Follow a task

A task in Bulk is a unit of work that lives inside a project — for example a repair, an inspection, or a corrective action. A follower is someone who tracks a task without being responsible for doing the work. Followers receive notifications about the task's activity — such as when its status changes, when someone comments, or when it is completed or becomes overdue — so they can stay informed without being assigned to it.

Follow a task when a person needs visibility but is not the one carrying it out: a supervisor keeping an eye on a critical repair, a quality engineer watching a corrective action, or a colleague whose own work depends on the outcome.

Before you start

• You need the View tasks permission (tasks.view) to open a task and see its Followers card.
• You need the Update tasks permission (tasks.update) to add or remove followers. The built-in Super user, Entity admin, Manager, and Operator roles include this permission. A view-only role such as Dashboards can see followers but cannot change them.
• Anyone you add must be an active user with access to the entity — the site or plant — that the task belongs to. Bulk rejects a follower who does not have access to that entity.

Where followers appear

Open a task from the Tasks list to reach its detail page (at the address /tasks/ followed by the task's ID). The Followers card, labelled People tracking this task, sits in the right-hand sidebar below the task overview. The same card appears in the quick task preview dialog when you open a task without leaving the list.

Each follower shows as a tag with their initials and name. When there are no followers yet, the card reads No followers.

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Add a follower

1. Open the task and find the Followers card in the sidebar.
2. Select Add Follower.
3. In the Search users... field, type a name to narrow the list, then select the person you want.

Bulk adds them immediately and confirms with a Follower added message. The picker lists only active users who are not already following the task, so you cannot add the same person twice. If everyone available is already a follower, the Add Follower button is disabled.

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Remove a follower

Hover over a follower's tag and select the X that appears on it. Bulk removes them right away and confirms with a Follower removed message. Removing a follower stops their notifications for that task but leaves the task and its history intact.

What followers receive

Once someone follows a task, Bulk includes them — alongside the task's assignees — when it sends notifications about that task's activity. Followers can receive updates such as Task status changed, New task comment, Task completed, Task due soon, and Task overdue. Notifications appear in your in-app notifications and, depending on each person's own settings, by email. The person who performed an action is not notified about their own change.

Each recipient's personal notification settings still apply, so an individual can turn off task emails or specific event types for themselves.

Mute notifications for a task

Below the Followers card, the Mute button (a bell icon) stops Bulk from sending notifications for the task. Select it to mute; the button then reads Unmute (a bell-with-slash icon), and selecting it again resumes notifications. Bulk confirms each change with Notifications muted or Notifications unmuted.

Example: keeping the right people informed at Granite Peak

At the Leeds Fabrication Plant, plant manager Dana Winters opens the task Investigate weld porosity on Line 3 fixtures. The task is assigned to the welder carrying out the rework, but Dana wants two other people to stay informed without taking ownership:

• Priya Nadar, the quality engineer who raised the concern.
• Tom Fenwick, the maintenance lead whose fixture schedule depends on the outcome.

Dana selects Add Follower, searches for Priya, and selects her, then repeats for Tom. Both now appear as tags on the Followers card. From this point, whenever the welder changes the task's status or adds a comment, Priya and Tom receive a notification — so they learn the fixtures are cleared for the next run without anyone chasing an update.

Expected result

The people you add appear as tags on the Followers card and begin receiving notifications about the task's activity. Follower changes are recorded in the task's Activity history, so you can see who was added or removed and when.

Limitations and availability

Following tasks is generally available in Bulk.

• Muting affects the whole task. The Mute control is task-wide, not per-person; muting suppresses the task's notifications for every follower and assignee.
• Followers must have entity access. You can only add active users who have access to the site or plant the task belongs to.
• No dedicated self-follow button. There is no one-click Follow control for the current user. You add yourself the same way you add anyone else, through Add Follower.

Troubleshooting

• The person I want isn't in the list. The picker shows active users only, and loads up to 100 of them. Check that the person's account is active, and use the search field to find a specific name.
• Adding a follower fails with a permission or access error. Adding or removing followers needs the Update tasks permission — if you only have view access, ask an administrator. If the message says the person lacks access to the entity, they first need access to the site or plant the task belongs to.
• A follower says they aren't getting notifications. Check whether the task is muted (the button reads Unmute), then confirm the follower hasn't turned off task notifications in their own settings.

Related guidance

• Assign a task — give someone ownership instead of only visibility.
• Comment on a task — followers are notified about new comments.
• Complete a task — completion notifies followers.
• Tasks — overview of working with tasks.