Instructions for entering periods

A period is a rule working from a specified start date and forward. The window “Add new period” has four parts

1. The top part
2. The period limitation part
3. The advanced part
4. The repetition part

The top part

First choose what type of period you want to create, open or closed. This is done with the “Show period as” setting. An open period is a period in which activities can be scheduled and similar a closed period is a period in which activities cannot be scheduled.

In the text area “Description” you state the text that describes the period, e.g. “Summer holiday”, “Monthly meeting”, “Shift 1”, “Preventive maintenance”.

A closed calendar is painted the default gray color in the Gantt chart, unless you choose to specify a color.

The period limitation part

In this part limit the start and end time of the period. Note that the start and end times does not necessarily have to be for the same day. I.e. a start time at “12:00” noon with a duration of 24 hours ends the following day at “12:00” noon.

Note that if All day is checked, then this implies a start and end time from “00:00” midnight to “00:00:00” midnight the following day. I.e. start and end times cannot be manually edited.

The start date specifies from what date this rule is applicable.

The end date is optional and only needs to be specified if No end date is unpicked. If No end date is enabled, this rule never expires

The advanced part

It is possible to define a calendar factor for the period. This will then override the calendar factor of the resources that uses this period on their calendar. To enable this feature, check the “Active” box next to the calendar factor text field, this will enable the text field and the period now overrides the resource calendar factor.

As an example a resource group has 3 persons being available on first shift while only 2 persons are available on the second shift. To model this variation of labor availability, create a period opening from 7-15 (first shift) with a calendar factor of 3. In addition create a second period opening up from 15-22 (the second shift) with a calendar factor of 2.

The repetition part

The repetition part is specified in the Recurrence area and decides if the period is to be repeated and at which interval the period is to be repeated. It is optional to select among:

The For every area takes different input depending on the select Recurrence option. See the examples below.

Period examples

Example 1: A period that starts at 18.00 on April 17^th and ends 8 hours later is created in the following way:

1. Select or enter “18:00” in the field “Start time”.
2. Enter “8” or select “8 hours” in the list “Duration”.
3. Select or enter “17-04-2017” in “Start date”.
4. Click “No end date”.**
5. In “Recurrence” select “None”

Example 2: A period starts at 08:00 on 17^th April every month and has a duration of 48 hours. The period starts from January 2017

1. Select or enter “08:00” in the field “Start time”.
2. Select or enter “48 hours” in the list “Duration”.
3. Select or enter “17-04-2017” in “Start date”.
4. Leave check mark in “No end date”.
5. In “Recurrence” select “Monthly”.
6. In “For every” enter day “17”.

Example 3: A period starts at 23:00 and ends at 06:30. The period shall apply to all days Monday – Thursday from 1^st January 2017 and forward.

1. Select or enter “23:00” in the field “Start time”.
2. Select or enter “06:30” in the field “End time”.
3. Select or enter “01-01-2017” in “Start date”
4. Put a check mark in “No end date”.
5. In “Recurrence” select “Weekly”.
6. In “For every” select “Others…” and select the days “Monday”, “Tuesday”, “Wednesday” and “Thursday”.

Example 4: Easter Holidays start on March 28. and ends on April 1.

1. Put a check mark in “All day”.
2. Select or enter “28-02-2002” in “Start date”.
3. Select or enter “01-04-2002” in “End date”.
4. In “Recurrence” select “Weekly”.
5. In “For every” select “All weekdays”.