How to Use the Backlog Tab

The Backlog tab holds work that hasn't started yet, kept off the board as a single ranked list. Add ideas straight into it, reorder them by priority, and start them onto the board when the team has room.

What Is the Backlog?

Every project has one hidden Backlog stage that the board itself never shows. The Backlog tab gives that stage a dedicated, ranked view — a flat list ordered top to bottom, instead of a column of cards. Tasks keep everything (description, priority, labels, assignees, comments, files, estimate) while they sit here; they only lose their place on the board.

This tab is internal-only — planners and team members see it, clients never do. A client's own submitted item still shows up for them under My requests once it's accepted, even if staff choose to keep it in the backlog rather than starting it right away.

Go to the Main Menu and select Projects.
Open the project you want to work in.
Click the Backlog tab. A badge on the tab shows how many items are waiting.

Adding an Item

Use the quick-add row at the top of the list: pick a type, type a title, optionally set a priority, then click Add (or press Enter). The item lands at the bottom of the backlog and the row stays focused so you can keep adding the next one. Quick-add is hidden if your role can't create tasks in this project.

You can also send an existing task into the backlog from:

Its card menu on the board, or its detail view's menu — Send to backlog.
Dragging a card from any board column onto the Drop to send to backlog zone that appears at the edge of the board while you're dragging.

A resolved task can't be sent to the backlog — resolve/reopen it first. Sending a task to the backlog keeps its assignees; it doesn't unassign anyone.

Reordering

Drag a row (desktop) using its handle to move it anywhere in the list.
Row menu — Move up, Move down, Move to top, Move to bottom.
On mobile, there's no drag handle; use the same Move up/down/top/bottom options from the row's overflow menu instead.
Keyboard: j/k move focus between rows, Shift+↑/Shift+↓ swap the focused row with its neighbor, t/b jump it straight to the top/bottom, s opens Start for the focused row, o opens it, x toggles its selection, n jumps to quick-add, and ? shows the shortcut list.

Reordering (drag, the row menu's Move up/down, and the keyboard swap shortcuts) is turned off while a search, a filter, or any sort other than Rank is active — sorting or filtering changes what "the next row" even means, so Taskip disables reordering rather than risk placing an item next to the wrong neighbor. Move to top/bottom keep working regardless, since they don't depend on neighbors.

Starting an Item

Click Start on a row (or select several rows and use Start selected from the bulk bar) to move it out of the backlog and onto the board. The Start popover lets you set:

Stage — defaults to the project's first To Do stage.
Assignees — optional, added on top of whoever was already assigned.
Priority — leave as Unchanged or set a new one.
Estimate — free text like "2h 30m".

Filtering, Searching, and Sorting

The toolbar has a search box, filters for Type, Priority, Assignee, and Label, and a Sort control (Rank, Priority, Newest, Estimate). A summary line shows the item count and total estimated hours for whatever's currently filtered.

Working in Bulk

Select rows with their checkboxes to open the bulk bar:

Select all / Deselect all
Start selected
Move to stage — moves the selected items directly onto the board without opening the Start popover.
Set priority
Set type
Delete

Any action you don't have permission for on a particular row is skipped automatically, with a toast telling you how many of the selected items were actually updated.