The sheet, portal, or tool where the actual work lives. This is what the team member opens to do their job — a Google Sheet with client rows, a government portal, a practice management URL, any web address. This URL is set once and never needs to change as you add new clients — just add rows to the sheet.
📅 Admin + Team
Understanding Your Slot
What a slot is, the two URLs every slot carries, how statuses work, and what actually happens when a slot fires — everything you need to know to use TidySlot confidently.
What is a slot?
A slot is a scheduled work assignment. It tells TidySlot: which team member should do which job, on which days, at what time. Once a slot is created by an admin, it recurs automatically — the team member does not need to be reminded, and the admin does not need to reassign it each cycle.
Think of a slot as a standing instruction that runs itself: "Every Monday and Wednesday at 9 AM, Priya should open the GST reconciliation sheet and work on it." That's one slot. Set it once — it fires every week automatically.
Only admins can create slots. Team members see their assigned slots on their My Calendar page. If you think a slot is missing or incorrect, ask your admin to check the Time Slot settings.
The two URLs every slot carries
Every slot has exactly two URL fields. Both are optional, but using them is what makes TidySlot powerful — they turn a calendar reminder into an automatic work-delivery system.
Slot Anatomy — Two URL Fields
URL 1 — Job List Link
URL 2 — How-to Guide Link
Your firm's own SOP or procedure guide for this type of work — a Google Doc, Fusebase page, Notion page, Loom video, or any URL. This is your firm's intellectual property. TidySlot delivers it automatically alongside the job list, so even a first-year articled clerk can execute correctly without calling a senior.
Tip — Link-agnostic design: TidySlot does not care what tool you use. Google Sheets, Excel Online, government portals, Fusebase, Notion, Zoho, any URL — if it has a web address, it works as a slot URL. Your firm keeps its existing tools. TidySlot just delivers them at the right time.
What happens when a slot fires?
When a scheduled slot time arrives, TidySlot makes the job visible on the assigned team member's My Calendar page. The default status of every new slot is Pending.
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1Slot appears in My Calendar
The team member opens TidySlot and sees the slot in their Day view. It shows the job name, category, and both URL links (job list and how-to guide).
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2Team member clicks the job list URL
The link opens in a new tab. The team member works from the job list (their Google Sheet, portal, etc.) while TidySlot stays open in the background.
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3Team member updates the slot status
After working on the job, the team member updates the slot status (Done, Issue, or Not Applicable). This gives the admin immediate visibility without any follow-up calls.
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4Admin sees updated status on Team Calendar
The admin's Team Calendar shows all team members’ slot statuses — a page refresh is needed to see the latest updates. No check-in calls needed.
Slot status lifecycle
Every slot goes through a status lifecycle. Understanding statuses is the key to using TidySlot effectively — both as a team member and as an admin.
| Status | What it means | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | Default status when a slot fires. Work has not yet started or is in progress but not finished for the day. | Set automatically by TidySlot when the slot fires |
| Done | Work is complete for this slot. The job was done and nothing needs follow-up. | Team member |
| Not Applicable | No work was needed today. Examples: a multi-day job finished early, or an on-demand slot had no work in the queue today. | Team member |
| Issue | Work could not be completed due to a blocker — site down, information missing, client hasn't sent documents. A comment explaining the reason is mandatory when setting Issue status. | Team member (must add comment) |
| Overdue | The slot was Pending at the end of the day and carried forward to the next day. It appears in the Overdue counter on My Calendar. Treat overdues as the highest priority — clear them before starting today's new slots. | Set automatically by TidySlot at day-end if still Pending |
Avoid creating Overdue confusion: If a multi-day job reappears the next day (e.g., a 4-day audit slot), mark the previous day's slot as Not Applicable once you've moved to the next day's slot — not Pending. Keeping a multi-day slot as Pending across days creates duplicate overdue entries and confuses the admin dashboard.
For a full guide on each status: See How to Use Job Statuses — it covers exactly when to use each status with real CA firm examples.
Recurring vs. one-time slots
Slots in TidySlot are designed for recurring work — work that happens on a fixed schedule every week or month. Once created, they fire automatically without any action from the admin. Slots have no end date — they recur indefinitely until an admin archives or deletes them.
A single service (like a GST return) is typically broken into multiple slots — one for data collection, one for reconciliation, one for filing. Each slot is a separate day-level job assigned to the right person at the right time. This is called job decomposition, and TidySlot supports it fully.
New client? Just add a row to your sheet. When a new client joins the firm, add their row to the job list sheet. TidySlot's URL never changes — the slot already fires, and the new client appears automatically in the next cycle. No reconfiguration needed.
Best practices
- Always fill in both URLs — the job list URL and the how-to guide URL. Team members work faster when they don't have to search for either.
- Keep job list sheets open across cycles — build your sheet once for the full year (rows = clients, columns = months). The slot URL stays the same forever.
- Break services into jobs — don't create one slot for a 5-day process. Create 5 slots, one per day, each assigned to the right team member for that stage.
- Mark Issue immediately — if you can't complete work, flag it as Issue with a comment while the reason is fresh. Don't leave it as Pending overnight.
- Clear overdues first — each morning, check the Overdue counter before starting today's slots. Overdues are higher priority than new work.