Work items
Work items turn the rows of an ordinary table into tracked pieces of work. Each row gets a key such as KAN-64, a type, a priority, a status and a place in a hierarchy of parents and subtasks, and it can wait on other rows that block it. Nothing is kept on the side: every one of these is a column of the table with a job to do, so the kanban board, the grid and the record window all read the same cells, and an Initiative's progress is the same number wherever you look at it.
The words are general on purpose. An Initiative, a Request, a Task, an Issue and a Subtask read the same to a clinic, a transport company or an accounting office.
Turning it on
There are three ways in, and all three do the same thing to the table.
- When you create a board. In New Kanban board, if the table has no key column yet, the dialog asks for a Key prefix and offers Track as work items (type, priority, parent, blockers), switched on. Switch it off and only a key column is added; the other fields can be turned on later from the board. A board stacked by a multi-select field is created without work tracking, because a card that sits in two lanes has no single status.
- From a board. A board that tracks no work shows Track work in its header. It opens Track work on this board, where you set the prefix and pick the Fields: "Each one is a column on the table. Uncheck what you do not need." Start date and Reporter start unticked. The board's Stack by column becomes the status.
- From the grid. The table's actions menu has Track work items. Once the table tracks work, the same entry reads Work item columns and adds whatever is still missing.
Columns that already fit are reused rather than duplicated: one with a matching name and type, the table's people column as the assignee, its only long text as the description, a date that reads like a deadline as the due date. The rest are created, named in your interface language.
The key prefix
The prefix is 2 to 10 capital letters or digits and starts with a letter. The dialog suggests one from the table's name: the initials of a name of several words ("Customer Support Tickets" gives CST), otherwise the first letters of one word ("Kanban" gives KAN). Names that say nothing, such as "Table 1" or "Sheet1", are skipped in favour of the project's name, then the board's.
Existing rows are numbered straight away and every new row takes the next number. A number is assigned once and never reissued.
The prefix is set once
It cannot be changed later. Keys end up pasted into messages, comments and documents, and a new prefix would leave all of them pointing nowhere. After the first setup, the board, the setup dialogs and the column settings show the prefix read-only.
The fields
Each field is one column of the table, and a table has at most one column per field.
| Field | Column | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Key | a number the table assigns | KAN-64, shown on cards, in the grid, in links and in exports |
| Type | single select | Initiative, Request, Task, Issue or Subtask, each with its own icon |
| Priority | single select | Highest, High, Medium, Low, Lowest |
| Status | single select or classification | the column the board is stacked by |
| Parent | link to a row of the same table | the item this one belongs to |
| Blocked by | links to rows of the same table | the items that have to be done first |
| Labels | multi select | free tags; type a new one in the picker to create it |
| Flagged | checkbox | a flag that stands out on the card |
| Description | long text | Markdown, edited in the record window |
| Start date, Due date | date | the due date drives Overdue and Due soon |
| Assignee | person | who does the work |
| Reporter | who created the row | filled in automatically |
The option labels are the table's data. Rename them freely: the icon stays with the option, so a "Priority" column in Polish or a "Type" column that says "Complaint" instead of "Issue" still draws the right glyph. An existing select whose options read like types or priorities is recognised, and so are the older words it may carry.
When you create a new single-select column yourself, its settings offer Start from: Priority or Work type fills in the options with their icons and colours and gives the column that role. If the table already has one, the preset says so and stays off.
Status and "done"
Status labels belong to your table, so Quanty never crosses a card out or ticks it off. It only needs to know which options count as finished: any option that reads as done (Done, Gotowe, Erledigt, Closed, Resolved, Completed and similar), otherwise the last option. That decides progress bars, whether an item is ready to start, and which items can be overdue.
Parents and subtasks
Initiatives sit at the top, Requests, Tasks and Issues below them, Subtasks at the bottom. A row has at most one parent, and a parent that would point at the row itself or at one of its own descendants is refused.
- A card with children shows how many are done, such as "2 of 5 done". An Initiative counts everything underneath it; any other item counts its direct children.
- The record window's Subtasks section lists the children. Add subtask creates a real row already linked to this one, and dragging a subtask by its grip changes the order. The order is saved as the rows' own positions, so the grid, the hierarchy and the board agree. From the keyboard, press Space or Enter on the grip, move with the arrow keys and press Space or Enter to drop.
- Change parent in the card menu, or Add parent in the record window, puts an item under another. The record window shows the parent in the path above the title, and Open parent goes there.
The hierarchy view
A board that tracks work has a View switch: Board or Hierarchy. The hierarchy shows every work item of the table as a tree with its status, priority, assignee and a Progress bar, including the cards a board filter hides, because the tree is the whole plan. Expand all and Collapse all open the tree, a row opens its record, and Add child item on a row adds a new item under it.
In the grid, a table with a Parent column gets a Hierarchy toggle: "Show rows under their parent items". Each parent row then has an arrow to show or hide its sub-items.
Blockers
Blocked by records the order work has to happen in. The record window's Linked work items reads it both ways: what this item is blocked by and what it blocks. Adding "blocks" writes the other item's Blocked by cell, so the link always lives on the blocked side and the two lists can never disagree.
Above the list a banner says where the item stands: "Blocked. Open blockers: 2" or "Ready to start. Every blocker is done." On the board a blocked card carries a badge such as "Blocked by KAN-12", and the hierarchy view shows what each item is Waiting for.
Links to work items
A link to a row of a work-tracked table reads like the item itself: its type icon, "KAN-64: title" and a status chip in the status option's own colour. You get such a link from Copy link in the card menu, Copy record URL in the record window, or by picking from Tasks and records when you type @ in a comment.
The chip looks the same everywhere it appears: in chat answers, comments, document pages, WhatsApp messages, notifications and cells. The title is resolved for whoever is reading, at the moment they read it. Someone who cannot open the row sees "Unavailable link", which names nothing. Hovering shows a preview, and a click opens the record over the page you are on.
When chat reads a board it cites cards by their key, as links that open the record.
Related pages
- Kanban boards: cards, the card menu, quick filters and the record window.
- Columns & AI extraction: the column types these fields are made of.
- Reviews & audit trail: the trail the record's History tab reads from.