How to assign and track employee tasks on WhatsApp

Your team already accepts work on WhatsApp. Can they also receive a task with a deadline, ask a question about it, and mark it completed without opening another work app?

Yes. With a configured UpMatrix task workflow, the person assigning work opens a form inside WhatsApp, selects a department and employee, and submits the task. The employee receives a WhatsApp message with the task details and can reply, view their task list and update its status there. Updates go back to the person who assigned the work.

This walkthrough follows a recording of the task workflow in R Kumar Opticians’ WhatsApp workspace, supplied by UpMatrix. The example is preparing a presentation for a meeting. Personal names are omitted below.

Silent video with on-screen explanations. Edited for clarity, with personal details hidden. Prefer reading? Follow the steps below.

How is this different from assigning work in a WhatsApp group?

A message such as “Please prepare the presentation” starts a conversation. It does not, by itself, establish the task record shown here: an assigned employee, a task ID, a due date, a status and notes linked to that task.

In this workflow, staff interact with the business’s WhatsApp workspace. They are not posting a request in a group and hoping someone takes responsibility. UpMatrix connects the form submission, replies and status changes to the same task.

Here is what happens from assignment to completion.

1. Open Create Task and select who should do it

In the workspace chat, open Choose an option, select Create Task, then tap Open Form in the response. A form opens inside WhatsApp.

The first two screens ask for:

1. Department: choose the team responsible for the work.
2. Employee: select the person who should receive the task.

In the recording, the requester chooses the Executive Assistant department and then a named employee. There is no need to tag several people and wait to find out who will pick it up.

2. Describe the work, choose its priority and submit

The third screen asks for the Task title and Priority. It also has optional document attachments and approvers.

The requester enters a task to prepare a presentation for a meeting with a company. Under Priority, this setup offers 1-2 Days, 3-4 Days, 5+ Days and As soon as possible. The requester selects 1-2 Days, then submits Create Task.

WhatsApp displays a task-created confirmation. The employee receives an assignment message containing the task ID, description and a specific due date.

In this particular setup, the requester chooses a turnaround category, not a date from a calendar. The assigned task then carries a due date. Your business’s priority and due-date rules should be agreed when the workflow is configured.

3. The employee receives the task and can ask for missing information

The incoming WhatsApp message contains the assignment details and two actions: Click to Reply and Mark as Completed.

The recording continues with something familiar to any owner: the employee needs more information before they can do the work.

They tap Click to Reply. The workflow asks them to write a note, and they request more information about the company for the presentation.

The requester receives a Task Updated message containing the same task ID, title and the question. They tap Add New Note and provide the company background. That answer reaches the employee as another update to the same task.

This is more useful than a separate “What did you mean?” message with no context. The question and answer become part of the task’s notes. When someone reviews it later, they can see the clarification alongside the original request.

The system has not answered the question for the manager. It has kept the exchange connected to the work being discussed.

4. Staff can retrieve their task list in WhatsApp

The employee returns to the workspace menu and chooses List My Tasks.

The response lists tasks with their IDs, descriptions, due dates, who assigned them and their current stages. For the presentation task, it also includes both notes from the clarification exchange.

The employee does not need to scroll back through individual assignment messages to find their work. In this example, the presentation remains Pending even though notes have been exchanged. A conversation about a task is not being mistaken for completion.

5. Update the status and send completion back to the requester

The recording demonstrates completion through Change Task Status and its Update Tasks form:

1. Choose the tasks’ current stage. The example uses Pending.
2. Select the tasks to update. The employee selects two.
3. Choose Completed as the new stage, add a completion note and submit Update Tasks.

The requester then receives Task Updated messages showing that each selected task has moved to Completed, along with the note.

The form can apply the same update to multiple tasks, so only select tasks that genuinely need the same status and note. The assignment message also offers Mark as Completed; the demonstrated route here is the status-update form.

For the owner, there is now a recorded completion rather than just an employee saying “done” somewhere in a busy chat. The team is still responsible for checking that the work meets the requirement.

What does the business owner need to set up?

This is an UpMatrix workflow accessed through WhatsApp, not a feature that appears in every ordinary WhatsApp group.

Before rolling it out, agree which departments and employees can receive tasks, how priorities translate into deadlines, and which work needs attachments or approval. The recording shows an already-configured workspace.

Start with work your team already delegates repeatedly. For a retailer, that could be checking stock at another branch. For a trader, it could be confirming dispatch documents. These are possible applications of the process, not tasks demonstrated in the recording.

UpMatrix Process & Tasks also provides boards and task reports for management oversight. Staff can use the WhatsApp workflow described here while the owner reviews work in UpMatrix. The recording demonstrates the WhatsApp side, not the reporting screen.

Questions owners ask before trying this

Does every employee need to install another task-management app?

Not for the assignment, clarification, task-list and status-update actions shown here. Those happen inside WhatsApp once the business workflow and employee access are configured. That does not mean the business needs no setup or administration.

Can staff attach a document or request approval?

The creation and update forms shown have optional attachment and approver fields. The example does not upload a document or complete an approval cycle. Agree how those should work for your business before including them in the rollout.

Will this automatically turn existing group messages into tasks?

That is not the workflow shown here. Tasks are deliberately created through the workspace menu and form. Do not assume ordinary group conversations are automatically read or converted into tasks.

The useful question is not whether your team will stop using WhatsApp. It is whether assigning, clarifying and completing work there can also keep a dependable task record.

Want to see this with one of your team’s recurring tasks? Discuss My Process