Understanding task reuse criteria
Last updated: July 7, 2026
Task reuse criteria tell Onboarded when an employee's completed task still counts for a new placement — and when they need to complete it again.
What it is
Every form has a Task Reuse Criteria setting that describes what a completed task is scoped to. You can select the standard criteria — Employer, Client, and Job — plus any placement custom attributes the form collects.
If you remember nothing else: the criteria list the things that, when different on a new placement, mean the employee completes the form again. Anything not in the list doesn't matter for reuse.
Why it matters
Get the criteria too broad and employees re-sign documents they've already signed — friction on every new placement. Get them too narrow and a client-specific agreement gets reused for a different client, which is a compliance problem, not a convenience one.
This matters most when:
Employees work multiple placements over time — staffing and franchise accounts especially.
A document is specific to a client, job, or employer — confidentiality agreements, client policies, site-specific safety training.
A form collects placement-specific values, like a pay rate or employment type, that change from one placement to the next.
How it works
Where you set it
Open the form's settings and edit Task Reuse Criteria, then save with Update Form. The forms list also shows a Task Reuse Criteria column so you can scan your library's scoping at a glance.
What happens when a task is created
When Onboarded issues a task for an employee's placement, it stamps the task with the values of the selected criteria — the specific employer, client, or job on that placement, plus the values of any selected placement custom attributes (for example, placement.custom_attributes.employment_type).
What happens on the next placement
On a future placement, a completed task is reused only when every stamped value matches the new placement. One mismatch — a different client, a different job, a changed attribute value — and the employee gets a fresh task. If no criteria are selected, the task is completed once and reused across all of the employee's placements.
Keep the criteria in sync with what the form collects. If you remove a placement custom attribute from a form, unselect it from the reuse criteria before deploying — a selected criterion the form no longer collects prevents tasks from matching correctly, and the form won't reuse the way you expect.
**If the placement.custom_attributes field is not populated, and the form is scoped to require that attribute, the task will not be created.**
Example
Take a staffing account whose consultants rotate across clients. Its client confidentiality acknowledgment is scoped to Client. An employee signs it during their first placement at one client; when they pick up a second assignment at the same client, the signed task carries over and they skip the form. When they start their first placement at a different client, Onboarded issues a new task — the stamped client no longer matches.
Now say the same form also collects placement.custom_attributes.employment_type and that attribute is added to the reuse criteria. An employee who signed as a W-2 placement and later returns on a 1099 placement signs again, even at the same client — the attribute value changed, so the completed task no longer matches.