Checklists - How to Create and Use Them

Checklists help you manage onboarding, offboarding, and other recurring processes across your company. They allow you to break down a process into specific tasks, assign responsibilities, set deadlines, and track progress.

You can create a checklist for a one-time process or prepare a reusable template that can be used for different users.

Checklists, templates, and tasks

In the Checklists module, you can work with templates, running checklists, and individual tasks.

You can create checklist templates for processes such as:

• onboarding a new colleague,
• offboarding,
• changing a job position,
• preparing work equipment,
• internal training,
• or any other recurring process.

Once your template is ready, you can use it to start a specific checklist for a selected user.

TIP: If you use the same process repeatedly, we recommend creating a template first and using it to start individual checklists.

Preparing a checklist

To create a checklist template, click + Create template in the top-right corner.

Give your checklist a name and save it as a draft. This gives you time to prepare all tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines before using the template to start a checklist.

Once the template is created, you can start adding individual tasks. Let AI suggest tasks for you or create them manually by clicking + Add new task.

Creating a new task

For each task, you can define:

• Task title
• Task description
• Assignee – You can assign multiple people to a single task. All assignees work with the same shared task status. When you later run the checklist for a specific user, you can still change the predefined assignees.
• Due date – Define how many days are available to complete the task. The actual due date is calculated when the checklist starts. For example, if you set the task duration to 5 days, the system calculates the specific due date based on the checklist start date. This allows you to reuse the same template for different users without manually adjusting every deadline.
• Web link
• Tags
• Whether the task is required
• Attachments

Starting a checklist

When you are ready to run an actual checklist, select one of your predefined templates. Open it, review the setup, and click Run checklist.

You will then need to select the User and Completion mode.

In the User section, select the user the checklist relates to. For example, if you are creating an onboarding checklist, this would typically be the new employee.

In the Completion mode section, choose whether tasks should be completed in parallel or sequentially:

• In parallel – tasks can be completed at the same time.
• Sequentially – completing required tasks gradually makes subsequent tasks available.

Parallel execution is useful for processes where individual steps do not depend on each other. Sequential execution is suitable when certain parts of the process need to be completed before moving on to the next steps.

Before starting the checklist, you can still adjust its tasks if needed. You can delete or add tasks, edit existing ones, change assignees, adjust deadlines, and make other necessary changes.

Once everything is ready, select Save and start checklist.

Creating checklists with AI

Sloneek AI can also help you prepare your checklists.

Simply describe the process you need to create – for example, onboarding a new sales representative, IT specialist, or manager – and AI will help you build the appropriate checklist structure and tasks.

You can also use AI to add further tasks, including their details. All generated content can then be adjusted to match your internal processes.

TIP: The more context you provide, the more relevant the suggestion will be. For example, you can include the job position, department, onboarding duration, or specific steps the new colleague needs to complete.

Running checklists

To view all checklists currently in progress, navigate to the Checklists tab. Here, you can review the progress of all running checklists.

To see the details of a checklist, simply open it by clicking its name. In the detailed view, you can track the progress of all tasks using either the List view or Kanban view.

It is important to distinguish between the checklist status and its completion percentage. The progress percentage is calculated based on all tasks, while checklist completion is determined by required tasks.

This means a checklist can be marked as completed even if its progress has not reached 100%.

When you open the details of an individual task, you can update its status, add comments, and review its activity.

The task detail also includes a discussion and a history of changes. Here, you can see information such as:

• who created the task,
• who was assigned to it,
• who changed its status,
• and what other changes were made.

People involved in the task can also communicate directly in the discussion for that specific task.

Notifications and deadline reminders

Sloneek sends notifications about important changes to checklist tasks.

Notifications can be triggered by events such as:

• task activation,
• a change of assignee,
• a change of due date,
• reopening a task.

The system also sends reminders for incomplete tasks and checklists that are due today or already overdue.

This helps responsible users keep track of tasks that currently require their attention.

Checklists from a manager's perspective

Managers have an overview of checklists for users in the teams they manage.

They can see their progress, deadlines, and individual tasks, even when a particular task is assigned to someone else, such as HR or IT.

Within their team members' checklists, managers can, for example:

• add tasks,
• edit relevant tasks,
• change assignees,
• adjust deadlines,
• update task statuses,
• work with attachments,
• participate in discussions.

My Tasks section

Every user can find the tasks they are responsible for in My Tasks.

Here, they can see their active and completed tasks across different checklists. For each task, they can view its details, deadline, other assignees, attachments, and activity.

For tasks assigned to them, users can, for example:

• change the task status,
• work with attachments,
• participate in discussions.

The My Tasks overview displays activated and completed tasks. Tasks that are still in draft or waiting to become available are not shown here.

Important: The user a checklist is created for does not necessarily have to be responsible for all of its tasks. For example, a checklist may be created for a new employee, while individual steps are completed by their manager, HR, or IT.

Onboarding Specialist role

You can use the Onboarding Specialist role to manage checklists.

This role allows users to manage checklists across the company without giving them the general Administrator role.

An Onboarding Specialist has access to company templates, checklists, and tasks and can, for example:

• create and edit templates,
• use AI when creating them,
• duplicate and archive templates,
• prepare and start checklists,
• duplicate, archive, or delete checklists,
• manage tasks and their order.

You can therefore assign this role to a colleague responsible for employee onboarding and offboarding without giving them access to the entire Sloneek administration.

Starting checklists with HR Workflows

You can connect Checklists with HR Workflows and include them in automated HR processes.

Using the Setup checklist action, you can select a specific checklist template and configure how the checklist should behave once started.

You can configure, for example:

• the specific template,
• the checklist execution mode,
• individual task durations,
• whether a task should be assigned to the employee or their manager.

This allows you to include a checklist in an onboarding or offboarding workflow.

For example, if you have a workflow for a new employee joining the company, it can also automatically create and start the relevant checklist.

How can you use Checklists in practice?

You can use Checklists wherever you need a repeatable process with clearly defined steps, responsibilities, and deadlines.

A typical example is onboarding a new employee:

1. HR prepares an onboarding checklist template.
2. Individual tasks are assigned to the new employee, their manager, HR, and IT.
3. Task durations are set and the steps required to complete the onboarding are marked as required.
4. The checklist is started manually or automatically through HR Workflows.
5. Everyone involved can see their assigned tasks in My Tasks.
6. The manager can follow the progress of their new team member's checklist.
7. Once all required tasks are completed, the checklist is considered completed.

You can use Checklists in the same way for offboarding, internal training, job position changes, handing over work equipment, or other company processes.