matches task titles and references.

• The avatar row — click a member to see their tasks, or Unassigned for tasks with no assignee.

• Categories — filters by the project's categories.

• Priority — All Priorities, Critical, High, Medium, or Low.

• Epic — shown when Epics are enabled and the project has them; choose All Items, Only Epics, or a single epic.

• Tags — shown when the project's tasks carry tags.

• Dates — filters by scheduled start and end; tasks without dates remain visible.

The cancel icon, Clear Filters, resets everything at once. On the right, Avatars (Show Avatars / Hide Avatars) shows or hides assignee faces on cards, and the gear opens the board settings, where Show Empty Stages keeps spread stage columns visible even when they hold nothing.

Keeping the board current

The board stays readable when each column reflects reality: To-Do holds what's genuinely next, Doing holds work that's actively receiving time, and Done is emptied regularly.

• Move work that isn't current back with Move to Backlog.

• Filter to your own tasks when the full team's board is more than you need.

• Collapse stages when the per-stage breakdown isn't useful, and leave Show Empty Stages off unless you want the empty columns visible.

• When a Doing task is finished, Mark as Done and then Archive it, and keep the archive icon off outside of looking up old work.

Card fields and the full set of task actions are covered in Tasks, and shaping a project before it reaches the board is covered in Planning Your First Project.