Planner Guide

Overview

The Planner is the central hub of the planner application, providing a comprehensive view of all projects, assignments, and team availability. It serves as the primary workspace for both general staff and management, seamlessly combining a project calendar view with an interactive control panel for managing resources and milestones.

Upon loading, the Planner automatically fetches the most up-to-date data—including staff, settings, projects, milestones, assignments, integrations, leave, and holidays. It also periodically refreshes this data every 20 seconds to ensure you always have the latest information on project progress and team allocation.

Key Features

• Project Calendar: A grid-based view of all active projects against a timeline. It supports both single-week and two-week (fortnight) views, automatically adapting to your screen size for optimal visibility.
• Dynamic Filtering & Sorting: Projects can be filtered by manager, assigned staff, and milestone tags. For detailed filtering help, see the Planner Filters guide.
• Planning Mode & Notes Mode: Toggle between different views. Planning mode provides a structured layout sorted by job priority, while Notes mode allows you to view and manage specific project and staff notes directly on the calendar.
• Leave & Availability Tracking: The calendar seamlessly integrates leave data and features an Available Team Members section (for Managers and Admins) to monitor staff capacity at a glance.
• Interactive Bottom Panel: An interactive command center that opens when specific date cells are selected on the calendar. It provides detailed project information, a staff assignment panel, and milestone management.
• Real-time Synchronization: Background synchronization ensures your local view stays perfectly in sync with the database.

Common Tasks

Navigating the Timeline

Use the header and footer controls to navigate through time. You can jump by weeks or months using the directional arrows. The URL will automatically update with the date parameter, allowing you to share specific weeks with your team.

Assigning Staff to Projects

1. Click on a specific project's date cell within the Project Calendar grid.
2. If you have Manager or Admin privileges, the interactive bottom panel will open.
3. In the bottom panel, use the Staff Panel to assign available team members to the selected project and date.
4. For more detail, see Planner Staff Assignments.

Managing Project Milestones

1. Select a project cell on the calendar.
2. In the bottom panel, navigate to the Project Milestones Panel.
3. Here you can add, edit, or remove milestones to track the project's critical phases.
4. You can also use the Milestone Filter in the calendar header to only show projects with specific active milestones.
5. For more detail, see Planner Milestones.

Allocating Time Slots from the Roster

1. Select one or more roster cells.
2. Right-click a selected cell and choose Allocate Time Slots.
3. Choose a project and allocate full-day or partial-day time periods.
4. For more detail, see Time Slot Allocation.

Viewing Team Availability and Leave

• View the dedicated Leave row at the top of the calendar grid to see approved staff leave.
• If you are a Manager or Admin, check the Available Team Members footer at the bottom of the calendar to see who has unallocated time during the current period.

UI Guide

Main Planner Layout

The Planner consists of the main calendar area and, when active, the control panel.

Project Calendar View

The top section includes controls for changing the date range, toggling Planning Mode, toggling Notes Mode, and filtering by Milestones. The grid displays projects on the left and dates on the right.

Bottom Panel (Control Center)

When a project cell is selected, the bottom panel expands to reveal three key areas:

1. Project Details: High-level information about the selected job.
2. Staff Panel: Interface for assigning and unassigning staff.
3. Milestones Panel: Interface for managing the milestones associated with the project.