Reading the schedule — what every colour means
The timeline says a lot without words. A bar's colour, the ring round it, the shading behind it and the arrows between tasks each mean one thing. This page is the key to all of it.
Nothing here changes your schedule. It is all about reading it.
The bars
Every task is a bar. How wide it is says how long it takes; where it sits says when. The colour is yours to choose: View → Colour the bars by → Trade or Status.
Coloured by status
Status is "where is this task up to, and has anyone agreed to it".
| Colour | What it means |
|---|---|
| Grey — Planned | On the programme. Nobody has been asked yet. |
| Amber — Waiting for OK | You have asked the person booked on it. They have not answered. |
| Blue — Booked tradie | They said yes to these dates. |
| Red — Can't make it | They said no. Move it, or put someone else on it. |
| Green — On site | Under way. |
| Dark green — Finished | Marked done. You can take that back. |
A finished task stays dark green even when you are colouring by trade. Once the work is done, that is the thing worth seeing.
Coloured by trade
Trade is "what kind of work is this". Fourteen of them, in the order a build usually runs:
| Colour | Trade |
|---|---|
| Site & civils | |
| Foundations | |
| Framing | |
| Roofing | |
| Windows & doors | |
| Cladding | |
| Plumbing & gas | |
| Electrical | |
| Insulation & linings | |
| Painting | |
| Fit-out & joinery | |
| Landscaping | |
| Inspections & consents | |
| Other |
The same colours name the groups down the left, so a folded group and its bars match.
Rings round a bar
A ring is drawn round a bar, so it shows whichever way you have coloured the chart. Four of them:
| Ring | What it means |
|---|---|
| Amber | Waiting for OK — nobody has agreed to these dates yet. |
| Red | Can't make it — the person booked on it said no. |
| Purple | This task drives the finish date. See below. |
| Blue | Only while you are dragging a link: this is the task you are about to drop onto. |
A dark ring is just what you have ticked or are dragging. It means nothing about the work.
The purple chain — what drives the finish date
Switch on View → Show → What drives the finish date and some bars get a purple ring, with purple arrows between them.
That is the chain of tasks that decides when the whole job ends. QSME finds the task that finishes last, then walks backwards through the links: every task whose follower starts the very first day it possibly could is on the chain.
What it means on site:
- A purple task that slips a day pushes the finish date out a day.
- A grey task has room to move. It can slip by a bit and the end date does not care.
- Want to finish sooner? Shortening a grey task does nothing. Shorten a purple one.
Finished and cancelled tasks are left out, so the chain is always about the work still in front of you.
Purple, not red, on purpose: red already means "can't make it" on this chart, and one colour should mean one thing.
Other marks on a bar
| Mark | What it means |
|---|---|
| A tick | The task is finished. |
| A rain cloud | The task is weather-sensitive. A rain day moves it. |
| The word "waiting" | Waiting for the OK from whoever is on it. |
| The words "can't make it" | They turned these dates down. |
| A dashed bar beside a faded one | New dates are proposed. The faded bar is what is agreed today, the dashed one is what is being asked for. |
| A lighter block from the left | How much of the task's time has gone — not how much work is done. |
| A diamond instead of a bar | A milestone: a date to hit, not a stretch of work. |
| A small padlock in the list | The task came from a contract, a tender or a booked job. It is run from there, so it cannot be deleted here. |
| A number beside the name | Where the task sits on the programme, counted by date. Move a task and the numbers follow. |
On a group row the pale band is the whole group's span, and the solid part of it is how much of that group is finished.
The shading behind the chart
| Shading | What it means |
|---|---|
| Grey stripes | Weekends. Tasks skip them unless that task is set to work weekends. |
| Amber band | A public holiday. |
| Blue band | Rain is likely at the site that day. |
| Green line | Today. |
Weekend stripes and holidays are hidden when you zoom out to months or years — at that size they would be a blur. Each can be switched off under View → Show.
The arrows between tasks
Arrows appear when you switch on View → Show → Arrows between linked tasks. An arrow runs from the end of one task to the start of the next, and means "this one waits on that one".
| Arrow | What it means |
|---|---|
| Thin grey | A link. |
| Thick purple | Both ends are on the chain that drives the finish date. |
| Thick green | Either the link's card is open, or one of its tasks is ticked. |
| Blue dashed | The link you are dragging right now. |
Point at an arrow and the gap in working days appears on the line. A gap can be negative — "start the painter a day before the plasterer finishes" — which is why an arrow sometimes runs backwards.
Where to switch all this
Everything above lives in one place: the View button above the chart.
- Group tasks by — trade, unit, SOQ pocket, or not at all.
- Colour the bars by — trade or status. The key below it always shows what the colours currently mean.
- Show — finished tasks, weekends, public holidays, rain days, arrows, and what drives the finish date.
- Columns beside each task — who, start, days, and cost if you are allowed to see money.
A dot on the View button means you have changed something from the standard view. Back to the standard view puts it all back.
On a phone the schedule is a list rather than a chart, so the colours above belong to the desktop timeline. The list says the same things in words.