Project Planner

Plan the work before you allocate the people and machines. The Project Planner is where you lay out tasks — phases, work packages, milestones — on a timeline against a project (or a job you expect to win), then turn the ones that are real into actual allocations in the Allocation Manager.

Who can use it — Anyone who can view projects can see the Planner (access follows project visibility — there's no separate "view tasks" permission). To create, edit, drag, resize, or delete tasks you need "manage project tasks" permission. Turning a task's plant/crew into real allocations additionally needs "manage asset allocations", and sending a Works Report needs "manage broadcasts" on top of "manage project tasks". See Roles & Permissions for how access is set.

Where to find it — Project Management → Project Planner in the sidebar, sitting directly above the Allocation Manager — the natural flow is plan the demand here, then allocate the supply there.

Before you start — a task needs one of two job sources:

An awarded project already set up in Projects, optionally down to a specific workfront/location.
Or, if the work isn't won yet, a forecast job — just a free-text name (and optional client). Forecast tasks are planning-only: they never feed billing, payroll, or Day Works coverage. They exist purely to reserve crew and plant against work you expect to land.

How to use it

Set your window. The timeline opens on a rolling 30-day window starting today. Use the prev/next arrows, the Today button, or the quick presets (1 week, 2 weeks, 30 days, 6 weeks, 3 months) to change what you're looking at.
Create a task. Click Create Task in the header, or click an empty cell on a project's row on the timeline — either opens the same slide-over form, pre-filled with the project and date you clicked.
Pick a job source first. Choose Awarded project or Forecast (not yet awarded) — the matching fields (project/workfront, or forecast job name/client) only appear once you've chosen.
Fill in the task details — title, description, start/end dates, and a work pattern (which days of the week, and Day/Night/Split shift).
Optionally reserve plant and crew you expect to use, and set the billing intent and status.
Save. The task appears as a bar on the timeline immediately.
Reschedule by dragging. Drag a task bar to move it, or drag its left/right edge to resize — both save straight back to the task's dates.
When it's time to commit resources, spawn allocations from the task's view — see below.

The timeline

Each row is a project (or, for a location-level task, a project + workfront combination); forecast jobs get their own rows, marked with an amber left-edge stripe and a Forecast chip, and sort to the bottom under real projects.

Bars are coloured by billing intent — grey for Contract, amber for Day Works, blue for Mixed — and shaded darker for a Night or Split shift. The same colour language is shared with the Allocation Manager timeline, and a legend sits above the grid.
Each bar shows a status dot (draft/scheduled/in progress/blocked/complete), a shift icon for night work, a DW/Mixed billing pill where relevant, and a status pill.
Weekends and public holidays are shaded on the grid, and today's column is highlighted.
A faint full-width band shows the task's whole date range; the solid segments underneath show only the actual working days from its work pattern (so a Mon–Fri task over a weekend shows visible gaps).
Click a bar to open its view slide-over with the full detail, planned resources, and conflict warnings.
Below the grid, an entries table lists every task overlapping the current window — including any that fall outside the visible pattern days — so nothing is hidden.

Four KPI tiles above the timeline give a running count for the window: Scheduled, In Progress, Blocked, Starting this week, and Day Works planned.

Creating and editing a task

The task form has these sections:

Scope — job source (Awarded project or Forecast), then the project/workfront or forecast job name/client.
Task details — title (required) and a free-text description.
Timing — start and end dates, and the work pattern: pick working days (with Mon–Fri, Mon–Sat, Every day, or Weekends presets) and a shift (Day, Night, or Day & Night). Billing intent (Contract, Day Works, or Mixed) is a planning signal only — actual Day Works coverage still comes from timesheets and signed or verified dockets, not from this field.
Planned plant & equipment and Planned crew — see below.
Presentation — the task's status (Draft, Scheduled, In Progress, Blocked, Complete).

Editing works the same way — click a bar, then Edit in the view slide-over (or from its footer). Delete permanently removes the task; it does not affect any allocations already spawned from it.

Reserving plant and crew — planning, not commitment

Under Planned plant & equipment and Planned crew on the task form, you can multi-select the machines, vehicles, or equipment, and the workers, you expect this task to need. This is a reservation, not a commitment — nothing here touches the Allocation Manager or actually books anyone until you explicitly spawn allocations (below).

Because it's only a plan, conflicts are shown as warnings, never blocks — you can reserve a machine or worker that's already committed elsewhere, or planned on another task, and still save. The form shows a live Conflicts summary under each picker, split into two buckets:

Allocation Manager — the resource is already committed to a real allocation elsewhere (or, for crew, on approved leave) in this window. A resource already allocated to this same awarded project is not flagged — that's exactly where it should be.
In this planner — the resource is reserved on another task's plan in this window. This is a soft, demand-vs-demand signal; it may be entirely intentional (e.g. a still-to-be-decided pick between two forecast jobs).

Turning a plan into real allocations

Once a task on an awarded project has plant or crew reserved, its view slide-over shows a Create allocations button (visible if you hold both "manage project tasks" and "manage asset allocations"). This is the bridge from planning to commitment:

Every reserved worker and machine that isn't already spawned is listed. Workers need at least one role picked before they can be allocated.
Each new allocation inherits the task's dates, work pattern, and billing intent, and is tagged back to the task for traceability.
Anything already allocated elsewhere in that window is flagged with a "Replace the existing allocation" toggle, off by default — leave it off and that item is skipped, not clobbered; turn it on to replace the conflicting allocation.
Re-running the wizard is safe: already-spawned items don't show up again.
Forecast tasks have nothing to spawn — there's no real project to allocate against yet.

After spawning, check the Allocation Manager — that's the source of truth for who and what is actually committed to a project.

Sending a Works Report

The Send Works Report header action (shared with the Allocation Manager) composes a snapshot of upcoming planner tasks and/or current allocations over a chosen window (next week, next 30 days, or a custom range) and sends it as a broadcast — in-app always, plus email and/or SMS if you choose. You can attach a PDF copy and pick the audience, same as any Broadcast. SMS only ever carries a short "your report is ready" nudge, never the full report.

Connected pages

Allocation Manager — where a task's reserved plant and crew become real, committed allocations.
Projects — the awarded projects (and their workfronts/locations) tasks are scheduled against.
My Work Log — where crew see the shifts that come from actual allocations, not from planner tasks.
Report Builder — for reporting on what actually happened on site, as distinct from this page's forward-looking plan.

Tips & common mistakes

A task on the timeline is a plan, not a booking. Reserving crew or plant here doesn't allocate them — nothing changes in the Allocation Manager until you run Create allocations.
Conflicts here are warnings, not blocks — you can save a task that double-books a machine or worker on paper. Check the Conflicts summary before you spawn allocations, where a real double-booking either gets skipped or needs an explicit "Replace" toggle.
Forecast jobs never bill or pay. Use them to hold crew/plant against work you expect to win, but they can't be spawned into allocations until the job is awarded and the task is switched to a real project.
Can't see the Project/Location fields? Pick a Job source first — the form deliberately hides both groups until you choose Awarded project or Forecast.
Dragging a bar changes real dates immediately — a drag or resize saves straight away, the same as editing the form.
Deleting a task never touches allocations already spawned from it — the plan and the commitment are independent once resources are spawned.