Task Status and Lifecycle
What each status on a Growth task means, how it changes, and where a task goes once it's done.
Three different fields, not one status
Every task in the Growth queue carries three separate pieces of information. They're easy to mix up because they all show up as colored badges, but they answer different questions and change independently of each other.
Priority answers "how much does this matter?" It's set once, when the task is created, based on things like the value of the opportunity or how overdue it is. Priority does not change automatically as the task moves through its lifecycle. The queue only flags Critical and High priority tasks with a badge; Medium and Low stay unmarked so the badges you do see are worth paying attention to.
Task status answers "where does the work stand?" This is the one that actually moves as your team works the task, and it's covered in detail below.
Opportunity status answers "did this turn into anything?" It starts at Open and only changes when someone records a real outcome, like a booking or a decline. A task can be marked done without the opportunity ever converting, and that distinction matters for reporting: closing out your to-do list isn't the same as growing revenue.
Task status values
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Not started | Nobody has picked this up or taken any action yet. |
| Claimed | A specific person has taken ownership, but hasn't logged an outreach attempt yet. |
| In progress | Someone has tried to reach the client (called, left a voicemail, spoke with them) but the opportunity hasn't resolved yet. |
| Waiting for client | An email or text has gone out, or a message was left, and the ball is in the client's court. Nothing to do here until you hear back or decide to follow up again. |
| Follow-up scheduled | The client asked to be contacted again at a specific later date. The task will resurface around that date. |
| Closed | The task is finished. See "Where a closed task goes," below. |
Opportunity status values
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Open | Still active, nothing has been decided yet. |
| Booked / Converted | The client scheduled or completed the appointment this task was chasing. |
| Declined | The client said no. |
| No response | Attempted contact, never heard back. |
| Lost | The opportunity didn't convert and isn't worth pursuing further. |
| Do not contact | The client asked not to be contacted, or already had a do-not-contact flag. |
| No longer eligible | The situation changed and this outreach no longer applies (for example, they already booked through another channel). |
How status actually changes
Nothing changes a task's status except a specific action someone takes, or the system logging what it did on your behalf. Here's the full map:
- Claiming a task moves it from Not started to Claimed.
- Releasing a claim moves it back from Claimed to Not started.
- Sending an email through the composer moves the task to Waiting for client. This happens automatically the moment the email goes out; it isn't something you choose separately. The opportunity itself stays Open, because sending an email isn't the outcome, it's just an action.
- Recording an outcome is the main way tasks move and close. When you record what actually happened, task status and opportunity status update together:
| What you record | Task status becomes | Opportunity status becomes |
|---|---|---|
| Client booked | Closed | Booked |
| Client declined | Closed | Declined |
| Not appropriate | Closed | No longer eligible |
| Do not contact | Closed | Do not contact |
| Email sent / SMS sent externally / Left voicemail | Waiting for client | Open |
| Follow up later | Follow-up scheduled | Open |
| Called, no answer / Spoke with client / Client replied / Wrong contact information / Escalated | In progress | Open |
If you choose "Follow up later," you'll also be asked for a new date, and the task's due date moves to match it.
A word about email replies
Once an email goes out through Growth, the task sits in Waiting for client until a person records what actually happened. Growth does not have access to your team's real email inbox, so it has no way to know on its own whether the client opened the message, replied, or ignored it entirely. The same is true for texts sent through your SMS system and calls placed outside the app. If a client replies to an email or texts back, that reply lands in your normal inbox or phone, not inside Nabu, and someone needs to check it and come back to record the outcome. This is intentional: Growth is built to organize and prompt outreach, not to read your team's private communications.
Where a closed task goes
Once a task's status becomes Closed, it drops out of the Growth queue entirely, on both the desktop table and the mobile view. There is currently no separate "completed" or "history" tab to browse it afterward. If you're looking for a task you just finished and can't find it, this is why: it did what it was supposed to do, and it's no longer taking up space in the list of things that still need attention.
Reading the queue at a glance
Every row and card in the queue shows its current task status directly, using the same colors and labels described above, so you don't need to open a task to know where it stands. Statuses that need a person to do something (Not started, Claimed, In progress) are marked with an open circle. Statuses that are waiting on something outside your control (Waiting for client, Follow-up scheduled) are marked with a clock. The action button next to each task also reflects what's actually left to do: it won't tell you to "review" an email that already went out, for example, it'll ask you to log the reply once you have one.