Move one date and see what moves with it
A programme that does not understand dependencies is a list of dates that goes stale the first time it rains. SmarteBuild's schedule is six views over one set of tasks — so a change made in the Gantt shows up in the calendar, the call-up sheet and the cash flow at the same time.
Available on the Builder plan
The same job, looked at six ways
They share the same underlying data, so a change in one appears in all of them. You are never reconciling a programme against a calendar against a call-up list.
Tasks
The list. Add, edit and check off work.
Schedule
The Gantt — durations, dependencies, the critical path.
Calendar
What is happening on which day.
Call up
Telling subcontractors when to come.
Bookings
Who has confirmed.
Cash flow
What the job costs, over time.
Which view answers which question
- Planning a job
- Start in Tasks to get the work down, then move to Schedule to give it durations and dependencies.
- Running a week
- Calendar and Call up. What is on this week, and who needs telling.
- Is the subbie actually coming?
- Bookings.
- When will we be finished?
- Schedule. The Gantt is the only view that can answer it, because it is the only one that understands dependencies.
- When do we need the money?
- Cash flow.
Do not try to plan in the calendar. It shows what is scheduled; it does not understand why. Move a task there and nothing downstream follows. Plan in the Schedule, where dependencies mean a change flows through the rest of the job.
The more a task knows, the more the other views can do
Everything in the schedule is a task. A task with a name and nothing else appears in the list and does nothing anywhere else. A task that carries its cost centre, its supplier and its call-up period drives the call-up sheet, the bookings view and the cash flow projection without any further work.
- A duration and dates
- Predecessors, so it follows other work
- A cost centre and a supplier, connecting it to the estimate
- A cost, or a link to a purchase order
- A call-up period, so the subcontractor is told in time
Call-up notice varies enormously
Set it per task, because trades are not alike:
| Concrete | 1 week |
|---|---|
| Carpenter | 2 weeks |
| Roof tiler | 2 weeks |
| Cabinetmaker | 6 weeks — a manufacturing lead time |
| Windows | 8 weeks — ordered, not called up |
Ask each of your regular subcontractors what notice they want, set it once, and the call-up view works out the rest.
Two ways to start, neither of them a blank page
The reason most builders programme one job in ten is the first hour, staring at an empty Gantt. Both of these get you to something worth editing in a couple of minutes.
Start from a template
Import Template loads a ready-made programme — tasks, durations and the links between them. Your own past jobs are there, and so are SmarteBuild's own residential programmes, so a new customer is not starting from nothing on day one.
Start from your own cost codes
Build from Cost Codes makes one task per cost code on the job, in order, each one following the last and carrying its own budget. Then you drag the durations to reality instead of typing the trade names in.
Both replace the current programme, so they are a starting point rather than something to run over a job you have already planned.
Long-lead items are orders, not call-ups
Cabinets and windows need ordering months ahead, not calling up a fortnight ahead. If a long-lead item only exists in your programme as a call-up, it is already late. Put the order date in the schedule as its own task.
A closer look at the schedule
Six views over one set of tasks — here are three of them.
What it connects to
Nothing in SmarteBuild is an island — that is the point of it. Schedule & Gantt reads from and feeds into these.
Call-Up Sheets
The week ahead on one page, so no trade gets forgotten
Cash Flow
What the job costs you and when, projected across the programme
Purchase Orders
Raise orders straight from the BOQ and send them without re-keying
Projects & Costings
Contract stages, markups and the numbers behind every job
Want the detail?
The help centre documents Schedule & Gantt step by step, with worked examples — written for people using it, not for a brochure.
Start with one job and see
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