# What does Planning show: next step, team load, project forecast?

> How to see what comes next on each project, who you are waiting for, how busy each person is and when each project is expected to finish.

Last updated: 2026-10-28

**Projects → Planning** shows the open projects (new, in progress, on hold) on three tabs.

| Tab | What it answers |
| --- | --- |
| **Next step** | What comes next on each project, who does it, by when, and who you are waiting for |
| **Team load** | How full each person is over the next four weeks (in an office without a team: **My workload**) |
| **Project forecast** | How far each project has come and when it is expected to finish, against its target |

### How is the next step chosen?

If you have not chosen a step yourself, the application **suggests** one: the open item with the highest priority, those in progress first, and among them whichever starts or is due soonest — skipping any that are waiting for another item to finish. If there is no item, it suggests the nearest task. Pressing the row lets you pick the step or add a new task, change the person and the date, and record who you are waiting for. Every change goes into the project's history.

### How is the load measured?

Each person's estimated days of work, against their own available days: the days of their working pattern, less public holidays and leave in force. Work items given to partners do not count. Where an estimate is missing, the cell says how many are missing instead of a percentage, and you fill it in on the spot. Once the office has at least three finished items of the same kind of work, it suggests an estimate from them; **Apply suggestions** shows what will change first and never writes over an estimate of your own.

### What does the forecast show?

Progress (items completed), the expected date, and the estimated work against the work recorded. It reads no amounts.

### What do missing data and the thresholds mean?

Where a date or an estimate is missing, the application does not write zero; it says what is missing. «Missing data» means the project cannot be judged, not that it is healthy. When a project turns «Attention», «Risk» or «Critical» is set by the **Alert sensitivity** (Relaxed · Normal · Strict) under **Settings → Projects & services → Planning & health thresholds**; each limit can also be changed on its own, under «Set each limit». Dates are changed on the Timeline.

### Who sees it?

| Permission | Office Owner | Office administrator | Project manager | Technical staff | Secretariat | Accounting | Website manager |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Create and edit projects and work items | ✓yes | ✓yes | ✓yes | —no | —no | —no | —no |

The health thresholds are changed by whoever changes the office's settings.