The schedule

The schedule is the programme: what is on, what is next, and who is doing it. Tasks carry their own days, they can wait on each other so a slip moves everything downstream, and the people booked on them get asked rather than told.

Filling it

There are two ways in, and neither is typing 200 rows.

QSME's built-ins:

• Standard NZ build — simple flow. The usual tasks of a residential new build in the order they happen, 28 tasks over about six months, each waiting on the one before.
• Full development — land to titles. Every step of a small townhouse development: unconditional, resource and building consent, the build, then code compliance, 224 and titles — 228 tasks over about 19 months.

Templates carry roles, never names — "Plumber", not "Dave" — so a task arrives saying what kind of person it needs. Put your own people on afterwards. Save as template… keeps your own programme for the next job.

You can also add a task by hand, and on a multi-unit project copy tasks to other units.

Dates, and tasks that wait on each other

A task has a start day and a length in working days. You set the start one of three ways:

The gap is in working days and can be negative, which is how overlapping trades really work: "start the painter one day before the plasterer finishes".

Days off

A task works Monday to Friday, and it stops for New Zealand's public holidays — Christmas, Waitangi Day, Matariki and the rest, on the day the country actually takes off, so a Saturday Christmas is the Monday. Working days are the days work happens, so a task that takes five working days over Waitangi weekend simply finishes a day later. Nothing lands on a day off: pick one and the task starts on the next day it works.

Two switches on the task change that, and they are separate because a site can want one without the other:

Which country's holidays is set once for the project, under Schedule settings → Public holidays. New Zealand is the default. Set it to none and only weekends are skipped.

Linking snaps the task into place. Linking B after A moves B beside A immediately, even if that pulls it earlier. If you want the link recorded without the dates changing, keep the dates.

From then on the link holds: drag A and B follows, earlier or later, and so does everything linked after B. Move A three days, either way, and the chain moves three days with it, keeping the gaps it had. Only a rain day is different: it uses up spare days first, because that is what spare days are for. A task with someone booked on it is never moved on them: they are asked first. Work already under way stays where it is. To move one task at a time, turn off Linked tasks move together in Schedule settings.

Every task is numbered. The numbers run 1, 2, 3 down the programme in date order, so the first task on site is 1. Move a task and the numbers follow it, so the list always reads in order. The number shows beside the name on the chart, in the list, on the task itself, and in the PDF and CSV, and you can pick a task by it when you link one.

Who is doing it

Each task has one lead — the person who confirms — and any number of others. A lead can be someone on QSME or a contact of yours. A task can also carry just a role: "Plumber · nobody yet".

The people on a task see it under My work without being invited to the whole project.

Asking, not telling

Move the dates of a task somebody is booked on and they are asked, not overruled. The task shows where that has got to:

Agreed it on the phone instead? Mark as agreed records it, and they are still told.

Progress

Three states, and every one of them can be taken back:

A finished task stays where it is, in solid green with a tick — it is the most settled thing on the programme and should look it. One click can be a slip, so there is an Undo on the message and on the toolbar; it puts the task back to exactly where it was, and it works for a whole batch at once.

Rain days are recorded rather than argued about: a weather-sensitive task loses a day and the programme moves honestly.

By default a task starts itself on its day: it is marked under way and the people on it are told. Switch Start tasks on their own day off and somebody presses Start work instead.

The daily site safety check

Most sites run a weekly safety briefing on a paper sheet or a Google Form: your name, your company, the days you are in, three PPE lines, this week's hazards, "I agree". QSME already knows who is signing, who they work for and which days they are on site, so it asks only the part that matters.

What the person on site does. On the morning their task starts they get a notice, and an email, with one button: Do the site safety check. It opens the sheet: tick what they are wearing, read what is under way on site this week and how it is being kept safe, tick that they have read it, and press Sign on and start work. That is the start. The same sheet comes up if they press Start work themselves.

• One sign-on covers the site for the day, however many tasks they are on. A second task the same day starts straight away.
• Every day after the first they are reminded once in the morning, and the task shows Today's safety check until it is done.
• Work won straight from a tender has the same check on the job's page under Awarded work, so it does not depend on the schedule. That person is told once, on the day the job starts. They are not reminded daily, because a contract can run for months and nothing says which days they are on site.
• A slow connection never stops work: the check is a record, not a lock.

What you do. Open the schedule's menu and choose Site safety. Write the PPE lines you expect and the works under way with their controls — "Foundation works: stay clear of the diggers, caps on all exposed steel" — and change it whenever the site changes. The same dialog shows who has signed on today and who has not, and the arrows beside the date step back through past days: who signed on last Tuesday, who did not, and exactly what each person agreed to. Anyone on site without a QSME account is listed too, so you know to sign them on by hand. Turn the whole thing off there if a project does not need it.

Each sign-on keeps its own copy of the sheet as it was when that person read it, and leaves a line on the task's site log. Notices go out from six in the morning, never in the middle of the night.

Milestones and the compliance checklist

A task can be marked a milestone — a point in the job rather than a stretch of work. A milestone can also be one of the project's compliance steps: consent granted, an inspection, code compliance.

Tick Yes — add it to the checklist and the two join up: the checklist shows the date from the programme, and marking the milestone finished ticks that step off. The checklist still owns what has to happen; the schedule owns when.

Reading it at a glance

The strip along the top counts the things worth knowing, and each one filters the view:

On site now · Starting this week · Waiting for OK · Can't make it · Behind · Rain risk · Owed

"Owed" only appears for people who may see the project's money.

You can colour the bars by trade or by status, group by trade or by unit, show extra columns beside each task, and switch between the timeline and a plain list. On a phone it is a list.

Every colour, ring and mark on the chart is listed in Reading the schedule — what every colour means. The View menu also carries the key for whichever colouring you are using.

If a task seems to disappear when you finish it, a filter is on. The page says "3 finished tasks are hidden · Show finished tasks" rather than leaving a gap.

Sharing it

Who can see this schedule offers three, and they are different questions:

Money on a shared schedule is a separate switch again: contract totals, paid and owed, or nothing.

All your projects at once

All projects puts every job you run on one timeline: search it, tick the ones you care about, and download what you are looking at as a PDF to print or send, or a spreadsheet. The ticks stay while you work.

The task itself

Open a task and you get its dates, its people, its trade, what it follows, where it came from in the SOQ, and a full page with the site log, photos and everything that has changed on it.

For AI assistants

get_schedule returns the whole programme — tasks with dates, trade, who is on each and status. An assistant can read it; changing dates and marking progress stay with people, because both are promises to somebody else. See QSME for AI assistants.

Words you will see

More on the words: the glossary.

If something looks wrong

Still stuck? hello@qsme.co.nz, or +64 27 338 8500.