Question

I'm having problems getting my job schedule to look right. What am I doing wrong?

Answer

Here are some possible causes for what you are seeing with the schedule, starting with...

In the Setup > Schedule > Setup Job Schedule form, there is a prompt for "Schedule Items Within Each Job Phase:" This prompt allows you to select the method that the program uses to calculate the number of days to schedule items in a job phase. There are two options:

• Concurrently; the program will schedule the work days for items in a job phase as though the work for all of the items will be done at the same time.
• Sequentially; the program will schedule the work days for items in a job phase as though the work for all of the items will be done one after the other.

For example, if the job has 5 work items in the "Demolition" job phase, and each item is estimated to take 2 hours, if you select the option to Schedule Items Within Each Job Phase Concurrently, then the program will schedule all of the Demolition work items on the same day, as though they will be performed at the same time.

If you select the option to Schedule Items Within Each Job Phase Sequentially, then the program will add up all of the estimated labor hours for the 5 items (10 hours) and divide that by the number of work hours per day (entered in the Job Options form) to determine the number of days to schedule for all of the items in the Demolition job phase. If you have set the number of work hours per day to 7, then the program would schedule 2 work days for the 5 items in the Demolition job phase: 7 hours on the first day, and 3 hours on the second day.

If that option gets changed between Concurrently and Sequentially, that would change your schedule significantly.

Also, if you are looking at the "Hourly Schedule" (Schedule Menu > Print... > Print Schedule Calendar, then check the Hourly Labor Schedule), there's another element that comes into play. In the Misc tab of the Edit Estimate form, there is a prompt for Completion Req:. The prompt for Completion Req: allows you to enter the percent of which an item must be completed in order to be scheduled to start at any point after the start of a day. Examples:

If an item must be completed within the day on which it starts (examples: pouring concrete, grouting tiles, etc.), then enter 100%. This means that a work item cannot be scheduled on a day unless there is enough time for it to be completed on that day.

If an item does not need to be completed within the day on which it starts, but there is significant setup that needs to be done each time that the work is started, then enter something like 50%. This means that the work item cannot be scheduled on a day unless there is enough time for 50% of the work to be completed. If there isn't enough time to complete 50% of the item, it will be moved to the next day.

Other things that will change your schedule unexpectedly include:

• Adding scheduled item(s) in your job (in the Edit Estimate form).
• Changing the Schedule Item: or Schedule Group Item: setting in the Edit Estimate form.
• Changing the job phase of an item(s) in your job (in the Edit Estimate form).
• Changing the schedule model that the job is assigned to (in the Setup > Schedule > Setup Job Schedule form).
• Changing the schedule model (in the Setup > Schedule > Setup Model form).

If you have not changed any of these things, and you're still seeing spontaneous erratic behavior with your schedule, then let me know and we'll figure out where to go from there. If any of these things may be changing, as is normal in the process of modifying a job estimate, then maybe we should have a meeting to discuss how each of these things affects the schedule, and what to expect when any of them is changed.

The schedule is "dynamically" linked to the estimate, so it will constantly change as you change information in the estimate, but the schedule does not "refresh" (get re-built) until you either pull it up in the Schedule > Edit Schedule grid, or click on the "Reschedule Job" button in the Setup > Schedule > Setup Job Schedule form. This means that the schedule information on the dashboard does not get refreshed when you click the "Refresh" button. I can see why this could be a source of confusion. The reason the schedule doesn't get refreshed when you click that button is because rebuilding the schedule takes a long time. A reasonable enhancement to the dashboard would be to make it smart enough to know what part of the information in a job has been changed and have it only re-fresh that part of the dashboard. That would make the dashboard refresh process quicker.

Please let me know if this helps...