Category Management

Category Management is where you shape PrimeTask's vocabulary for each Space. Every Space has its own independent set of:

Tags - colour-coded labels you can attach to anything
Statuses - the workflow stages a task moves through
Priorities - the urgency levels you assign to tasks
Custom Fields - extra data fields you add to tasks, projects, and CRM records

Setting these up early gives every project, task, and report in that Space the right vocabulary from day one.

Everything in Category Management is per-Space

Tags, statuses, priorities, and custom fields you create in your Personal Space don't appear in your Work Space. Each Space has its own independent set, so you can use a casual taxonomy in one and a strict workflow in another. The active Space's categories are shown by default; you can switch the target Space from inside any tab.

What you can do

Statuses Pro

Create custom statuses with your own names, colours, and workflow categories (Not Started → Active → Complete)
Pick from 22 pre-built status templates (Starter, Kanban, Scrum, GTD, Software Dev, Bug Tracking, Sales Pipeline, Project Management, and more)
Save your current status set as a reusable template for future Spaces
Drag statuses to reorder them, including dragging across workflow categories
Switch the target Space at any time

Priorities Pro

Create custom priority levels with your own names and colours
Pick from 6 pre-built priority templates (Standard, Simple, Extended, Numbered, MoSCoW, Urgency)
Save your current priorities as a reusable template
Drag to reorder

Custom Fields Pro

Add custom data fields in 14+ types: text, number, currency, date, dropdown, multi-select, rating, checkbox, URL, email, phone, relationship, rollup, and more
Pick from 8 built-in field templates (CRM, Project Management, Bug Tracking, Sales, and more)
Save your field set as a reusable template
Control entity scope - decide whether each field appears on tasks, projects, contacts, or companies
Drag fields to reorder them, with zone grouping
Bulk select and delete several fields at once
Use relationship fields to link records bidirectionally
Use rollup fields to summarise data (sum, average, min, max, count)

How to open Category Management

Sidebar (default): Open Settings from the sidebar, then expand the Category Management card.
Settings search: Open Settings and type tags, statuses, priorities, fields, or category.
Command palette: Press ⌘+K (or Ctrl+K), type category or tags, and pick the entry.

The card opens with the first available tab. The space selector inside each tab follows your active Space by default but lets you switch.

Things worth knowing

Default statuses and priorities ship with PrimeTask

Every Space starts with a default set of statuses (To Do, In Progress, Done, etc.) and priorities (Low, Medium, High, Urgent). These are available on every license and are what new tasks use until you customise them.

Pro features in Category Management

Custom statuses, custom priorities, custom fields, and the pre-built templates for statuses, priorities, and fields are part of the Pro tier. Creating, editing, and deleting your own tags, and applying the pre-built tag templates, is available on every license. To upgrade, see License Settings.

Statuses live inside one of three workflow categories

When you create a custom status, you assign it to one of three categories:

Not Started - work that hasn't begun yet (e.g., Backlog, Planned, To Do)
Active - work in progress (e.g., In Progress, Reviewing, Blocked)
Complete - finished work (e.g., Done, Shipped, Closed)

These categories drive PrimeTask's automatic behaviour - completion calculations, project progress percentages, "active task" counts, and a few automations all use them. Drag a status into a different category to change how PrimeTask treats it.

Pick categories deliberately

A status named "Blocked" placed in the Active category counts as active work. Place it in Not Started and PrimeTask treats blocked tasks as not yet started. Pick the placement that matches the meaning you want.

The "Reminder" tag is special - don't delete it

PrimeTask's Apple Reminders integration uses a tag called "Reminder" to mark tasks that should sync to Reminders. This tag is shipped as a system tag and is required for the Apple Reminders sync to work correctly. The Tags tab marks it as a system tag so you don't accidentally remove it.

If you don't use Apple Reminders sync, you can leave it alone - it won't get in the way.

Ghost Tag Scanner - clean up after deleted tags

When you delete a tag, the tasks it was attached to keep their references to it (so the rest of the task is preserved). Over time these "ghost references" can pile up. The Ghost Tag Scanner in the Tags tab walks every task in the current Space, finds references to tags that no longer exist, and removes them.

You'll see how many ghost tags it cleaned (including how many came from CRM records, if any).

Templates save and travel between Spaces

For statuses, priorities, tags, and custom fields, PrimeTask supports two template flows:

Apply Template - pick from PrimeTask's pre-built templates (Pro for tags, statuses, priorities, fields) or any template you've saved yourself
Save as Template - capture your current set as a reusable template so you can apply it to a new Space later

Saved templates live globally - they're not tied to one Space. This is the cleanest way to set up a "house style" you reuse across multiple Spaces.

Custom fields travel with the Space

Custom field definitions sync along with the Space data via whatever sync method the Space uses. If you set up a custom field in a shared collaborative Space, every collaborator will see the field once their PrimeTask syncs. The Space contents (the actual values stored in those fields) sync too.

Switching the Space inside Category Management

Each tab has a Managing {Categories} For dropdown showing the current target Space. By default it follows your active sidebar Space, but you can switch to any other Space without leaving Category Management. This is the right way to set up a fresh Space without flipping back and forth between the sidebar and Settings.

Common questions

"How do I add a new tag?"

Open Category Management → Tags tab. Make sure the right Space is selected in the dropdown. Click New Tag, type a name, pick a colour, and click Create Tag.

"I want to bulk-load a starter set of tags / statuses / priorities."

Each tab has a Templates or Apply Template button at the top right. Click it, pick a pre-built template that matches the kind of work you do (Project Management, Software Dev, Sales Pipeline, Personal, etc.), and apply it. Pre-built templates for tags, statuses, priorities, and fields are part of the Pro tier - see License Settings.

"I want to delete a tag, but I'm worried about losing the tasks tagged with it."

Deleting a tag never deletes the tasks it was attached to. The tasks lose the tag reference and stay in your Space. To clean up any leftover references after a delete, run the Ghost Tag Scanner at the bottom of the Tags tab.

"I want to save my status setup so I can reuse it in another Space."

In the Statuses tab, click Save as Template, give the template a name, and confirm. From now on, when you open the Templates picker in another Space, your saved template will appear in the list alongside the built-in ones. (Custom statuses and templates are part of the Pro tier.)

"I want to add a custom field for tracking estimated hours on tasks."

In the Custom Fields tab, click Add Field, pick the Number type, name it "Estimated hours", and confirm. The field will appear on tasks in this Space. Use rollup or relationship fields if you want to aggregate or link them to other entities. (Custom fields are part of the Pro tier.)

"Why do my statuses look different in my Personal Space and my Work Space?"

Because every Space has its own independent set. Switch the target Space in the Managing Statuses For dropdown to confirm which Space you're configuring. If you want the two Spaces to share the same set, save the statuses from one as a template, switch to the other, and apply that template.

"I want to customise statuses, priorities, and fields - how do I unlock that?"

Custom statuses, custom priorities, and custom fields are part of the Pro tier. To unlock customisation across the board, upgrade from License Settings.

"The Ghost Tag Scanner found nothing - should I be worried?"

No, that just means your tasks are clean - no references to deleted tags. The scanner is most useful right after a clean-up where you've deleted a bunch of unused tags. If everything's tidy, the scanner reports zero and you're done.

"I added a custom field but it's not showing up on my projects."

Check the field's scope - when you create a field, you tell PrimeTask which entity types it should appear on (tasks, projects, contacts, companies, or any combination). If you created the field as task-only, projects won't show it. Edit the field and add Projects to its scope.

Where to go next

If you want to…	Read this
Manage which Space you're in	Spaces Settings
Configure PrimeCRM (which uses some custom fields)	CRM Settings
Sync your categories between computers or with teammates	File Sync Settings
Back up your Space before bulk changes	Data Management
Upgrade to unlock custom statuses, priorities, fields, and templates	License Settings
Browse all settings cards	Settings Overview