A job's schedule is a set of task groups, one for each stage of the build, with the tasks for that stage inside. It drives your client's Schedule tab, the dates you book trades against, and every calendar in HomePulse.
Before you start
Set the job's start date. Every forecast date in the schedule is worked out from it, and changing it later moves the forecasts for you.
Open the job and click Edit Job in the header.
Enter the Start date and save.
Load your schedule from a template
A task template is the fastest way in, because it brings every stage, task and duration across in one step.
Open the job and go to the Tasks tab.
While the job has no tasks, the screen offers a template list. Pick your task template.
Click Clone.
The tasks arrive with forecast start and completion dates calculated from the job's start date. A job takes one task template. If you loaded the wrong template, click Remove Template to take it off and start again. That option disappears once any task on the job is marked complete.
Or build it by hand
On the job's Tasks tab, click Add a task group and name it after the stage, such as Slab, Frame or Lock-up.
Click Add task in that group for each task in the stage.
Repeat for each stage.
Your client sees these stages on their Schedule tab, so name them the way you would describe the build to a homeowner.
Fill in each task
Click a task to open it, then click Edit Task to set:
Status. Not Started, Scheduled, In Progress or Completed.
Assignee. The person on your team responsible for it.
Service Provider. The trade company doing the work, which has to exist as a Service Provider company first. See Suppliers, companies and contacts.
Scheduled start and completion. The dates the work is booked for. Sending a work release to the trade also sets these.
Every task carries two pairs of dates. Forecast dates are HomePulse's estimate from the job start date, and scheduled dates are the ones you have booked. A task is overdue when it is not complete and its scheduled completion date has passed, so a task with only forecast dates is never overdue just behind schedule.
The three views
The job's Tasks tab switches between three views of the same schedule:
List. The task groups as tables, with Add task in each group. This is where you build and edit.
Calendar. A month grid of every task with a scheduled start date, coloured grey for Not Started, navy for Scheduled or In Progress, green for Completed and red for Overdue, with a legend above it. Tasks with no scheduled date do not appear on this calendar.
Gantt. The schedule as bars across time, for seeing how the stages overlap.
Every job at a glance
The Tasks screen in the sidebar lists every task across every job, and has its own List and Calendar views.
The calendar there shows the whole account for the month, with each task naming its job and its trade. It also plots tasks that have not been booked yet on their forecast dates, drawn muted with a dashed border, so you can see what is coming. A dashed task is an estimate, and no trade should be expected on site from it.
Each view keeps its own filters. Switching from a list filtered to one person's tasks opens the calendar for the whole team, and switching back returns the list to its defaults.
To put that calendar on an office TV, see Putting your team calendar on an office TV.
Sending tasks to your Outlook calendar
HomePulse can copy scheduled tasks into a Microsoft calendar. Each person on your team connects their own.
Create the calendar you want to use in Outlook first. HomePulse fetches your list of calendars once, when you first connect, and cannot fetch it again later.
Go to Settings and open the Calendars tab.
Connect your Microsoft account.
Choose a calendar and set it to receive all jobs or specific jobs.
Once it is connected:
Only tasks with a scheduled start date are copied, and each one appears as an all-day event.
Copying runs one way. Changes made in Outlook never come back into HomePulse.
Deleting a task, or clearing its scheduled date, does not remove the event from Outlook, so your Outlook calendar can show work that is no longer happening.
HomePulse does not tell you when copying fails.
Treat HomePulse's own calendar as the one to trust, and the Outlook copy as a convenience.
What to do next
Once the schedule is in place, record your trades' insurances and licenses with Statutory requirements and expiry tracking.
Related articles
Putting your team calendar on an office TV
Statutory requirements and expiry tracking