Revision rounds: how many, and how to count them
A revision round is one review session that ended with a request for changes or a rejection; a session that ended with an approval consumes nothing. Tasked counts rounds this way per project, compares the count with the number agreed in the quote (two by default, up to fifty), and flags the overage as a count so the studio can bill it on its own invoice. The product never charges the client itself, and the count is derived from the recorded decisions rather than kept in a box someone has to remember to update.
6 min read
What counts as a round, exactly
The reason revision rounds are argued about is that nobody agreed what one is. Is a single email with one note a round? Is a phone call? Is the client's second look at the same version a new round? Tasked answers with a rule that is written in the product: a round is a review session, and a review session is never reopened. The next round is a new session on a new version.
Only sessions that asked for more work count. A session that ended approved ended the job; nothing was reworked, so nothing was consumed. A session that ended approved with changes or rejected both mean another pass, and another pass is what the studio sells by the round. Two decisions on the same session are impossible, because the session closes with the first decision.
- Approved: the job is done, no round used.
- Approved with changes: a round used, the cut returns to the rework stage.
- Rejected: a round used, the cut returns to the rework stage.
How many rounds to agree
The default in Tasked is two, which is what a commercial quote usually carries: one round after the first cut and one after the second. The ceiling is fifty, and it is a typo limit rather than a product limit; a studio that agrees twelve rounds on a long documentary can do so, and a studio that types 200 by mistake is stopped.
The number lives on the project and is set when the project is created from a video template. It can be changed later, and the change is written to the audit log with the value before and after, so a project renegotiated from two rounds to three keeps the record of when and by whom. The revision counter is shown on projects built from the video templates and on custom templates; the software, QA and other packs do not show it, because a bug fix is not sold by the round.
The counter is derived, not typed
There is no round counter column anywhere in Tasked. The used number is one query over the decisions of the project's own review sessions, run when the project is read. A stored counter drifts the first time a cut is deleted or a session is removed, and a drifted number that a studio invoices from is worse than no number at all.
The consequence is that the count is always the count of what actually happened. If a session is removed, the number goes down; if a decision is recorded through the portal or by the studio on the client's behalf, the number goes up, and in both cases the decision itself is in the audit log with who made it and when.
What happens on the third round
Agreeing two rounds and using two is exactly the deal, not a breach. The third is the one that costs money, and the overage is a count rather than a yes or no, because each extra round is separately billable. The project shows used against agreed and the overage beside it.
Passing the agreed number raises an event, and an automation can act on it. A rule written as 'when a project passes its agreed rounds, notify the account manager and create a task for the producer to send the change order' is compiled from that sentence, translated back so the author can check it, and simulated over the last month of the organisation's real events before it is switched on. The event carries the used, agreed and overage numbers so the notification can quote them.
Scope creep is not a round
The other argument at invoice time is whether a change was a revision or a new request. 'Make the logo bigger' is a revision. 'Add a version for Instagram' is a new deliverable. Tasked does not decide that for you, but it gives the studio the record to decide it from: every note is on a frame, on a version, with a time and a person, and a note that turns out to be new work can be converted into a task with an owner and a due date, which is where a change order starts.
Timed notes also settle what was asked for in a given round. When the client says the change at 0:48 was requested in round one and not done, the note in round one's session either exists or it does not.
Putting the number where the client sees it
A number the client never sees is a number that will be disputed. The agreed rounds belong in the brief and in the quote, and the used rounds belong in the conversation each time a round is spent. The decision the client records in the portal is the moment a round is consumed, so 'this is your second of two included rounds' is a sentence the studio can say with the record behind it.
None of this moves money inside Tasked. The studio invoices the extra round on its own terms; the product's job is to make the count one that both sides can read.
Questions that keep coming up
- Does an approval with changes count as a round?
- Yes. Approved with changes and rejected both mean another pass, and both consume a round. Only a plain approval consumes nothing.
- Can I change the agreed number after the project started?
- Yes. The change is written to the audit log with the value before and after.
- Does Tasked charge the client for extra rounds?
- No. It flags the overage as a count. Billing happens on the studio's own invoice, outside the product.
- Is there a maximum number of rounds?
- Fifty. It is there to catch a mistyped number, not to limit a project.
- Why does my software project not show a rounds counter?
- The counter is shown on projects built from the video templates and on custom templates. Packs such as test cycle do not sell work by the round, so they hide it.