Project schedule

The schedule is the project tab where you plan and track tasks, phases and milestones. It has three views: List (opens by default), Gantt (see Project Gantt) and Kanban (see Kanban). The list shows all items in the WBS structure. You can narrow it with the Filter button, adjust the columns with the Columns button, and collapse and expand groups of tasks (Collapse all, Expand all, Expand to level).

Schedule items are tasks (circle icon) and milestones (diamond icon). A task that has subtasks is a summary task, that is a phase: it has a bold name and a subtask counter. Above the list are the buttons New task, Filter, Columns, Export, History and Settings (working days, schedule attributes, import). Changing the schedule requires permission to edit the schedule. Item owners can change only the fields made available to them in the project settings (see Project permissions).

Adding schedule items

Task

1. Click New task on the list or in the Gantt view, or the + button in a column of the Kanban board.
2. Type the name and confirm with Enter or by clicking outside the field. The task appears on the list with a circle icon.

Milestone

1. Click the arrow next to New task and choose New milestone.
2. Type the name and confirm. The milestone appears with a diamond icon.

A milestone marks an important event in the project, for example the end of a phase. It has only an end date, is either done or not done (0% or 100%) and has no allocation. Dates, owners, cloning, attachments and dependencies work the same as for tasks (see Start and end date, Owners, Cloning, Dependencies). You can change the item type later (see Changing the item type).

A new item goes to the end of the list unless you selected a row first. It then appears below the selected item. Other ways of inserting are described in Schedule structure.

Schedule structure (WBS)

The WBS number shows the item position in the structure. An item under another item is its subtask, and the parent becomes a summary task. A milestone cannot have subtasks.

Inserting at a chosen place

• Select a row (click in a non-editable area) and click New task or New milestone to add the item below the selected one.

• The three-dot menu next to the name: Add task or Add Milestone, and in the submenu Above, Below or Subtask. The Subtask option adds the new item as a subtask of the selected task.

Changing level and order

• In the three-dot menu, Change level has the options Move up and Move down (change the WBS level by one) and Move above and Move below. Options appear only where the move is possible. For example, Move down is not available when the previous item is a milestone.

• Drag a row by the six-dot handle that appears on hover to move an item with its subtasks to a new place.

Summary task

• Dates. The start date of a summary task is the earliest start date of its subtasks, and the end date is the latest end date. Duration is the number of working days between them. Only the start date of a summary task can be changed; all subtasks then move by the same number of working days.

• Progress and completion. The progress of a summary task is calculated from the progress of its subtasks. Marking a summary task as completed completes all its subtasks. Before you confirm, the Task completion window lists them (Closing a task will automatically complete its subtasks:). When all subtasks are completed, the summary task becomes completed.

• Allocation. A summary task has its own allocation. In the Allocation column the list shows the sum of its own allocation and its subtasks’, with its own value in brackets.
• Owner. A person assigned to a summary task has the same owner rights to all its subtasks (see Owners).
• Panel. The summary task panel has a Subtasks section with the list of direct subtasks. Click a name to open the subtask, and use Add subtask to add a new one.
• Cloning. See Cloning an item.

Deleting an item also deletes all its subtasks. Before deleting you get the question Deleting a schedule item will delete all of its subtasks.

Changing the schedule item type

A task can be turned into a milestone and the other way round. A task that has subtasks cannot become a milestone.

1. Hover over the item and click the three-dot menu next to the name, or open the item panel and click the three dots in the top right corner.
2. Choose Change to milestone or Change to task.
3. Confirm in the Change to … window. Changing the type removes the baseline dates of the item (Changing the item type will remove the baseline dates.).

Changing the type also clears the allocation assigned to owners, and the dates of tasks linked by dependencies are recalculated in the background, so they may change after a short delay.

Task start and end date

Set task dates on the list in the columns Start, End and Duration, or in the task panel. Changing one of these values recalculates the others. Duration is given in project working days (see Working days and holidays).

• A later end date lengthens the task, an earlier one shortens it. The start date does not change.
• Changing the duration moves the end date. The start date does not change.
• A milestone has one date, the end date.

On the list

1. Click the Start or End field in the task row. A calendar opens.
2. Click a day in the calendar.

Enter the duration in the Duration field as a number of working days and confirm with Enter or by clicking outside the field.

In the task panel

1. Click the task name. The panel opens on the right.
2. Click the date or duration field and choose a value.

Restrictions:

• The dates of a summary task are not set directly because they come from its subtasks (see Schedule structure).
• If a task has dependencies, the application may recalculate the dates from the predecessors. The message Dates have been updated from relations then appears.
• Dates cannot be removed from an item that has dependencies (Days cannot be removed for element with dependency) or from an item with subtasks (Dates cannot be removed from element with subtasks).
• The start day, end day and duration cannot be lower than 0.

Working days and holidays in the schedule

Working days and holidays are set separately for each project. A new project has working days from Monday to Friday and no holidays. These settings affect schedule dates: duration is counted in working days, and task dates are fitted to the project working days.

Note: organisation days off (see Resources in the organization) affect only resource availability, not schedule dates. Schedule dates depend only on the project working days and holidays.

1. Open the project schedule and click Settings.
2. Choose Working days. The Working days window opens.
3. Switch the weekday buttons on or off. At least one working day must stay selected (At least one working day must be selected).
4. Click Add holiday on the Days off list and enter the name and date of the holiday. Holiday dates cannot repeat (Holiday dates cannot be repeated).
5. Save.

After saving, the dates of all tasks and milestones are recalculated according to the new settings. The change of working days and holidays goes to the schedule history but cannot be undone (see Undoing changes).

Dependencies between schedule items

A dependency links two items: a predecessor and a successor. A dependency has a type: End – Start (the successor starts after the predecessor ends), Start – Start, End – End or Start – End. Optionally it has a fixed lag in days. The successor dates are recalculated from the predecessor. Dependencies can also be drawn on the chart (see Project Gantt).

Adding a dependency

1. Choose Add dependency from the three-dot menu next to the item name, or from the menu in the top right corner of the item panel. The Add dependency window opens.
2. Choose Select an element from this project or Select an element from another project and click Next. The Add dependency window with the fields opens.
3. Click the From: field and choose an item (for a dependency with another project, first the project, then the item). You pick one item at a time. Add further dependencies separately.
4. Choose the Dependency type and optionally switch on Fixed lag with the number of days.
5. Save.

The dependency is visible in the item panel in the sections Depends on: (predecessors) and Affects: (successors), and on the list as a symbol next to the date. Clicking a dependency in the panel opens the Edit dependency window, where you can change the predecessor and the successor (the Reverse dependency button), the type and the lag, or delete the dependency.

Dependencies between projects

Dependencies with items of other projects are not recalculated immediately, only after approval in the project program. Adding such a dependency requires permissions to the external project (Insufficient permissions for the external project).

Restrictions

• You cannot create a cycle (You cannot add dependencies that will create cycles…).
• Only one dependency can exist between the same tasks (There cannot be multiple dependencies between the same tasks).
• Dependencies to an item with subtasks are limited (You cannot add dependency to element with subtasks, Dependeny cannot be added to end of an element with subtasks).

Closing a task whose predecessors are not completed shows their list and a confirmation question. The confirmation closes only the current item. When a task is completed, its successors get a notification.

Schedule item owners

You can assign several owners and several departments to an item. An owner can edit the item to the extent set for owners in the project (see Project permissions). All assigned tasks are visible in the Tasks module.

The Owner and Department fields are linked. Assigning an owner adds their department to the item, and choosing a department first filters the list of owners to the members of that department. An item can be assigned to a department only, without naming a person.

On the list

1. Click the Owner or Department field in the item row. You can switch on the Department column with the Columns button.
2. Choose a user or department from the list. Add more the same way.

In the item panel

1. Click the item name. The panel opens on the right.
2. Click the Owner field and choose a user.

Effects of assignment:

• A person added as an owner is automatically added to the project and gets a notification in the application and by email. No notification is sent when you assign yourself.
• When an owner is removed, the application removes them from the project if they own no other schedule item, risk or product in the project and have no permissions from another source. The owner gets a notification about the removal.
• The owner of a summary task has owner rights to all its subtasks.
• Owners of tasks that come from Jira cannot be changed in FlexiProject (It is not possible to change the owners of tasks originating from Jira).

Owners of several items at once are changed in bulk edit. It replaces the existing owners of the selected items.

Task progress

Progress is the percentage of task completion. A task is completed when its progress is 100%. The progress of a summary task is calculated from its subtasks (see Schedule structure), and a milestone has only 0% or 100%.

On the list

1. Click the progress bar in the task row and type the value as a percentage.
2. Confirm with Enter or by clicking outside the field.

Clicking the status icon next to the task name switches it between Completed and Not completed (the tooltips Set as completed and Set as pending).

In the task panel

1. Click the task name in any view. The panel opens on the right.
2. Click the progress field and type a value.
3. Confirm with Enter or by clicking outside the field.

Effects:

• Setting 100% records the completion date.
• A change of progress on a summary task carries over to all its subtasks.
• When a task is completed, its successors get a notification.
• A value outside 0 to 100 triggers the message Invalid progress value.
• Progress of tasks that come from Jira cannot be changed in FlexiProject (It is not possible to change the status of tasks originating from Jira).

Progress can also be set on the Gantt chart (see Project Gantt).

Editing a schedule item

Clicking an item name on the list, on the Gantt chart or on the Kanban board opens a details panel on the right. In the panel you edit:

• the name (clicking the status icon next to the name switches progress between 0% and 100%),
• the timeline: the date range of a task or the single date of a milestone, and progress (for a task without subtasks),
• allocation and time tracking, if the Resources and Time tracking tabs are switched on in the project,
• owners and departments,
• dependencies on other items (Depends on:, Affects:) and the linked budget, risks and products,
• schedule attributes switched on in the project (see Schedule attributes),
• the description, attachments, subtasks, comments and change history on separate tabs.

You can change the same fields directly in the list columns. Every change is saved immediately.

The three-dot menu in the top right corner of the panel contains, among others: Add risk, Add product, Add a budget item, Add dependency, Register time tracking, Clone, Delete, Copy link and Change to milestone (or Change to task). The row menu on the list additionally has Rename, Color (row background colour) and Show details.

Attachments

1. Click the paperclip symbol in the top right corner of the panel.
2. Choose Files (a file from disk), Link (a URL and a link name) or Add existing (a file from project files, see Project files).

The attachment appears in the panel, where you can download, open or delete it.

Notes:

• If the item has dependencies, the application may recalculate the entered timeline from the predecessors and shows the message Dates have been updated from relations.
• Marking an item as completed also completes its subtasks. When the item waits for unfinished predecessors, the application shows their list and asks for confirmation. The confirmation closes only the current item.
• Without permission to edit the schedule, an item owner changes only the fields (name, progress, dates, owners or other) that were made available to owners in the project settings.
• Items imported from Jira cannot be renamed, or have their owners or progress changed, from FlexiProject.

Cloning a schedule item

Cloning creates a copy of an item and speeds up building the schedule when it should contain several similar tasks. The copy gets the name with the suffix – copy and appears below the original.

Copied: dates and duration, progress, allocation, owners, dependencies, description and attachments.

Not copied: links to costs and revenue, risks and products, logged time, comments and history.

Every owner of the cloned item (except the person who clones) gets a notification.

From the list

1. Hover over the item and click the three-dot menu next to the name.
2. Choose Clone Task (for a milestone, Clone Milestone).

From the item panel

1. Click the item name. The panel opens on the right.
2. Click the three dots in the top right corner and choose Clone.

Summary task. The menu of a task with subtasks has two options: Clone task only (without subtasks) and Clone with subtasks. Items that come from Jira are not cloned (Elements from Jira were not cloned).

Bulk edit

Bulk edit changes many items at once.

1. Click the checkbox next to the name of the first item. This switches on bulk edit mode: a checkbox appears next to every item, the Bulk edit panel slides in from the right, and editing of single items on the list is locked.
2. Select the other items. The main checkbox at the top of the list selects or clears all items (taking the filter into account). The panel shows the number of selected items (Selected).
3. Set the values in the panel. Fields that do not need to change stay on Skip.
4. Click Update selected.

In the panel you change: Owner (replaces the existing owners of the selected items), Department, Start, End, Duration, values of the schedule attributes switched on in the project, and Color. Items synchronised with Jira are skipped when changing owners.

The Delete selected button deletes the selected items together with their subtasks after confirmation. Bulk changes are recorded in the schedule history (see Schedule history).

Schedule history

History records every operation that changes the schedule or its items: adding, changing the name, dates, progress, owners and dependencies, cloning, import, bulk changes, a change of working days and undoing changes. An entry shows who changed what.

• Schedule history. Clicking History above the list opens a panel with the changes in the project, newest first. For changes that affected other items, a list of related changes is available.
• Item history. The item panel has a History tab with the changes of that item.

Changes can be undone (see Undoing schedule changes).

Undoing schedule changes

Undoing restores the item and the schedule to the state before the change. You can undo a change from the schedule history or from the item history.

1. Click History above the list (or open the item panel and its History tab).
2. Click Undo changes next to the chosen change. The button appears only next to changes that can be undone.
3. Confirm. The history refreshes and shows the current state.

If someone else has meanwhile made a change that prevents undoing, a message appears.

Who can undo:

• a user with permission to edit the schedule undoes any change,
• other users undo only their own change, and only when nobody else has changed anything in the project since.

What cannot be undone:

• an undo (the undo itself is recorded as a new history entry),
• a change of project working days and days off,
• adding and editing schedule attributes in system settings,
• other global changes that affect the schedule,
• linking and unlinking a project with Jira,
• changes for which the state before the change was not saved.

Customizing the schedule list view

Every user adjusts the list columns for themselves. The setting is saved separately for each user and each project, so it changes neither the view of other users nor the view of other projects.

1. Click Columns above the list. A list of the columns available in the project opens.
2. Switch columns on or off with the checkboxes next to their names.
3. Change the order: hover over a column row, grab the six-dot symbol and drag it to a new place. Columns on the schedule list have the same order as on the column list.

Available columns include: WBS, Name, Owner, Department, Start, End, Duration, Progress, baseline and difference columns, Time tracking and Allocation (when the relevant tabs are switched on), budget columns, Risks, Products, Last edited, Jira columns (with the integration) and the schedule attributes switched on in the project (see Schedule attributes in a project). The exported file contains the columns visible on the list (see Exporting the schedule list).

Importing a schedule into an existing project

You can add items from a template, an Excel file or a Microsoft Project file to the schedule of an existing project. Import covers the schedule only (without budget and risks): names, owners, other item attributes, structure and dependencies where available. New items go to the end of the schedule, and existing items are not changed. Import into a new project is described in Creating a project.

Start the import with the Settings button above the list, the Import item and one of the options below.

From template

1. Choose From template. A window opens with the list of templates available in the organisation.
2. Choose a template and give a start or end date that the new part of the schedule is calculated from. Item dates come from the duration and dependencies stored in the template and from the working days and holidays of the target project.
3. Click Next. A preview of the new items in the WBS structure appears. The Back button lets you correct the date or change the template.
4. Click Add.

All schedule attributes and their values are taken from the template, so some attributes that were switched off may be switched on after the import.

From Microsoft Excel (.xlsx)

1. Choose From Microsoft Excel and select or drag an .xlsx file.
2. Click Next. The mapping screen appears.
3. Indicate in the table which file columns correspond to schedule item attributes (see Adding a project from Excel).
4. Click Add.

From Microsoft Project (.mpp)

1. Choose From Microsoft Project and select or drag an .mpp file.
2. Click Add. The file must contain tasks (The project must include tasks).

When importing an .mpp file, the days off and holidays stored in the file are ignored, and start and end dates are imported. If the working days of the file differ from the project settings, the dates adjust to the project, and the window Dates changed for some items after import: lists the changes.

Exporting the schedule list

The schedule list can be exported to an Excel file or to an .xml file that opens in Microsoft Project.

1. Open the project and the schedule in the list view.
2. Click Export above the list.
3. Choose Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) or Microsoft Project (.xml). The browser downloads the file automatically.

The file contains the data of the columns visible on the list. To export more or less data, switch columns on or off first (see Customizing the list view). The Gantt chart is exported separately (see Exporting the Gantt chart).