How to keep a running plan moving

What a running plan is

A plan is running once you have pressed Start plan. From then on it holds two dates: the one your customer was promised, and the one the work is really headed for. Your job is to keep telling it what happened, so the second date stays true.

You do that in plain words. FieldStone reads them, moves the forecast, and only stops to ask a person when the finish would pass the promise. If you have not built a plan yet, start with how to plan a job.

Step by step

1. 1

   Read the three figures at the top

   Open the Jobs page, press the ⋯ menu, choose Plans and pick the plan. Three figures sit at the top. Promised is the day your customer was told. Forecast is the day the work is headed for, with the hours of buffer left under it. Where it is shows how much is done and which stretch you are on. When the forecast is later than the promise, it turns bronze and says how many working days past it is.
   Odalys BrennerOn track

   PromisedTue Apr 20What Odalys was told

   ForecastMon Apr 199 h of buffer left

   Where it is42% doneStretch 2 of 5
2. 2

   Log what happened

   Press Log updateand write it the way you’d text it. As you type, a box headed FieldStone reads shows what it took from your words and, on the line with the arrow, what that will change. Nothing is saved until you press Save update, so if it read you wrong, change the words first. Anyone who can open the plan can log. On a phone, the crew lead does the same thing with Log today — see the mobile app tutorial.
   Log update

   Log an updateWrite it the way you’d text it. FieldStone works out what it changes.

   Framing took 6 hours longer

   FieldStone reads

   +6 h on framing

   → +6 h — the buffer covers it

   CancelSave update
3. 3

   Say what is finished

   This is how a plan moves forward. Say what is done, or how far along it is: Framing is done, Roofing is 60% done, Rough-in inspection passed. It goes on the work you name. If you name none, it goes on the work under way. If your words fit more than one piece of work, nothing is ticked off — name the work more exactly. Work that is only expected is not ticked off either: won’t be done until Friday does not mark anything finished.
   Framing is done

   Framing done

   → On pace

   Roofing is 60% done

   Roofing 60%

   → Ahead of the plan

   Siding won’t be done until Friday

   Note on the plan

   → No change to the forecast
4. 4

   Say what pushes it later

   Four things move the forecast back. Extra hours: took 6 hours longer adds them to the work under way. A delivery, an inspection or a permit with a new day: say the day, as in Inspector moved us to Thursday morning. And rain: say the day, and the hours if you know them. Rain is checked against the outside work planned for that day. A small slip is absorbed — the line reads the buffer covers it, the forecast moves, and nobody is asked.
   Inspector moved us to Thursday morning

   Inspection → Thu Apr 15

   → Inspection moved — the buffer covers it

   Rain Wednesday 9 to 3

   Rain Wed Apr 14, 9 AM–3 PM

   → Checked against the outside work
5. 5

   Decide when the finish passes the promise

   When an update pushes the finish past the promised day, a decision card appears above the tabs. It says what happened, lists the options, and for the one you pick shows what it does to the finish, what it costs and whether the customer has to be told. One option is marked Recommended. Approve change takes the option you picked. Leave schedule keeps the plan as it is and asks you why.
   One way back to the promiseFraming ran 17 hours over. The finish moves from Tue Apr 20 to Thu Apr 22.

   Add a Saturday on framingRecommendedFraming crew, 8.5 h overtime

   Move the finish to Thu Apr 22 and tell OdalysThe plan stays as it is

   FinishBack to Tue Apr 20

   Cost+8.5 h overtime

   Tell OdalysNot needed

   Odalys was promised Tue Apr 20. Without a change, the finish is Thu Apr 22.

   You can approve this.

   Leave scheduleApprove change
6. 6

   Know who decides

   Your business sets who may approve each kind of change. Unless you change it: a small shift inside the same day is made by FieldStone on its own; moving work between days needs the project manager; changing a date the customer was given needs the project manager; spending money needs the owner. Someone higher up can always approve what someone below them can. If a change is not yours to approve, the button reads Send to and the name of the person it goes to. The business owner sets all of this on the Jobs page: ⋯, then Plans, then Who decides.
   Who decides

   Small shift, same daye.g. Paint starts 30 minutes later

   FieldStone, on its own

   Move work between dayse.g. Swap Wednesday and Thursday work

   Project manager

   Change a customer datee.g. Finish moves from Fri to Mon

   Project manager

   Spend moneye.g. A Saturday overtime day

   Owner
7. 7

   Tell the customer

   Approving a new finish date does not text anyone. It only writes the text. It sits in a card headed Telland your customer’s first name, where you can change the words, and it goes only when someone presses Send text. The tab named What, the customer’s first name, then hearsshows the approved date, the forecast — marked internal, and never quoted as a promise — and how a question like “When are you starting?” — or, once work has begun, “Are you still coming tomorrow?” — would be answered today. A decision still waiting changes nothing they hear.
   Tell Odalys

   Hi Odalys — a quick update on your house build. Some of the work took longer than planned, so we now expect to finish Thursday, April 22, 2 working days later than planned. — Corwin, Hale & Finch Builders

   Goes from your business line, into the job’s thread.Send text

   What Odalys hears

   ApprovedFinish Thu Apr 22

   ForecastThu Apr 22Internal — never quoted as a promise

   PendingNothing

   If Odalys calls or textsAre you still coming tomorrow?Yes — tomorrow’s on, and you’re on track to finish Thu Apr 22.
8. 8

   Change the plan by hand

   On the Plan tab, drag a bar to move it, or drag its right edge to stretch it. Click a bar to change who is on it, the hours of work or the people on it, then press Apply. Put it backundoes a move. On a running plan this is the plan owner’s to do — if the plan is someone else’s, a bar you drag becomes a request they put in. Finishing one stretch early does not pull the next crew in early: a later stretch never starts before the day it was committed to.
   Framing

   Roofing

   Siding

   Roofing

   WhoRoofing crew

   Hours of work34

   People on it3

   Put it backApply

   Drag a bar to move it, its right edge to stretch it, or click it.
9. 9

   Look back at what came in and what was decided

   Updates lists everything logged on the plan, newest first, each with what was read from it and what was made of it. History lists each decision: what happened, what FieldStone suggested, who chose what, and how it played out. The plan sits on its job, so the conversation and the invoices are one click away — see the Jobs tutorial.
   Updates · 3

   Update · Corwin HaleToday 7:52 AM

   Framing took 17 hours longer

   +17 h on framing

   → +17 h — the finish passes the promise, now Thu Apr 22

   History

   Apr 13 · 2:14 PMOne way back to the promise.FieldStone suggested: Add a Saturday on framing.Corwin Hale: Approved: Add a Saturday on framingWaiting to see how it plays out.