Software FAQ

Check out our Cheat Sheet to get a quick overview of all important Planforge symbols. It also contains all keyboard shortcuts and other useful information. The Cheat Sheet is available here: Planforge Cheat Sheet

This is most likely because the project manager has not checked in the project plan yet. Alternatively, the project’s realization probability may not be high enough yet for activities to be distributed to assigned resources. Planforge system users can change the required probability under System Settings > ADMINISTRATE > Activity distribution from probability.

• Under PORTFOLIOS, you can browse projects in the navigation tree on the left.
• With a portfolio selected, you can also go to the tab Project List to browse the projects of that portfolio.
• Finally, you can click the Search symbol in the top-right corner to find projects. This is especially useful if there are a lot of projects.

1. Go to PORTFOLIOS.
2. In the navigation tree on the left, select the portfolio to which you want to add a new project.
3. Click New.
4. Select which kind of project you want to create.

Check out our Cheat Sheet to get a quick overview of all important Planforge symbols. It also contains all keyboard shortcuts and other useful information. The Cheat Sheet is available here: Planforge Cheat Sheet

The project cockpit shows how costs, resources, and dates are progressing at a glance. Additionally, the pipeline stage, the overall project progress as well as the project phases are displayed.

Our Cheat Sheet explains all the symbols in the project cockpit. It also contains all keyboard shortcuts and other useful information. The Cheat Sheet is available here: Planforge Cheat Sheet

This table shows the first 20 projects created in the portfolio ranked by priority and costs. Project managers can set the priority of a project under Project properties > Advanced > Constraints.

To create a new template from scratch:

1. Go to PORTFOLIOS.
2. In the navigation tree on the left, select the portfolio to which you want to add a new template.
3. Click New > Template.

To create a new template based on an existing project:

1. Go to PORTFOLIOS.
2. Select the project that you would like to use as a template.
3. Go to Properties.
4. Click Save as Template.

By default, printing background images and colors is disabled in most browsers. You can enable this setting by following the steps for your browser below:

• Mac (all browsers): Print background images / Print background colors is usually an option in the Print menu.
• Firefox (Windows): Firefox menu > Print… > More settings > Print backgrounds
• Internet Explorer (Windows): Gear button (right upper corner) > Print > Page Setup > Print Background Colors and Images
• Google Chrome: Usually no explicit setting is required
• Edge (Windows): Edge menu > Print > More settings > Background graphics

1. Go to PORTFOLIOS.
2. In the navigation tree on the left, select the portfolio you want to add the portfolio to.
3. Click New > Project Portfolio.

Only system users can define new pipeline stages. They can do so under System Settings > CUSTOMIZE > Pipeline > New > Stage.

Only system users can define new criteria. They can do so under System Settings > CUSTOMIZE > Criteria > New Criterion.

When activated, the duration of an activity is derived from its effort and vice versa, and all effort of an activity must always be fully assigned to one or more resources.

E.g. if you have an activity with an effort of 100h, this effort is automatically converted into workdays, which gives a duration of 12.5 days at 8h per day. If you change either effort or duration, the other will be changed accordingly as well.

When deactivated, you can freely specify effort and duration. The two values are completely separate. You can also underassign resources, e.g. only assign 20h of a 100h activity.

Planforge offers the following progress modes:

• Contributor Estimations: Requires time tracking to be enabled. Resources enter both their actual effort and their estimation of the remaining effort manually when tracking time. Progress in percent is calculated automatically based on these values.
• % Complete: Works with time tracking enabled or disabled. If time tracking is disabled, resources only select the degree of completion in % from a drop-down menu. If time tracking is enabled, they also enter their actual effort.
• Automatic: Requires time tracking to be enabled. Resources only enter their actual effort. Progress in percent and remaining effort are then automatically calculated based on planned and actual effort.

1. Select the desired portfolio.
2. Go to the Dates tab.
3. In the top right of this view, click the Scenario dropdown menu and select New Scenario….

Select the project in the chart and press Backspace. You can add the scenario back in by selecting it again and moving it in the chart.

You can see the effects on resources in the views Capacity, Allocation and Utilization under TEAMS. Simply select the desired scenario from the respective dropdown menu again.

Unfortunately, there is no such feature at the moment. To realize a scenario, you will need to manually adjust the properties of the project and the project plan accordingly.

1. In the upper-right corner of Planforge, click your username and then Preferences.
2. In the dialog that opens, activate the checkbox Show effort in days.
3. Click OK. System users can also set the default for all users under System Settings > ADMINISTRATE > Settings > User Interface > Show effort in days.

Check out our Cheat Sheet to get a quick overview of all important Planforge symbols. It also contains all keyboard shortcuts and other useful information. The Cheat Sheet is available here: Planforge Cheat Sheet

1. Go to PORTFOLIOS.
2. Select the project to which you would like to add a subproject.
3. In the project, go to Planning > Activity List.
4. Click Edit.
5. In the toolbar at the bottom, click Include subproject.
6. In the dialog that opens, select the desired project and click OK.

To prevent this, the project must have a progress mode other than Contributor Estimations. In the project, go to Properties > Advanced > Settings and change Progress Mode to either % Complete or Automatic.

The status of an activity and its % Com. value can be independent in Planforge. There are two likely scenarios for why this is happening: a) The progress mode for the project is % Complete and a contributor set an activity to complete while tracking time, but did not adjust the % Com. value to 100 %. b) The project is linked to a Jira project via the Jira Connector and someone closed an issue in Jira without setting the remaining effort to 0h. This is essentially the same as scenario 1 in terms of what happens in Planforge.

To drag activities and milestones to the more granular 25 % increments, the project’s progress mode must be set to % Complete. To do so, in the project go to Properties > Advanced > Settings and change Progress Mode to % Complete. To-dos can always be dragged to any of the available status columns, regardless of the project’s progress mode.

In the To-Do-List, click in the column Topic and enter the topic.

1. Go to TEAMS.
2. In the navigation tree on the left, select the team to which you want to add a new team.
3. Click New > Team.

1. Go to TEAMS.
2. In the navigation tree on the left, select the team to which you want to add a new resource.
3. Click New > Resource.

To assign resources to a project, you need to have both:

• The Manage right for the project.
• The Assign to project right for the resource/team

If you don’t have the required roles that grant you these rights, you can ask administrators for either of these business objects to grant you these roles. Alternatively, you can use the Resource Assignment Approval workflow to have a resource assigned to a project. This workflow has to be activated in the system settings by a system user.

File templates are available for most imports in Planforge. When you hold Alt while a button to import something is displayed, it will change into a button that lets you download the respective file template.

For example, to download the template for importing resources:

1. Go to TEAMS.
2. In the toolbar, click …. The various import buttons appear.
3. With the … dropdown menu still open, hold Alt.
4. From the now changed buttons, select Download “Import Resources” Template.

Simple reports are the basic reports all other others are based on. They query information directly from database fields (e.g. a project’s name) that are connected to business objects (e.g. a project).

A simple report always has a report type, which determines which business objects, and therefore fields, the report can query. Simple reports can have different layouts, e.g. tabular or chart layouts. The fields chosen for the report are then used as columns and/or lines in some layouts or produce a chart or an image in others. Columns and lines may be grouped and sorted according to the selected fields. The data selection can be limited using query and input criteria. Finally, individual permissions can be assigned to the report.

Document reports collect several simple reports into one continuous report based on a common business object. This means that any simple reports you want to add to the document report must share the same business object.

Compound reports combine a summary report (optional, run only once) and a detail report (mandatory, run multiple times). Both reports are selected from existing simple or document reports based on a business object configuration.

The summary report is the beginning of the compound report and run only once for the first part of the business object configuration. The detail report is the body of the report and run multiple times, once for every time the second part of the business object configuration is available in the business object of the summary report.

For example, if you select the business object configuration Portfolio with Latest Status Reports: The compound report will have a selector to choose a portfolio. The summary report will then be run once for the selected portfolio. The detail report will be run once for every latest status report in this portfolio.

Customizing the layout of reports is possible in the Enterprise Server edition of Planforge by using the tool Jaspersoft Studio Tool. Detailed information on this tool can be found at: https://downloads.planforge.io/documentation/planforge-customizing-report-templates.pdf

Note: Customizing the layout of reports is not possible on Planforge Cloud.

System users can customize the report footer under System Settings > ADMINISTRATE > Settings > Organization Name. The current date on the left and the page number on the right of the footer are inserted by default.

System users can upload a custom header and report logo under System Settings > ADMINISTRATE > Settings > User Interface > Custom header logo / Custom report logo. Also make sure you activate the custom logos once uploaded by enabling the adjacent settings Use custom header logo / Use custom logo for reports.

Yes, a detailed guide is available here: https://downloads.planforge.io/documentation/planforge-customizing-report-templates.pdf

A detailed guide is available here: https://downloads.planforge.io/documentation/planforge-export-reports-via-API.pdf

In the meeting’s properties, select the desired topic from the Topic drop-down menu.

A detailed guide is available here: https://downloads.planforge.io/documentation/planforge-creating-customized-calendars.pdf