Using Tasks in Alivo

A task in Alivo is a to-do tied to a contact (or a personal reminder) that a real person on your team needs to handle. Alivo's AI agents can answer calls, reply to leads, and run follow-up sequences, but some jobs still need a human: returning a call, reviewing a hot lead, reassigning an agent, or anything else that happens outside the platform. Tasks give you one place to track that work, assign it, and get reminded when it is due. This guide walks through where tasks live, how to create them (including through automations), how owners and notifications work, and how to mark them complete.

What Tasks Are For

Think of tasks as your team's action list for work Alivo cannot finish on its own. Common examples:

• Follow-up calls, texts, or emails. A lead needs a personal touch from a rep, not an automated reply.
• Internal handoffs. An appointment was cancelled or a follow-up sequence finished without a booked job, and someone needs to step in.
• Hot leads. A referral or returning customer was flagged and needs a fast human response.
• One-off to-dos. Anything else you want on the calendar with a due date and an owner.

Tasks do not replace your CRM. They sit inside Alivo so your team sees what needs doing right next to the contact record, the pipeline, and the conversation history.

Where to Find Tasks

Tasks show up in a few places so nobody has to go hunting.

• Tasks page. Open Tasks in the sidebar for a company-wide list. Filter by due date (today, this week, or all dates), owner (all or mine), and status (not started or completed).
• Contact record. Open any contact and scroll to the Tasks section to see, add, edit, or complete tasks for that person.
• Pipeline cards. Lead cards can show the next open task on a contact (for example, "Call today 3pm" or "Overdue: return call").
• Sidebar notepad. Turn on the tasks toggle in the notepad to see your own tasks due today and check them off without leaving the page you are on.

Creating a Task Manually

The fastest way to add a task is on the contact it belongs to.

On a Contact

Open the contact, go to Tasks, and click Add task. Fill in:

• Type. Call, Text, Email, or Other. If you pick Other, you must enter a short name.
• Owner. The team member responsible. Optional, but recommended when someone specific should handle it.
• Due date. When the task should be done.
• Notes. Any extra context for the person doing the work.

If you leave Owner blank, Alivo assigns the task to you (the person creating it). That way you still get a reminder even if you did not pick yourself from the list.

Creating Tasks Through Automations

Automations can create tasks automatically when something happens, so your team does not have to remember to add them by hand. This is especially useful when an AI agent hits a wall and a human needs to take over.

How the Create Task Action Works

In Settings → Automations, add or edit an automation and choose Create task as the action. You can set:

• Task type. Automations support more types than the manual add-task form, including Assistance Needed, Listen to Voicemail, Manual Reply, Emergency, and others.
• Task name. Optional. If you leave it blank, Alivo uses the task type as the name.
• Due in (days from now). How many days from today the task is due. The default is 1 day.
• Assign to. Optional. Pick a team member, or leave it blank to create an unassigned task.
• Notes. Optional context that shows on the task.

The task is always tied to the contact that triggered the automation.

Recommended Automations That Create Tasks

Alivo includes ready-made automation recipes that create tasks for common handoff moments:

• Appointment cancelled → create task. Creates an unassigned Assistance Needed task so someone can reassign an agent.
• Sequence complete (no goal) → create task. Fires when a follow-up sequence finishes without a booked job. Creates an unassigned task for human follow-up.
• Hot lead → create task. When a lead_type custom field changes to referral, returning, or replacement, creates an unassigned Assistance Needed task flagged as a hot lead.

You can also build your own automations with any trigger (stage change, appointment booked, custom field change, and more) and a Create task action.

Good to know: Tasks created by automations show up in your task lists right away, but they do not automatically schedule the same email, text, and in-app reminders that manually created follow-up tasks do. If you want reminders on an automation-created task, either assign an owner and edit the task to refresh its due date, or create a follow-up task manually with the type Call, Text, Email, or Other.

Task Owners and Assignment

In Alivo, the person responsible for a task is called the Owner. That is the label you see in the add-task form, the contact task table, and the Tasks page filters. Behind the scenes, Owner maps to the team member assigned to that task.

Assigning a Task to Someone Else

When you create or edit a task, open the Owner dropdown and pick an active team member. Only people with an active seat and subscription appear in the list. You can reassign a task anytime by editing it and choosing a different owner.

Changing the owner cancels any pending reminders for the old owner and schedules new ones for the new owner (for task types that support reminders).

Unassigned Tasks

Automation-created tasks are often left unassigned on purpose, so any available team member can pick them up. Unassigned tasks still appear on the company Tasks page. Use the Owner filter set to All to see them, then edit the task and assign an owner when someone claims it.

Task Owner vs. Contact Owner

Do not confuse these two. They solve different problems.

• Task Owner. Who is responsible for completing this specific to-do. Shown on every task.
• Contact Owner. Who owns the contact record overall (often the sales rep on that lead). Set on the contact itself, including through an Assign owner automation action.

They are independent. Reassigning a contact's owner does not change who owns an open task, and vice versa. But contact owner still matters for unassigned tasks: if a task has no owner, reminder notifications go out based on company-wide Task (Follow Up) settings, and sales reps only receive them for contacts they own.

Keep in mind: Recommended automations like "Hot lead → create task" leave the task unassigned so the right person can claim it. Pair them with an Assign owner automation step if you always want a specific rep on those leads.

Task Notifications

When a follow-up task is created or updated, Alivo can remind the owner that it is due. These reminders use the notification type Task (Follow Up).

Which Tasks Send Reminders

Reminders fire for tasks with these types:

• Call (Follow Up Call)
• Text (Follow Up Text)
• Email (Follow Up Email)
• Other

Task types like Assistance Needed, Emergency, and Listen to Voicemail do not schedule follow-up reminders. They still show in your task list; they just will not ping anyone automatically.

When Reminders Go Out

By default, the reminder time matches the due date you set. If you change the due date or reassign the task, Alivo cancels the old reminder and schedules a new one.

Each team member controls how they receive Task (Follow Up) alerts in their user settings:

• In-app. Shows as Task Due in the notification bell. Clicking it takes you to the contact (if there is one) or the Tasks page.
• Email. Subject line Alivo Task Reminder, with the action (for example, "Call John Smith"), the due time, and a link to your tasks.
• Text (SMS). A short reminder with the action, due time, and a link. The team member must be opted in to texts.

The setting description in team member preferences reads: "When a follow-up task is created and assigned to you." SMS and email are turned on by default for new users.

Who Gets the Reminder

• Assigned task. Only the task owner receives the reminder (based on their notification preferences).
• Unassigned task. Anyone in the company with Task (Follow Up) notifications turned on may receive it. Sales reps only get these for contacts they own.

Completing or deleting a task cancels any future reminders for it.

Completing Tasks

When the work is done, mark the task complete so it drops off the open list and stops sending reminders.

From the Tasks Page

Go to Tasks in the sidebar, find the row, and click the checkmark. Alivo marks it completed, records who finished it and when, and clears pending notifications.

From a Contact Record

Open the contact, find the task in the Tasks section, and click Mark complete. You can also edit or delete a task from there.

From the Sidebar Notepad

If you have tasks enabled in the notepad, check the box next to any task due today to complete it inline.

Completed tasks stay visible in filters for about two weeks, then roll off the completed view. Open tasks stay until you complete or delete them.

Common Questions

Can I Create a Task Without a Contact?

Tasks on the contact record always tie to that person. For a personal to-do, use Alivo's assistant (Ali) to create a personal reminder. That creates an Other task assigned to you, with optional contact link.

What Is the Difference Between a Task and a Notification?

A notification is a one-time alert (text, email, or in-app ping) that something happened right now, like a new lead or a hot-lead flag. A task is a tracked to-do with a due date and an owner that stays on the list until someone completes it. Automations can do either, or both.

Why Did My Automation Create a Task but Nobody Got a Text?

Automation-created tasks land in the task list but do not trigger Task (Follow Up) reminders on their own. Also, types like Assistance Needed (used in the recommended handoff recipes) never send follow-up reminders. Assign an owner, or create a Call/Text/Email task manually, if you want scheduled reminders.

Tasks are how Alivo hands work back to your team when a human needs to step in. Create them on contacts, let automations add them when agents need help, assign an owner so everyone knows who is on it, and mark them complete when the job is done. That keeps follow-up from falling through the cracks even when the AI handled the first touch.

Still have a question this didn't answer? Reach out to our support team support@alivo.ai and we'll be glad to help.