This article covers the Owner and Visibility properties on manual tasks. For the Task Board itself, see Task Board Overview.
Overview
Every manual task in AwardSpring's Task Board has two new properties: Owner and Visibility. Together, they turn the Task Board from a personal to-do list into a team workspace—where work is clearly assigned, visible to the right people, and tracked across your entire admin team.
Understanding Owner
Owner determines who is responsible for completing a task. When a task has an Owner, it appears in that person's (or group's) My Tasks tab.
Who can be an Owner?
You can assign ownership to:
A specific admin—The task belongs to one person and lives in their My Tasks
A Department—Every admin in that Department becomes an effective owner; the task appears in all of their My Tasks tabs simultaneously
All Admins—The task is shared across your entire admin team
Why use Department ownership?
Department ownership reflects how work actually belongs in larger admin teams—to the Financial Aid Office or the Advancement Office, not to a single individual. When someone changes roles or leaves, tasks owned by a Department don't become orphaned; they remain with the Department.
Understanding Visibility
Visibility controls who can see that a task exists. It is a separate setting from Owner. A task is visible to either All Admins or Selected Admins, the specific admins you choose.
Key rules
The task creator always retains visibility, regardless of the Visibility setting
Every owner always retains visibility—the system ensures you cannot be assigned a task you can't see
Visibility can be set narrower than ownership (e.g., visible only to selected admins) or broader (e.g., visible to All Admins even if owned by one person)
Filtering by Owner and Visibility
The Task Board filter panel includes Owner and Visibility as multi-select filters with search, so you can quickly narrow the board to specific owners or visibility settings.
Common use cases:
View your team's work: Filter Owner to the admins on your team to see everything they own
Audit task visibility: Filter by Visibility to confirm sensitive tasks are scoped correctly
Manager view: Filter Owner to a specific admin to review what's in their queue
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make a task visible to All Admins but owned by just one person?
Yes. Set Owner to the specific admin and Visibility to All Admins. The whole team can see the task, but only that admin has it in their My Tasks.
Can I own a task I can't see?
No—the system prevents this. Every owner automatically retains visibility regardless of the Visibility setting.
Can I update Visibility after a task is created?
Yes. Open the task from the Task Board, update the Visibility field in the edit slideout, then click the check mark to confirm.
Does Visibility apply to system-generated tasks (renewables, post-award follow-ups)?
The Owner and Visibility fields described here apply to manual tasks. System-generated tasks (renewables, post-award follow-ups) have their own access logic tied to scholarship configuration.