User guide

Sign in with the email address and password your administrator gave you. The first time, you will be asked to choose your own password of at least 12 characters. Use Change password at the top of the page to change it later; this signs you out on any other devices.

You sign in on the timesheet with your usual account, then open the scheduler. Signing out of either one signs you out of both. Passwords are changed in the timesheet.

If you work for more than one company, choose it from Company at the top. Everything you see and change applies to that company only, and the scheduler remembers your choice on this device.

After five wrong passwords in a row, the account is blocked for 15 minutes. If you have forgotten your password, ask your administrator to reset it. Use Sign out when you finish on a shared computer.

Your access is either Scheduler (plan jobs, crews and tickets, and keep reference data up to date) or Admin (all of that, plus changing the scheduling rules).

The Timeline is the first screen. It shows every scheduled job as a bar across the dates it runs, so you can see the state of play at a glance.

• Use ◀ and ▶ to move through time, Today to come back, and the drop-down to show from 4 weeks up to 6 months.
• The boxes at the top count jobs running today, starting in the next 7 days, with no crew yet, that can't be filled from available staff, whose crew has rule issues, and that are over or under plan.
• Bar colours show where each job stands. See Job statuses and colours.
• The thin strip under a bar compares hours used with hours planned, week by week. See Planned vs used hours.
• A red vertical line marks today. A dashed line marks how far timesheet hours have been exported to payroll, which is how far the "used" figures are complete.

Click a job's name or bar to open it. Use + New job to create one.

When a job is authorised in the S&S quoting system, it arrives on the Jobs to schedule tab. Nothing is scheduled until a planner has looked at it. The job number is the quote reference (for example Q00012): the same number in quoting, here and on timesheets, and it never changes.

Open a job to see what was quoted: the customer and their order number, the site and access notes, the option and extras they chose, the conditions and programme, the man-hours and crew, each activity with its timing and what it follows, the plant, and a link to the quote (with its photos). Prices are never sent.

Then do one of three things:

• Confirm job. The form is filled in from the quote: the name, planned labour hours (the quoted man-hours), minimum crew (the most people any one activity needs), equipment and a scope of work for the tickets. Choose the dates and check the rest. For the site, pick the site you already have for that place, or let the quote's site be added. Either way it is linked to the quote's site, so the next job there picks it up. For each role on the quote (such as Site installer), choose the skill the crew needs; your choices are remembered for the next job. Confirming creates the job, and quoting is told its dates.
• Link to this job if someone already scheduled it by hand. That job keeps its number and plan; quoting shows that number.
• Send back with a reason if something is missing or wrong. Quoting shows your reason and can send it again once it is put right.

After that, quoting is kept up to date by itself: when you change a job's dates, and when you set it to Complete or Cancelled. If quoting can't be reached it keeps trying; the tab shows Quoting not told if it gives up.

If a job is cancelled in quoting before you confirm it, it leaves the list. If it was already confirmed, it is marked Cancelled in quoting with the reason, but the job is left as it is, because a crew may be booked and tickets sent: check them, then set the job to Cancelled.

Job numbers that look like quote references (the quote prefix followed by digits) can't be typed in by hand once your company is linked, so the two never clash.

Choose + New job on the Timeline or the Jobs tab and fill in:

Field	What to enter
Job number	The client's job number, which must contain at least one letter (for example K-4471). Use exactly the same number as in the timesheet, so the hours you import match the job.The job is created in the timesheet too, so workers can book time to it. It can't be changed later, and numbers starting INT- are reserved for internal codes.
Job name, site	A short description and the site. The site's address, induction and hazard notes appear on the tickets.
Start and end	The first day's start time and the last day's finish time, in UK time. Each working day is assumed to run from the start time to the end time (for example 08:00–16:00 is 8 hours a day).
Minimum crew	How many people the job needs. Unless Lone working allowed is ticked, a crew always needs at least two people.
Weekend working	Tick it if the job works Saturdays and Sundays. Otherwise only Monday to Friday count as working days.
Planned labour hours	Leave blank to calculate it as crew × working days × hours a day. Enter a figure to override that, for example from the quote.
Required skills	Each skill the crew must hold and how many of the crew need it, for example 2 × Confined space entry.
RAMS	The risk assessments and method statements that apply. They are linked from the tickets.
For the job ticket	Equipment/parts, scope of work and the competency requirement in plain words (for example "Confined space entry – certified operatives required").

To change a job, open it and choose Edit job. If you move the dates, the crew moves with the job, and the crew check runs again against the new dates. Set Status to Complete or Cancelled to close the job (it is also closed in the timesheet, so no more time can be booked to it). A closed job's crew can't be changed.

The Jobs tab also lists customer jobs that exist in the timesheet but have no dates yet. Choose Schedule to plan one without creating a duplicate.

Open a job to see every active worker, with the best choices first. For each person, the list shows whether they are available, which of the required skills they hold, and how much they are already booked that week. Above the list, any gaps are explained in plain words. For example, "needs 2 with Confined space entry; only 1 available".

1. Tick the people you want. The Proposed crew check updates as you go, showing each rule as Pass or Fail with the reason.
2. If everything passes, choose Confirm crew.
3. If something fails and you still need to go ahead (for example, the client has agreed), type the reason in the box and choose Override and confirm crew. The reason is recorded against your name for each rule that failed. Only override when it is genuinely safe and allowed. Afterwards the job shows those rules as Overridden, with who confirmed the crew, when and why, and the button reads Crew confirmed. Tick or untick a worker to change the crew and check it again.

The check looks at every day of the job. It covers holiday, sickness, training and other bookings, other jobs that overlap, certificates that are suspended or expire before the job ends, crew size and any other rules that are switched on.

Two people can't book the same worker onto overlapping jobs at the same moment: the second person is told and must check again. To take everyone off a job, untick them all and confirm. The job goes back to "No crew yet".

Once a job has a crew, each person gets their own job ticket. It shows the job details, a health and safety box (site induction, access, hazards, lone working), the rest of the crew, equipment, scope of work, the competency requirement and the RAMS links, with a statement to sign to confirm they have read them.

Tickets never show certificate numbers or expiry dates.

• Preview / print opens one person's ticket for printing.
• Email tickets to crew sends each person their ticket. Replies come back to you. The job then shows Tickets sent.

The table shows when each person's ticket was last sent, or why it couldn't be: for example, no email address is recorded for them. Add the address on the Workers tab and send again. Sending again never emails anyone twice for the same send. If you change the crew afterwards, the job goes back to Scheduled so you remember to send the new tickets.

On the local test setup, emails go to the local mailbox page instead of real inboxes, and addresses ending in @bounce.test are refused on purpose.

Planned hours are crew × working days × hours a day, or the planned labour hours you entered on the job. They are spread evenly over the job's working days, so each week has its own target.

Used hours are the hours booked to the job in timesheets that have been exported to payroll. Hours that are approved or still awaiting approval are shown separately as pending. Draft timesheets never count.

Used hours are only compared with what was planned up to the "exported up to" date (the dashed line on the Timeline), so recent weeks that haven't reached payroll don't look under plan. Within ±10% of plan is On plan. Weeks only partly exported are marked as such.

Each job's page shows a Resource panel with the totals and a week-by-week table.

The scheduler isn't connected to the timesheet yet, so used hours come from the file you import on the Hours tab. They are only as up to date as your last import.

1. In the timesheet, open Reports, choose the company and a date range covering the jobs, run the report and choose Download detail CSV.
2. In the scheduler, open the Hours tab, choose the file and select Import hours.
3. Read the summary. It shows how many lines were imported, the date hours now count as used up to, and anything not imported.

Import whenever you want fresh figures; weekly after the payroll export works well. You can import an updated file covering the same dates: each timesheet line is updated, never counted twice.

In the file	What happens
Hours exported to payroll	Counted as used.
Hours approved, submitted or returned	Shown as pending.
Draft timesheets	Not imported.
Expenses, mileage and subsistence	Not imported. Only hours matter here.
A job number the scheduler doesn't have	Listed under Job references not found here. Those lines are not imported. If it is a job you schedule, create it with exactly that number and import again.

Exported to payroll up to is optional. Leave it blank and the scheduler uses the end of the latest week that has exported hours in the file. Enter a date if you know payroll was exported further than that.

Import one company's file at a time, into the matching company. If a file comes from a different timesheet company than your earlier imports, you'll be asked to confirm before it is imported. The Import history lists every import with its file name and anything not found.

Choose + Add worker to add someone. Enter their worker reference (the same as in the timesheet), name, email (tickets are sent to it) and job title. To change these later, select the worker and choose Edit details. Untick Active when someone leaves, rather than deleting them; they stay in past jobs but can't be scheduled.

Workers, their email addresses and job titles come from the timesheet; change them there.

The list shows how many skills each person holds and flags certificates that have expired or expire within 30 days. Select a worker to manage:

• Skills & certificates: choose the skill, then add the level, the date certified and the expiry date (leave expiry blank for skills that don't expire). Set the status to Suspended or Lapsed to stop a certificate counting without deleting it. A certificate only counts for a job if it is active and valid on every day of the job.
• Unavailable: holiday, sickness, training, booked elsewhere or other, with dates and a note. Leave To blank for a single day. The person won't pass the availability check for jobs on those days.

Holiday and sickness approved in the timesheet appear automatically under Approved leave and block those days too.

Add each place you work: name, address, access notes, health and safety notes or hazards, and whether a site induction is required. These appear in the health and safety box on every ticket for jobs there.

Choose Edit to change a site. Untick Active to stop it appearing for new jobs; it stays on existing jobs. Sites are never deleted, because jobs refer to them.

Skills are the competencies and certificates jobs can require, for example 18th Edition, Confined space entry or IPAF. For each, say whether it needs a certificate and whether it expires. For skills that expire, an expiry date is expected on each worker's record and is checked against the job dates.

Untick Active to stop offering a skill for new jobs; existing records keep it.

Record each risk assessment and method statement with its title, version, a link to the document (it must start http:// or https://, for example a shared drive link the crew can open) and its review date. Attach them to jobs on the job form; the links appear on the tickets.

The scheduler stores the link, not the document itself. Make sure the crew can open the link from their phones.

Hard rules must pass before a crew can be confirmed without an override. Soft rules only change the order workers are suggested in. Everyone can see the rules; only admins can switch them on or off or change a rule's setting. Changes apply straight away and are recorded.

Rule	What it checks
Worker is active	The person is marked active.
Worker available	No holiday, sickness, training or other booking on any day of the job.
Not double-booked	Not on another job that overlaps. The setting allows a few minutes' overlap.
Required skills covered	Enough of the crew hold each required skill, valid on every day of the job.
Minimum crew size	At least the minimum crew, and at least two people unless lone working is allowed.
Job title never works alone	Off until agreed. People with this job title (for example Apprentice) must have someone else with them.
Max hours per day / per week, minimum rest	Off until agreed. Working-time limits. They treat a job as one continuous block, so agree how daily hours are counted for multi-week jobs before switching them on.
Prefer site continuity (soft)	Suggests people who have worked at the site before.
Balance workload (soft)	Suggests people with fewer days already booked that week.

On the Timeline	Meaning
Crewed	A crew is confirmed and passes the rules.
Tickets sent	The crew has been emailed their tickets.
No crew yet	Dates are set but nobody is assigned.
Can't be filled	No crew yet, and the available staff can't cover the job (for example, not enough people with a required skill).
Crew breaks rules	A crew is confirmed but now fails a rule, for example after an override or because someone's leave or certificate changed. Open the job to see why.
Complete / Cancelled	Closed jobs.

Job statuses are Unscheduled (no crew), Scheduled (crew confirmed), Tickets sent, Complete and Cancelled.

Accounts and companies are set up by whoever runs the system, using the operator tool on the server (see the README): add a company, add a person (they get a one-time temporary password and must change it at first sign-in), give them scheduler or admin access to a company, reset a forgotten password, or deactivate someone who has left.

People sign in with their timesheet account. Whoever runs the system gives an account scheduler or admin access to a company with the operator tool; removing that access stops them using the scheduler for that company without affecting their timesheet.

Every change in the scheduler is recorded with who made it and when, including crew overrides and their reasons, rule changes, ticket sends and imports.

Message	What to do
Someone else changed this… Refresh and try again.	Another person saved the same record after you opened it. Reload the page, check their change, then make yours again.
The system was busy with another change.	Two changes collided. Try again.
Too many sign-in attempts.	Wait 15 minutes, or ask your administrator to reset your password.
Your session has ended.	Sessions last 8 hours. Sign in again.
You have not been given access to the Job Scheduler.	Your account has no company access yet. Ask your administrator.
…already scheduled / already exists	That job number, site or skill name is already used in this company. Open the existing one instead.
A ticket shows "Failed"	Read the reason beside it. Usually it means no email address, or the address was refused. Fix it and send again; people already sent to aren't emailed twice.

When reporting a problem, say which company and job, what you did and the exact message. Never send passwords in screenshots or emails.