The dashboard

Under the project header, the strip shows one line, for example 48% complete, $378,400.00 of $385,000.00, 12 tasks. Click Dashboard to open it into three dials, and click again to close it.

To choose which dials appear, go to Settings › Appearance › Show on the dashboard, or use the gear on the dashboard page (below). Your choice is saved with the plan, and a new plan starts with the dials you chose last.

The dials always count the whole plan, even while the grid is filtered, and they count tasks only, not phases. Longer tasks count for more than short ones.

The dashboard page is part of Desktop Plan Pro. In the free version, the strip above stays yours, and clicking Dashboard on the ribbon shows what the page adds.

Press F11, or click Dashboard on the ribbon. Press F11 or Esc, or click Back to plan, to return.

From top to bottom:

• Four dials: Complete, Cost and Status as on the strip, plus Finish, which compares the finish date with the baseline’s (see Baselines). Red means behind the baseline. Amber means the dates are on baseline but some tasks are overdue, so the finish may still move once you update them. Green means on or ahead of baseline with nothing overdue.
• Progress over time: how much should be done by each date, with a dot for where you are today.
• Status: each phase split into completed, under way and planned, with how many tasks are late.
• Cost: baseline, estimated and actual cost for each phase.
• Planned spend by month: the estimated cost (or, where none is typed, what the people cost), spread over the months when the work happens. When the spending runs over more than 24 months it becomes Planned spend by quarter.
• Workload: each person’s booked hours for the next 12 weeks, against their own calendar and availability. Red means over capacity: the week as a whole, or any day in it. When someone still owes work on tasks whose dates have passed, an Overdue column at the left shows those hours, so a person behind on their work never looks free. Finished tasks – 100% complete, or given an actual finish – book nobody. Choose One row per → Role or Group in the chart’s title bar to add people up by trade or crew; people with none share a No role or No group row. See People and resources.
• Summary tasks: a table of the phases with their health, progress, dates and cost. Click a name to go to it in the plan. Tasks that are not inside any phase are gathered in a last row, Tasks outside a summary, so the rows always add up to the dials.
• Not reported finished: tasks that should be done by now but aren’t ticked Done.
• Milestones in the next 30 days.
• Critical tasks: the tasks still to do that decide the finish date (licensed version).

Every chart has a Table button that shows the same figures as a table. Rest the pointer on a chart for the exact numbers. Click a task in any list to jump to it in the plan.

The page uses what is on screen, including changes you haven’t saved yet. The charts change as the plan does, and the lists refresh every minute, so a task becomes late while you watch.

Choosing which charts appear

Click the gear at the top right of the page, next to Back to plan. Untick a chart to hide it, tick it to bring it back; the page changes as you click. The same panel also chooses the dials on the strip above the table. Press Esc or click anywhere else to close it.

Your choice is saved with the plan, so each plan can show different charts, and a new plan starts with the charts you chose last. With All open projects showing, the choice belongs to the plan in the tab you are on, and the panel says which one.

Health: on track, at risk, off track

Each phase (or each project, below) gets a health mark:

Only a project has a budget, so a phase is judged on its schedule alone.

A phase that is not due to start yet is never marked Off track for finishing late alone: its delay comes from the work before it, so it shows At risk until its start date arrives.

To keep or send the dashboard, click Export on the ribbon while it is on screen: it makes a PDF of the page as you see it (chapter 17).

With more than one plan open (licensed version), click All open projects at the top of the page. The dials, charts and lists then cover every open plan together, and each plan has its own colour.

In this picture the Kitchen Refit plan was due to finish in August and still has tasks not reported finished, so it is marked Off track and its overdue tasks are listed.

• The Projects table lists each plan. Click a name to go to it.
• Money is only added up across plans that use the same currency symbol. Write A$ or CA$ rather than $ in a plan’s currency to keep different dollar currencies apart.
• The same person from your resource library in two plans is one row in the Workload chart, and the row says so, for example Site manager (2 projects); rest the pointer on it to see which plans. Two different people who happen to share a name stay two rows. People from plans saved before the resource library still match by name: if two of those are really different people, give them different names.
• The Finish dial only judges plans that have a baseline. If any open plan has none, the dial says how many and is not shown green.
• If one plan has the budget and another has the costs, the Cost dial says so rather than comparing them.