Plan Manager & Editing Plans

The Plan section of PositiveWare allows you to manage your clients, plans and tasks.

As explained in PositiveWare Concepts, tasks can be nested within plans or can exist independently of them, but both plans and tasks always belong to a client.

By default, clicking on the Plan tab will load the Plan Manager, from which you can access all plan-related tasks.

The Plan Manager interface allows users to view and edit information about all of the clients, plans and tasks and goals to which they have access.




Clicking on any of the clients, plans, tasks or goals listed in the tree view on the left will load the details for that item into the right-hand pane, as illustrated below with the "Upgrade Design" project:



The right-hand pane provides access to all the available information about a client, plan or task. It also provides access to related tasks, through the Edit button.

Circled red above are two important features:

  1. Tabbed browsing: Each client, plan or task that is clicked on in the left-hand pane will open in a new tab in the right-hand pane. By clicking on one of the tabs (circled) you can switch between tabs.

    When you hover over a tab, a small red cross icon appears - click on this to close the tab.


  2. View Associated Information: Tabs are used again to provide access to plans, tasks, comments, documents and budgets that are associated with the client, plan or task being viewed.

    In this example, the (1) on the Tasks tab indicates that the plan being viewed has one associated task, named Additional Documentation. Its allocated Performer is Dagny Taggart and its start and end dates are also shown.

    Simply click on a tab to view its associated information.

  3. Edit Button: Circled green above, the Edit button provides access to all of the tasks you can perform on the client, plan or task you are viewing.

    Clicking on the arrowhead on the right-hand side of the Edit button allows you to opt to add a task, plan or client:
Clicking directly on the Edit button will open a new window allowing you to edit the task. The following options are available:
    1. Add Comment - Add a comment to the plan/task record. This will be emailed to all users who are subscribed to notifications for the plan/task.
    2. Track Time - Record details of time spent working on this plan/task. You will be prompted for a work category, time spent, date and any comment. You can also indicate whether the work was billable or not.
    3. Track Expense - Record details of expenses incurred while working on this plan/task, including the relevant vendor.
    4. Attach Document - Upload a document to the plan/task record. The document will only be available to users who have the required permissions
    5. Complete - mark this plan/task as complete and stop tracking time against it. You will be prompted for the completion date in order that schedule compliance can be assessed.
    6. Hold - pause time tracking against this plan/task.
    7. Delete - delete this plan/task.
    8. Edit Budget - edit the budget for this plan/task. If you have the necessary permissions, you will be able to edit current and previous monthly budgets, so long as they have not been frozen.
    9. Edit Permissions - alter users' permissions for this plan/task only.
    10. Return - stop editing the plan/task and return to the Plan Manager screen. Choosing the Return task will close the Edit window and return you to the main Plan Manager screen.
 

Customizing Plan Manager

The Plan Manager allows you to customize the way in which your information is displayed.

There are two elements to this customization:



  • Collapsed - Expanded: Changing the position of this slider causes the tree view in the left-hand pane to be gradually expanded or collapsed. When collapsed completely, only your list of clients will be visible (although you can expand them manually).

    When expanded fully, every client, plan and task will be visible, subject to your choice of Options.

  • Options: The Options button provides you with access to the display options for the Plan Manager:

The following options are available:

Plan Selection

  • Status: Choose whether to display All plans, or only Active or Completed plans
  • Period: Choose which time period to display plans from
  • View: Choose to display All plans to which you are subscribed, only plans for which you have Ownership, or only plans from a specific Department:

Task Selection

  • Status: Choose whether to display All tasks, or only those that are Active or Completed
  • View: This allows you to control how and if tasks are displayed:
      • None: No tasks will be displayed, only clients and plans
      • Normal: Active tasks which you own or are assigned to will be displayed
      • Extended: Show active tasks you own or are assigned to with additional information
      • All: Display all tasks with their parent plans - regardless of whether you own them or are assigned to work on them

Once you have made your option choices, you can choose from three Save options:

  • Save: Save your choices for the current session only
  • Set As Default: Make your choices the default for your future sessions
  • Close: Close the Options dialog without saving your changes