A Task is a type of record used to assign work to another team or person (usually someone other than the person named in the Assigned to field of the parent record). Tasks are used with Incident, Request, HRP Case, Finance Case, Problem, and Change records.

Note: This article does not cover Personal Tasks (prefix "TSK"). For information on Personal Tasks, see ServiceNow's documentation. 

Examples of when to create a Task

• If you need assistance working a record, create a Task and assign it to the appropriate team.
• If you want someone else to take over work on a record.
• If you need to escalate an Incident.

Types of Tasks

Each type of task has a different record type and record number prefix according to the record type of the parent.

Parent Record Type	Task Record Type	Task Record Number Prefix
Request	Request Task	RTASK
Incident	Incident Task	ITASK
HR/Payroll Case	HR/Payroll Task	HRTASK
Finance Case	Finance Task	FTASK
Change	Change Task	CTASK
Problem	Problem Task	PTASK
Remediation	See Remediation Tasks	REM

Creating Tasks

To create a task:

1. Open the record that needs a task associated.
2. Click the Create _Task button in the upper righthand corner of your screen, where _Task is the type of task related to the record type you're on.
3. On the task record, fill out the appropriate fields and enter the Assignment Group that the task should be assigned to.
4. Click Save.
5. The task will then be in the Assignment Group that you selected in the task.

Characteristics of all Task types

• A Task is a child of the record in which it is created.
• The creation of the Task is recorded in the Activity Log of the parent record and in the Activity Log of all other Tasks of the parent record.
• Tthe parent record cannot be closed until all of its Tasks are also closed.
• No Task fields are visible to the Caller on the parent record. 
• If you have work that doesn't need to fall under one record, you can create separate records, instead of Tasks.
• Work Notes in Tasks have particular behaviors:
  • Work Notes entered on a parent record appear as Work Notes in that record's Activity Log and in the Activity Logs of all other Tasks of the parent record.
  • Work Notes entered on a Task appear as Work Notes in that Task's Activity Log and in the Activity Log of the parent record.
  • Assignment groups have the option to turn on/off the email notices of Work Notes. 

Characteristics or Exceptions of specific Task types

• Request Tasks (RTasks)
  • Work Notes entered on an RTask do not appear in the Activity Logs of other RTasks on that parent Request record.
  • For more details about Request Tasks, refer to KB0024931

• Incident Tasks (ITasks)
  • If you are creating an ITask for escalation of an Incident, you can click the Contact Oncall button on the top bar of the record to start the on-call process. To cancel, click Stop Oncall Notification.
  • Work Notes entered on an ITask also appear in the Activity Logs of all other ITasks on the parent Incident record.

• Problem Tasks (PTasks)
  • Work Notes entered on an PTask also appear in the Activity Logs of all other PTasks on the parent Problem record.