ClickUp and Slack: Why you should integrate them

Communication is at the center of project management — without it, confusion and ambiguity reign. That’s why, in addition to project management solutions like ClickUp, many companies employ communication platforms such as Slack.

While both are useful solutions on their own, you can integrate them to get even more value. This article covers how to establish this connection. ClickUp’s Slack integration lets you create and modify ClickUp tasks without having to leave the Slack interface.

Cynthia Harder, operations specialist and owner of Simplify VA, leads a small team of virtual assistants who use ClickUp to streamline the backend of their clients’ businesses. The solution helps them break down large projects into manageable tasks they can easily track. ClickUp’s Slack integration simplifies communication around project statuses and makes work more efficient. Keep reading to see how her business benefits from this integration and how her team uses it in practice.

Benefits of integrating ClickUp and Slack

Harder says ClickUp’s Slack integration is a “complete must-have” for these key reasons.

• It cuts down on interface switching. While each solution addresses specific needs, it can be frustrating to constantly switch back and forth between them. Integration creates a bridge between ClickUp and Slack, automatically transferring information from one to the other.

“Task creation is one of the most notable conveniences,” says Harder. “We can easily turn messages into tasks without having to leave the Slack interface.”

• It saves time. Avoiding the back-and-forth between applications not only makes sure action items don’t get lost, but also saves time. For Harder, it’s eliminated an entire step in their task creation process: “We don’t have to worry about going back into Slack and tracking down messages we marked to handle later.”
• It improves scheduling. The integration enables you to instantly convert your Slack conversations into tasks — as well as task elements such as comments on a task thread. The immediacy of this feature helps everyone stay on top of their individual and team schedules, as tasks can be added to their calendars shortly after discussing them.

Before taking advantage of ClickUp’s Slack integration, Harder’s team had to come up with their own way to remember when they needed to create tasks that arose from Slack conversations. They began adding stars to relevant Slack messages.

“While this process worked, it was incredibly inefficient,” says Harder. “There was always a chance we might not get back around to certain messages in a timely manner, leaving our team less time to handle those tasks.”

After leveraging the ClickUp Slack integration, Harder’s team says the message-to-task process is much more streamlined. “With just a few clicks, we can instantly turn a message into a task, even if we don’t have all the necessary details,” she says. “Then we can just update the task when we know more.”

Examples of using the ClickUp and Slack integration

This integration has become an integral part of the workflow for Harder’s team. They regularly convert client messages from Slack into relevant tasks by hovering over a message. Slack then displays a number of options for adding a task.

Say a client sends a message requesting that the team edit a video. The recipient simply hovers over the message, then selects the appropriate option to instantly create a task that will appear in ClickUp.

“You can enter pertinent information such as task name, description, assignee, and due date,” Harder explains. “The only noticeable limitation is that you can’t estimate time. You’ll have to go back into ClickUp for that level of detail.”

Harder’s team also makes use of a few other options provided by the integration:

• Creating new tasks in ClickUp from scratch: You don’t have to create a task from a message. Instead you can type “/ClickUp New” to display a guide for adding a blank task.
• Adding a task comment in ClickUp: One of the other hover options for a message is adding the contents of the message as a comment to a current task. For example, a client may send a message with some ideas on email copy, and a team member can add those thoughts as a comment to the associated task.
• Showing task changes in Slack: If any task details get changed in ClickUp — such as the due date or assignee — you can set it to alert you in Slack. The notification will show both what changed and who made the changes.

An even better ClickUp experience with Jotform

Jotform is a powerful form builder you can use to take your ClickUp experience to the next level. You can integrate ClickUp with Jotform to gather task requests and project information through customizable online forms and have them appear in your ClickUp account automatically as new tasks.Want to make it easy to request a new bug fix from your developer team? Set up a form that lets team members submit requests along with a desired due date and description for a specific developer. Once a team member submits their request, it automatically shows up as a task in ClickUp assigned to the indicated developer. Get started with one of these project management forms or try out the integration today.