Setting working times

Setting working times

Goal: record per weekday at which clock times a calendar works, so that tasks in hours run at the right times.

When you need this

Friday afternoon is off. The crew works from 06:00 to 22:00 in two shifts. There is a night crew. The break is shorter than an hour. As long as you plan only in days, Start (hour), End (hour) and the break are enough (Creating and assigning a calendar). If you plan tasks in hours, the app counts working minutes within the working-time blocks of the calendar. In the app those blocks are called bands: a block is a continuous stretch of working time on one weekday, and a gap between two blocks is a break. What that means for your schedule is covered in Days and hours.

To give an ordinary calendar working-time blocks, you need Enable hour planning (Turning on hour planning). If the calendar already has blocks, for example from an MS Project file, the Working times block is always there and you change the blocks also with hour planning off.

Steps

Choosing a shift preset

1. Choose Planning › Calendar › Calendar and pick the calendar on the left.
2. In the Working times block, click a preset. It replaces the work days and working times of the calendar.
3. Click Apply.

Each preset does this:

• Day shift: Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 16:00 without a break. This turns it back into an ordinary calendar, without working-time blocks.
• 2 shifts: Monday to Friday from 06:00 to 14:00 and from 14:00 to 22:00, 16 hours in all.
• 3 shifts: Monday to Friday three shifts, from 06:00 to 14:00, from 14:00 to 22:00 and from 22:00 to 06:00 the next day, 24 hours in all.
• Night shift: Monday to Friday from 22:00 to 06:00 the next day, 8 hours.
• 24/7: all seven days from 00:00 to 24:00.

Setting working times per weekday

1. In the Working times block, click Set per weekday…. Under the buttons a row appears per weekday with the working time of that day, and the calendar now has working-time blocks per weekday. If the calendar already has them, this overview is open right away; the button is then called Hide working times and folds it in.
2. Adjust the start and end time of each block in the two time fields. Type the time and press Enter, or use the arrows (15 minutes per step). The fields follow the Time format in the settings; 13:00 and 1:00 PM both work.
3. If you want to build in a break, click + (Add band) for that day and adjust the times of the blocks so that there is a gap between them. A new block starts at 08:00 and ends at 16:00.
4. A block that runs past midnight, you tick with next day. The block counts for the day on which it begins.
5. Click the bin behind a block to remove it. A day without blocks shows as Non-working.
6. For a day from Monday to Friday, click the copy symbol (Copy to all workdays) to put the blocks of that day on Monday to Friday.
7. Above the Working times block is Standard workday: the working time per day that the app derives from the blocks and calculates with. The number follows at once when you change the blocks. If the calendar has its own hours per day (for example from Primavera P6), that own value is kept and goes along with the export, until a preset replaces it. If that own value differs from the Standard workday, an orange block appears directly below the number, for example: The file has its own workday of 8h. It is kept on export to MS Project and P6. There a day counts 8h, here 10h. The block disappears as soon as the blocks give the same day sum, or when a preset replaces the own value. The block does not change the calculation. Click Apply.

Example: a free Friday afternoon. Click Set per weekday…. Remove the second block (13:00 to 16:00) for Fri. Friday now has 5 hours, the other days 8. The Standard workday stays 8 hours.

Saving a preset of your own

1. Click Save as preset… and type a name in the Name for your own preset field.
2. Click Save. The preset now sits among the other presets, and you can use it in any project. With the cross next to it you remove it again.

A preset of your own is stored on this device, not in the project file.

Pitfalls and what the app does then

A preset replaces everything. If you choose a preset, the work days and working times you set earlier disappear. The holidays stay.

Day buttons change the blocks. If you turn a day off under Work days, the blocks of that day disappear. Turn it on again and it gets back the blocks it had when you opened the dialog (or after the last preset), or otherwise those of the first working day. Mon–Fri does that for Monday through Friday and removes the blocks of Saturday and Sunday. Continuous (24/7) replaces all blocks: every day gets 00:00 to 24:00.

Adjusting working times with hour planning off. A calendar with working-time blocks keeps the Working times block, also when you turn hour planning off. You simply change the blocks there. If you choose Day shift, it becomes an ordinary calendar again with the fields Start (hour), End (hour) and the break; putting blocks back is then only possible with hour planning on.

No usable working times. A calendar without blocks or without work days cannot carry a task in hours. The app then reports This calendar has no valid working times. Check its working days and times.

See also

• Days and hours: how the app counts working hours and derives the standard workday.
• Turning on hour planning: planning a task in hours.
• Calendars and working days: which calendar applies to which task.
• Calendar windows: all fields of the calendar windows.