Event scheduling

Manage daily activities in the project planner: training, meetings, timeslots, external assistance calls. Whatever your field of activity, the software may be personalised to your specific scheduling needs. 
On the schedule, an event is represented by a full colour rectangle.

Creating events
Modifying an event
Deleting an event
Managing recurring events
Multi-selection of events
Event purging
Event duration
Event options

Creating events

There are various methods for creating events in your schedule:

Various ways of creating an event

-> Draw a rectangle in the schedule using a left click on the mouse

-> A simple left click: Left click in an empty place on the screen.

-> Click on the Add button "+" and choose "New task”

The window below will be displayed:

A scheduling event

Copy and Paste

Select the event and then click right followed by "Copy". Then place the cursor at the point where you wish followed by a right click and “Paste”. All information in the event will be saved.

Assigning an event to several resources

You are able to apply a one-shot assignment of a task to several resources! From the "Event" window, in the “Resource” field select “several” instead of "one only". The "Resource" tab is displayed from where you may assign all the resources that you wish - click on Save to validate your choice.

Create multi-resource tasks

. Selecting only those resources that are available
When creating a task, you may select directly the available resources by ticking the box "Available" in the "Resource" tab.

. Selecting resources by department or by type
From the "Resource" tab you also have the possibility of filtering available resources by department or by type.

. Dissociate multi-resource task 
You may disassociate a task assigned to several resources in order to assign the task to a resource independently from the others. To achieve this, choose the event and click right then select "disassociate".

Modifying an event

Different ways to modify an event

-> Double left click on the event

-> Right click then "Open"

Drag and Drop

Drag/Drop: drag and drop the event directly onto a new date and/or onto a new employee..

Splitting an event

By right clicking you can divide an event into 2.

Splitting an event

Breaking down an event into complete days

By right clicking you can change an event lasting a period of x days into x events of 1 complete day. Please note that this action cannot be reversed.

Breaking down an event into complete days

Preventing event modification

Task locking
You may secure your tasks so that they may not be altered without your authorisation. Only the system administrator or the person responsible for security will be authorised to unlock tasks - by selecting "Unlock".

Prohibit event creation and modification 
To activate this option, go to the menu Parameters-> Options -> General -> Prohibit the creation and modification of tasks prior to

->today’s date

- a specific date

Forcing the creation of an event

When a resource is already taken
You may force the creation of an event even if the resource is already occupied or taken. 
If you force the creation of the task, two tasks appear superimposed on the resource line in the scheduling space.

When the resource is not qualified for the task
You may force the assignment of a task to a resource without the necessary skills. You will receive a warning message. If you validate with OK, the task will be created.

To manage the rules for using the “Force an assignment” function, go to the menu Parameters -> Groups

Quickly modify data with a right-click

To save time, you can change the following information by right-clicking on the event:

  • Task status
  • Category
  • Custom fields : Choice

Deleting an event

-> Deleting an event

-> Open the event and click on the "Delete" button

Multi-selection of events

Selecting several events

Please note that periodic events and locked events cannot be selected.

-> Hold down the CTRL key and click on each event you wish to select

-> Hold down the CTRL key and draw a rectangle around all the events you wish to select

After selecting several events, a dialog box appears. Several actions are then available.

Advance or delay selected events

By clicking on the double arrow, you can choose a number in hours or days, positive or negative. Then click on the "Confirm" button to advance or delay all the selected events. Note that it is impossible to undo this action.

Deletion of several events

Click on the delete icon in the multi-selection dialogue box.Please note that this action is irreversible.

Modify the category or status of tasks

Select "Task" events only. Click on the "..." icon and choose a category or state.

Modify unavailability status

Select "Unavailable" events only. Click on the "..." icon and choose an unavailability state.

Managing recurring events

A recurring event is an action which repeats itself at regular intervals. You may create a recurring event to save time. The "periodicity" function helps in managing monthly meetings, annual events, etc.

Managing recurring events

Creating a recurring event
When creating a task, click on the “Periodicity” button: The "periodicity" tab opens with various options: 
Days: duration in days 
Full day: a full-day task or for a few hours with start and end times to be determined 
Periodicity: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Annual.  Dates: Enter the start dates and perhaps the end date and validate using Save.

Cancelling one occurrence or the full event series
You may cancel a single occurrence of the task or the complete series. For this, select the task and then right click on the mouse.
If you wish to cancel a single selected task, choose "This occurrence".
If you wish to cancel the full series, choose "The series".

Modifying an event within a series
Right click to leave the periodicity. You may now modify the event independently of the others.

Event purging

Event purging

It is advisable to purge data that is too old in the database, in order to improve the overall performance of your application and comply with GDPR standards.
Go to Tools - Options - Purge
Here are the different types of data that can be purged:
- Purge items prior to : Choosing the date
- History : events in the history prior to the selected date will be deleted
- Tasks: Tasks prior to the selected date will be deleted.
- Customers: Only clients linked to purged tasks, and only to those tasks, will be purged.
- Projects: Only projects linked to purged tasks, and only those tasks, will be purged.
- Unavailability: Any unavailability prior to the chosen date will be deleted.
- Context: Contexts prior to the chosen date will be deleted.

Event duration

All-day events or events in hours

Full-days events
For full-days events, the Full day box is checked. The event takes place over 1 or more full day(s) .

Events in hours
Events in hours are defined with a start time and an end time. The "Whole day" box is unchecked.

Assign a duration to your events

An event created in duration mode is an event whose duration is specified, in days or hours.

Event in hours Event in hours

Calculation of the end according to the profile
For events with a specified duration, the end is calculated based on the resource's time profile.

Moving an event created in duration mode

  • When we shift an event created with a duration, its duration is always respected and the length of the event is adapted live to the duration.
  • An event in Duration mode switch to Time mode if it is resized with the mouse.

Multi-resources events
If an event is assigned to several resources with different time profiles, the reference time profile or calculations is the default time profile specified from the menu Data -Timetables

Calculating the event duration in hours and days
Cf. Calculating the event duration in hours and days

This documentation explains the logic of hours calculation used in the planning relying on several criteria such as the profile of the resource, the events in hours or days and so on.

Assign an allocation percentage

You can assign a percentage of allocation per event. On the schedule, a colour change indicates the percentage of allocation.

Percentage of allocation

To enable this feature, go to Tools -> Options -> Event -> Display an allocation rate.

Event options

PlanningPME Web Access is a fully configurable on-line software suite. Initially it will appear very simple but will become more complex as you add options that you choose to activate from the menu: Parameters -> Options -> Task

Auto-completion/intuitive data entry

Select a client by typing the first few letters of the name in the search field

Intuitive data entry is a function in PlanningPME Web Access whereby a list of suggested results is presented after having entered the first two letters of the word without the need to enter the full word.

Intuitive data entry is available in all the drop-down menus when creating a task This is a very helpful option when you have a long list of clients or projects - you have a simple data entry zone instead of having to consult a long list of names.

The number of labels appearing in the list presented may be modified by the system administrator from the menu Parameters -> Options -> General. You may modify the number of labels loaded by default

Checking the availability of resources

By default, to avoid scheduling errors, the application manages resource availability. If a resource is already occupied by a task or an unavailability, an alert message appears.

To change this feature, go to Tools -> Options -> Event -> Assign one event to a resource at the same time.

You can set an additional restriction and have the alert message appear only if the resource is occupied by an unavailability by checking the "Show a warning only if an unavailability has already been assigned" option.

"Slots" button 

To save time, you may create up to 4 different time slots within the window. When you click on one of these buttons, the defined slots will be assigned automatically. To define the slots, go to the menu Parameters -> Options -> "Slots"

Other options

Number of default resources
If you wish, you may choose to have one or more default resources per task. If you tick "Several", the "resource" tab will be displayed by default in the "Event" window.

Do not add any new labels
If you choose this option, all the new task naming labels that you enter when creating a new event in the schedule will not be added to the list of task labels in the menu Data -> Task.

Display the billing tab in the task
When you create a task, an additional tab - "Billing" - will be displayed.

Generate a pause
You may define a waiting-time pause when creating an event.