Make January smoother — clean up your XBert workflows before the break.
Here's what we recommend.
Before the holiday period hits, it’s worth spending 20–30 mins tidying your XBert boards. This helps ensure you and your team come back to a clean, accurate, capacity-balanced system.
1. Bulk-complete old or overdue tasks
Over time, work boards can collect tasks with:
- very old start dates
- tasks marked overdue but already completed
- items that were replaced by newer workflows schedules
Why this matters:
Old tasks distort your capacity planning, trigger unnecessary notifications, and make it harder to find what you are looking for.
How to clean them up quickly:
Let's start with old Tasks more than a month old.
- Go to Work → We recommend doing this on the Work List
- Start Date or Due Date → Custom
- Set the Custom Date from 1 / 12 / 2015 (yes 2015) → to say 30-40 days prior to today.
- TIP: Think about really starting fresh next month, and if recurring incomplete tasks are just going to be replaced by the next schedule then maybe shorten your prior to today date.
- Select the ‘Task’ icon to only show tasks
- Use Bulk Actions → Skim through the task list and deselect tasks you want to leave.
- If there are a lot, filter first by assignee, task type or other advanced filters.
- Click continue → Update Status
- Select a Completed status → and breathe.
- You can always change a completed task back to an In Progress status later.
Clean up Overdue tasks where you may have finished the work but forgot to mark as completed.
- Change your Start date to Due Date → Dynamic → Up to this month
- Select the Overdue icon in the header.
- Review the filtered list and update to a Complete status one at a time, OR
- Select Bulk actions → Update Status → Complete or Reassign anything still relevant.
Check for Duplicate tasks, where the next scheduled recurrence may replace the old work.
- Change your Start Period to ‘ALL’
- Open Advanced Filters
- Select ‘Template Tasks’ in the ‘Filters’ group
- Select a client one at a time.
- Look for templates with the same name → use the search function.
- If tasks remain say from last week or month and the work will be recorded on the new scheduled version of the same task, decide if the older schedule should be completed.
This immediately resets your true workload view.
2. Complete Your XBerts
Clean up now and rest easy over the break. XBert will continue to monitor your data and alert you to 2026 insights that you don’t need to worry about on holidays.
Why this matters:
Each XBert flags a potential risk, anomaly, or task that should be reviewed so you and your client can rest easy over the break knowing their numbers are accurate and compliant. Leaving them open only leaves more work for you when you return.
How to clean up XBerts:
- Go to Work List.
- Start Date → ALL.
- Click the XBert icon in the header to show only XBerts.
- Click the Assigned to Me icon to begin with.
- Select a client one at a time and review XBerts.
- Use search to complete the same type of XBert in one run-through.
- If you complete without resolving, they will be marked ‘Unresolved’ in the completed area.
Your board will then start January with only new alerts.
3. Check Outstanding Work Before Christmas
Before logging off, make sure nothing time-sensitive is hiding.
How to review:
- Go to Work List
- Work Due → Dynamic → Up to this month
- Review your team’s work or your own work.
- Reassign tasks based on team holiday availability.
- Push non-urgent items into January using Bulk Actions→ Due Date.
This prevents last-minute scrambles and ensures client obligations are met.
For Managers
4. Review Estimated vs Actual Time in Analytics Practice Reports
Your templates depend on realistic time estimates. If tasks consistently take longer or shorter, it compounds across clients. XBert uses schedule recurrence + estimated time + assignee capacity to map realistic workloads.
Why this matters:
Accurate estimates improve capacity planning, scheduling, and reduce team overload.
How to review:
- Go to Analytics Practice Reports → Time → Estimate Accuracy.
- Review the Work tab → Review the ‘Work Hours Estimate Accuracy’.
- Take note of the ‘Over Estimate %’s.
- Identify which templates need updating.
- Review the Client tab.
- Identify Clients that show over estimated hours.
Where to update:
- Go to Automation → Templates
- Select the relevant Templates → Edit Estimated Time
- Adjust to reflect actual performance. Allow more time if the work is constantly taking longer, or less if the work is always completed well under time.
- Update estimated time for individual clients where needed.
- It may be that a single task takes longer for larger clients – if so, adjust the estimated time for those clients.
- Open the template schedule by clicking the pencil icon.
- Click edit (above the client list) - The default estimated time for the template is shown in the top right
- Select the client, adjust the time, and save.
Following the above steps will help prevent scheduling bottlenecks and underestimates in 2026.
5. Use XI to review your Practice Setup.
Use the power of XI to review your practice setup, identify opportunities for improvement, and conduct a client-by-client review to ensure every piece of scheduled work has a clear estimate.
How to review:
- Navigate the XI Community → select the Practice
- Click the ‘Provide a review of the setup of my XBert Practice.’
- Review the strengths, gaps, and practical steps to improve configuration
- Click the ‘Review the Practice Template Schedules’
- Review the information and make any necessary changes.
A small amount of maintenance now pays off massively in January.
By cleaning up your tasks, refining your templates and schedules and clearing your XBerts, you set your team up to return refreshed — with a clear, prioritised view of what matters next.
Have a Great Break!
