The master plan

The master plan puts several projects on one date axis, a few weeks at a time. You edit their tasks side by side, see the people and machines booked on two projects the same day, and publish the lot to crews in one go. It needs the Master planning capability; see Who can use it, below.

Where to find it#

• the sidebar's Master plan row (under Planning);
• Master plan in the editor's Tools ▾ menu;
• Ctrl+M;
• Open in Master plan on the Projects page, which hands over the projects you ticked.

The plan covers only its own company's projects: the company of the project open in the editor. A ticked project of another company stays off it, and the Projects list opens with one line that says so, for example "Tidewater Yard Paving is in Tidewater Paving — this plan is Northline Civil's. To plan it, open a Tidewater Paving project first."

It needs a wider screen. At 780 px wide or narrower, such as on a phone, it says "The master plan needs a wider screen." and offers Projects and Work instead of cramming three weeks of dates side by side.

Choosing projects#

Projects in the action row (it shows how many are on the plan) opens a list of your projects to tick. Up to 8 projects can be edited together by default. A company admin can raise that to 15 on the Master planning card: Allow up to 15 projects in the master plan. "The default is 8. Above 8 the view is unmeasured; publishing still takes 15 projects at a time."

The Group filter (Group: All or a group's name) narrows the sections you see and edit. It never shrinks what Needs attention and Double-booked check: hidden sections still count.

The window#

The window reads From a date for a number of weeks, from one to eight. A ninth week is refused out loud: "Up to 8 weeks. For a longer view use Crew planning or the 3-week look-ahead."

Two views#

By project shows one section per project, its tasks on the shared date axis. You can edit the tasks right there, as in the editor. Columns adds % complete, Duration, Start, Deadline, Notes or one of the projects' own columns to every section. Open in the editor → takes you to one project's full schedule.

By resource shows the people and equipment the plans book, day by day, under a planned demand strip, so you can see who is where across the projects on the plan.

Saving and the side pane#

Each project section carries its own save chip. A conflict in one project leaves every other section's edits untouched. A section with more tasks in the window than it can show says so, for example 300 of 412 tasks in this window — narrow the window.

The side pane has two lists, both advisory: nothing in them blocks a save.

• Needs attention: sections that failed to save or to publish, with what to do next.
• Double-booked: people and machines planned on two projects on the same day.

Day notes#

The + on a day header opens the same Day notes dialog as Tools ▾ → Day notes…, already set to that day. See Draft and Publish.

Publishing#

Publish… opens Publish to crews for every section at once, with the same rules as publishing one project: all or nothing, and a project someone else changed since you loaded it is refused with Include it anyway beside it. The dialog adds a line about conflicts, for example No conflicts in this publication or 3 conflicts in this publication — 1 outside your window. It never blocks the publish.

A project in Draft carries a Draft pill wherever it appears outside the master plan: on the Projects page, on Home, on Crew planning, in People's project legend and on the Reports page.

Printing#

Print prints the master week and day sheets: every week the window touches, a day sheet for today (or the window's first day) and the day after, and Choose days… for any days you pick. See Crew paper.

Who can use it#

The master plan is for people with the Master planning capability. Company admins hold it by role; a company admin grants it to other members (not a Field-only account) on Company › Users & access → the Master planning card. Everyone else sees no door to it. It needs a connected company: local mode and the public demo have no master plan. The same gates open People, which shares the master plan's Publish to crews dialog and print menu. See Who can see and do what.

Good to know#

• Publishing takes up to 15 projects at a time, whatever the master plan's own limit.
• Undo on the master plan works per project: click a project's section first.