The job schedule

This video shows the job schedule: tasks and milestones on a chart, what follows what, moving work, days and weeks, progress against the plan, templates, phones, the portals, and who can change it.

Where it is

Open Projects, then the job, and click the Schedule tab. The top line shows the job's dates, its workdays and how many tasks are done. Workdays are the days your company is open, Monday to Friday until you set its open hours. The job's own start and end follow the schedule.

Start from a template

A job with no schedule offers templates: Kitchen remodel, Bathroom remodel, Roof replacement, Simple job, and any of your own. Pick one, set the day the job starts, and click Build the schedule. The tasks land on workdays, already linked. Or click Start blank.

Tasks and milestones

Click Task, give it a name and its length in workdays, and click Add. Milestone is a single day, like an inspection, a delivery or the walkthrough. A new task follows the last one on the schedule; take that off, and it starts on a date you pick.

Who does it

Who does it picks one of your crews, a sub, or someone on the team, who gets a bell when someone else adds their task or moves it. A warning shows when the crew is booked on another job those days. Status, a note, and Show on the client portal sit below.

What follows what

Follows sets what a task waits for. Pick the task, and add a wait in workdays if it needs one, like drying time. Follow a task adds another, up to eight. Lines on the chart show what follows what, and ECHOPS won't let tasks wait on each other in a loop.

Moving work

Drag a bar to move it, and everything after it moves too. Drag its right edge to change its length. Closed days are skipped, and a task can't start before the one it follows ends. Every move offers Undo, and a click opens the task.

Reading the chart

The critical path is ringed in red: a day lost there makes the job late. Point at a bar for its dates and slack. The line down the chart is today, closed days are shaded, and Deliveries shows the job's orders arriving. Switch Days or Weeks; a long job opens on weeks.

Progress and the plan

A bar's color is its status: To do, In progress or Done, and a bar left of today that isn't done is running late. Click Save as the plan to keep today's dates: a thin bar then sits under each task, and a chip says how many workdays the job is behind or ahead.

Your own templates

Templates adds a template's tasks after what's there, or in place of this job's schedule while nothing is done. Save this schedule as a template keeps the tasks, their lengths and what follows what, never the dates or the people. Only owners and admins remove company templates.

Phones and portals

On a phone, the chart becomes a list by date, with a tick to mark a task done. The client portal shows What's coming up: the steps shown to the client, by name and date, never who does them. The crew portal shows each sub Your dates on this job, in English or Spanish.

Who can change it

Members change the schedule. Viewers open the chart and every task, read only. An archived job's schedule can't change until the job is brought back.

Tip: click Save as the plan once the client agrees to the dates; from then on, the chip shows at a glance if the job is slipping. Next: Product photos and client selections.