The time schedule contains all time periods of your project. By default, the time schedule of your project contains the planning period and usage period of your equipment. When creating a project, you cannot save until a time schedule is set up.
We recommend making your list of time periods as complete as possible and linking your times to equipment groups (automatically done by the default planning period and usage period) and crew/transport functions. This is useful when the times of your project change: the times of your equipment groups and crew/transport functions will then also automatically update.
Planning period
During this period, your equipment and crew will be out of the warehouse.
The planning period is used to calculate equipment and crew availability. Planned equipment will not be available during the planning period because it's needed on the project and will therefore be out of your warehouse.
Tip: Some companies also include necessary time for preparation and cleaning into the planning period.
Usage period
The usage period is the period that the customer actually uses your equipment or that your crew actually works for the customer. If you have the quotation and invoicing add-on: this is the period for which the customer will be charged. The usage period is needed to calculate the price factor, which largely determines the price of the project.
Select a default planning/usage period
You can choose any time period in your schedule as the planning period or usage period for your project. If you do, make sure your equipment groups and crew/transport functions are connected to the right time period.
- Go to the Time schedule tab.
- Select a time period and click
Set as default time.
- In the pop-up, select whether the default time is for the planning period, usage period, or both.
- In the pop-up, select either to apply to the entire project or a subproject only.
You can save time by using project templates to configure your default time periods. If you create a new project using your own template, the time periods you've configured will automatically be applied. This can save a lot of time, especially if you often create projects that are similar to each other.
Time schedule timeline
The timeline in the Time schedule tab provides a visual overview of all the time periods in your project and gives clearer insights, leading to fewer mistakes.
To open the timeline:
- Click on watch_laterOpen timeline button.
- Use
to zoom in and out.
Besides providing a better overview, you can add, remove, shift, extend, and shorten time periods by interacting with the timeline.
Add a time period
- Click on + Add a time
- Enter a name, start date and time, and end date and time.
After you have used this time period, you can see in the column 'Linked to' where the period is used for.
Alternatively, you can use the timeline to create new time periods.
To add a time period using the timeline:
- Click on the start date and time on the timeline and drag your mouse to the end date and time.
- In the time grid, enter a name.
- Equipment load-in and load-out
- Build and break shifts
- Rehearsals
- Transportation and travel
- Picking up and bringing-back of equipment
- Cleaning
- Packing time for equipment
Duplicate a time period
You may want to duplicate a time period that repeats throughout the project (e.g. lunch over multiple subprojects). In this case, you can duplicate a time period.
To duplicate a time period, select one or multiple time periods, click the More options more_vert button, and choose "Duplicate".
Shift/adjust project times
If the date or times of your project change, you can shift or adjust the time periods in your time schedule. You have three ways to shift a project's timeline:
- Using the Shift button
- Moving the times in the timeline
- Changing the times manually
Using the Shift button
To shift project times, select one or multiple time periods and click on
button in the blue bar.
There are two options for shifting your project's times:
- Shift by a set amount of time (e.g., all times 2 hours later): You have the option to shift your project forward or backward in time by a set amount of minutes, hours, days, months, or years. By entering a negative quantity, you can shift a project up to an earlier date.
- Shift to a new start date/time (e.g., the project has been postponed from February 17th at 10:00 AM to February 29th at noon): By shifting your project to a new start date/time, all time periods will shift accordingly to the new start date/time. This is similar to selecting a start date for project templates.
After selecting how and by how much you want to shift the times of your project, preview the changes you have made at the bottom of the window. Click Update to apply the changes.
Moving the times in the timeline
Alternatively, you could adjust your times using the timeline:
- To move a time, drag it in the timeline and drop it where you want.
- To shorten or extend a time, hover your cursor over the start or end point of your time in the timeline and drag to adjust the time.
Changing the times manually
You also have the option to change the times manually:
- In the time grid of the Time schedule tab, select a time and change the start or end date.
Sort time schedule manually or chronologically
You can sort the time periods in your schedule either manually or chronologically.
- To sort time schedules manually, use the drag and drop button
on the left side of the time period.
- To sort times chronologically, click on
in the upper right corner.
Quickly create function groups based on your time periods
After adding your time periods in the Time Schedule tab of your project, you can save time by selecting all the time you want and creating crew and transport functions with only one click.
- Once you've created all of your time periods, select
one or multiple time periods.
- Click on the
button in the blue bar.
You should now be able to see your new functions in the Crew and Transport tab of your project.
Hide times on your quotation and invoices
For each time period, you can choose what type of document it should be displayed on. In the table under 'Display on internal documents' and 'Display on external documents,' you can select on which documents the time periods have to be shown. A full table can look like this: