Assigning and collaborating on tasks

Assigning a task owner ensures accountability and timely completion. Adding collaborators allows multiple team members to contribute without changing ownership. This helps keep tasks on track and promotes teamwork.

Use cases

Automated routing

Use assignment rules to automatically set the Owner for new tasks.

Collaborating as a team

Assign the sales team user as Owner and add finance or legal team members as Collaborators to handle specific parts of the process.

Understanding ownership

• Ownership in tasks defines who is accountable for that respective task. The task owner is responsible for progress updates and timely completion.
• Each task can have only one owner, but you can add collaborators to share work and maintain team alignment without changing primary accountability.
• All changes to ownership, as well as collaborator additions or removals, are logged in the Timeline for transparency and accountability.

Assigning a task owner

Assigning an owner while creating a task

When creating a new task, you can assign it to yourself or select a different user.

• Go to Activities > Tasks from the left-side bar menu.
• Click + Task. This opens a quick form that enables you to quickly create a task using some available fields. If you need more fields, click the Expand create form icon at the top-right corner of the quick form. This opens the detailed Create Task form.
• Enter the task details.
• In the Owner field, click the dropdown and assign yourself or select the user from the dropdown.
• Click Create.

A task can only have one owner at a time.

Reassigning the task owner

• Navigate to Activities > Tasks from the left-side bar menu.
• Open the detail page of the task you want to reassign.
• Locate the Owner field.
• Click Edit and select a user from the dropdown.
• Click Save to update.

Auto-assignment behavior

Assignment rules

• Navigate to Setup > Automation > Assignment Rules.
• Click + Create Assignment Rule.
• Name the rule and set Trigger module = Tasks and Trigger type = Record Created.
• Add conditions to target specific tasks if you want.
• Under Assign Owner, select Users or Team, then choose the assignees.
• Click Create.

Workflow rules

• Go to Setup > Process Management > Workflow Rules.
• Click + Create Workflow Rule.
• Select Tasks as the trigger module and choose a trigger type (e.g., Record Created/Edited).
• Add conditions if needed and click Next.
• In Instant Actions, select Assign Owner to Current Record, then choose Users or Teams.
• Click Create.

Owners will be assigned using round-robin among selected users/team members. If an owner is already set, the rule skips assignment and leaves the owner unchanged.

Collaborating on a task

You can add collaborators to a task so multiple users can contribute without changing ownership. The Collaborators will have the same permission as the Owner in terms of viewing, editing, or deleting the respective task based on the permission set they are in.

Adding collaborators

• Open the task detail page.
• Go to Collaborators then click Edit.
• Type at least two characters of the user’s name.
• Check the box next to the user(s) and save.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Do assignment rules override a manually set owner?

No. If an owner is already set when the record is created, assignment rules skip reassignment.

Can multiple users work on the same task?

Yes. A task can have only one owner, but you can add multiple collaborators to contribute.