How Do I... Schedule A Job?

How Do I... Schedule A Job?

Smart Contractor automatically schedules jobs using Critical Path Method (CPM) scheduling. See How Do I Use... CPM Scheduling? for information about CPM scheduling.

Schedules are automatically generated based on the Job Start Date and schedule model that you enter in the Edit Job form.

When a job is created, the job start date defaults to 6 weeks in the future, but you can change this (or the schedule model) at any time in the Edit Job form, or in the Schedule Setup form.

Only items with Schedule Item checked in the Edit Job Estimate form will appear in the schedule. Schedule Item will be automatically checked if that item's Item Type is set up for scheduling in the Schedule Model entry form.

To Edit A Schedule

To edit a job schedule, click on Schedule in the shortcut menu, then click Edit Schedule. This will display the schedule in the Job Schedule entry form.

The schedule entry form is a grid, with items down the left side, and dates across the top. Multiple jobs can be viewed and modified at the same time.

The schedule grid...

Shows the critical path (in red), and the date range (earliest, latest dates - in light blue) for non-critical items.
Automatically skips weekends and holidays (shown in grey).
Allows you to schedule or un-schedule item activity dates by simply clicking on the date.
Allows you to skip individual dates for specific items. Item activities can be scheduled to start, break, and resume any number of times.
Marks dates scheduled with resource conflicts, and dates with no resource assigned.
Marks dates for which work has been completed.
Allows you to modify which resource(s) are assigned to items.
Automatically re-schedules following items when you change the number of days scheduled for an item.
Automatically re-calculates the critical path as job progress is entered (as "Days Completed") in the Job Progress entry form.

For complete information on how to edit a job schedule, see the Job Schedule entry form topic.

Scheduling Multiple Job Phases

Smart Contractor allows you to schedule jobs in phases. Each phase of a job repeats the sequence of item activities defined in the schedule model selected for the job. See the How Do I... Schedule Job Phases topic for more information.

Estimated and Actual Schedule

Smart Contractor stores "estimated" and "actual" versions of the schedule. The "estimated" schedule is the schedule as it exists before the job starts. The "actual" version is whatever happens to the schedule after the job starts. The program defines the job "start" as the point when the first update to the job progress is entered in the Job Progress entry form. The program compares the "estimated" and "actual" schedule dates to determine whether you are on schedule, or if not, by how many days you are off. This is reported in the Job Schedule listing.

Print The Schedule

The job schedule can be printed in two forms: the graphical form (a printed image of the schedule entry grid), and as a formatted report. The formatted report schedule indicates the critical path, and the "date range" (earliest start, latest completion) for each item. The formatted report schedule also shows the difference between the actual and estimated schedule to allow you to see how many days the schedule is off from the original estimated schedule. The schedule can be printed for one job, or for all jobs overlapping. This shows all activities to be performed on all jobs for each date.

Merge The Schedule

The schedule can be merged into documents for customer use. This version of the schedule does not include an indication of the critical path, or the "date range", or difference between estimated and actual schedule dates. It just shows the most recent version of the schedule. To merge the job schedule into a customer document, use the "<<Job Work Schedule>>" merge field (in the Merge Documents setup form).

Print Materials Ordering Schedule

Once you have created a job schedule you can print a materials ordering schedule that is based on order lead times entered in the Edit Job Estimate form. See the Materials Ordering Schedule topic for more information.

Generate Purchase Orders Based On Order Lead Times

Once you have created a job schedule you can generate Purchase Orders for job materials based on the order lead times entered in the Job Edit Job Estimate form. See the Purchase Order entry topic for more information.

Print Work Orders

Once you have created a job schedule with Resources assigned you can print Work Orders. Work orders are printed forms that show the job site, dates, and work items scheduled for individual schedule resources. The work orders provide a space in which to indicate work completion for each date, so they can be used as time sheets, and to document job progress.

Reset The Schedule

If it ever becomes necessary to change the job start date (or the schedule model) after a job has been scheduled (surprise!), Smart Contractor can automatically re-schedule the entire job for you. To re-schedule a job, enter the new job start date and click OK in the Schedule Setup form. This will automatically re-schedule the entire job. When you re-schedule the job schedule, the program automatically schedules the job, exactly as it did when you created the job, based on the job start date, the schedule model selected, holidays to be skipped, and whether work is to be scheduled for Saturdays or Sundays. Note that this process sets the item durations to the "typical duration" that you set in the Schedule Model entry form, and these can be easily changed in the Edit Schedule form.

Correct Schedule Errors

Schedules can have various types of errors, including scheduling conflicts, or items with no resource assigned. Smart Contractor provides ways to handle scheduling errors. See the How Do I... Correct Schedule Errors topic for information.

Not Using CPM Scheduling

Sometimes the schedule for a project may be too complicated or un-ordinary to be able to be scheduled under the principles of CPM scheduling. For example, some remodeling jobs have schedules that are very convoluted, with job activities following a sequence that would be very difficult to define in a schedule model. In that sort of situation, the best thing to do is to not use CPM scheduling, and just schedule the job manually.

Smart Contractor provides for this situation as follows. If you do not want to use CPM scheduling on a particular job, select the "Not CPM Scheduling" option in the prompt for Schedule Model (in the Edit Job form, or the Schedule Setup form). The program will automatically generate a schedule for the job based on the "New Construction" schedule model, but when you view the job in the Edit Schedule form, you will notice that the scheduled dates are all represented in blue (none in red or light blue). You will also notice that when you change the schedule for any of the job items, the schedule for the rest of the job items will not be changed. To change dates for multiple schedule items, you can use the prompts available in the Item Resource form. See the "How Do I... Move The Schedule" topic for more information.