RAVE ‘Classic’ vs ‘Advanced’ Scheduling Overview

Hey Rave users, we hope you’re holding up well in these crazy times. The Scheduling update, new look, and features were our biggest release ever and has been very well received. Although we had some teething issues, our in-house development team has been quick to act on any reported problems.

Today we’re going in a little deeper on scheduling - specifically looking at our ‘Classic’ vs ‘Advanced’ features, and schedules.

While everyone automatically switched over to our new-look system and new ‘Classic’ scheduling update last month, about a third of our clients have now moved to ‘Advanced’ scheduling.

The Advanced scheduling is an awesome option for those that want, or need the additional scheduling and communication features it contains.  If you’re wondering about switching, and want to make sure you’re clued-up on all the bells and whistles, this video overview is for you!

This tutorial also walks you through both the 'Classic' and the 'Advanced' scheduling updates in more detail. The topics covered are as follows:

• Classic Scheduling - updates and new features
• Advanced Scheduling - updates and new features
• The new process of printing a Gantt chart - with the option of selecting tiling/poster printing
• The Branch/Business owners master-settings page.

To get the best insight of the two scheduling formats, we recommend checking out the full video, we have included some handy timestamps in the YouTube video description, and have also noted some key features and tips below.

NEW Schedule 'view' Shortcut links

• We've added some handy 'view' shortcuts for the Schedule Task list, Task Gant, Task Calendar, Milestone Gantt, and Project Settings. These effectively let you “toggle” between views, and quickly update job settings at a project level.

NEW Schedule Action drop-down + Notification Information pop-up

• The schedule action drop down has moved next to the project, and has become 3 dots.  The relocated drop-down contains the standard schedule action selections plus a new Inbound/Outbound Notification Information pop-up.  Examples of what each notification look like are available via the mini dropdown next to each notification description/type.  

• The scheduling tutorial covers the key notifications of “Schedule Activated”, which is sent to all contractors when you choose to activate a schedule, and the “Daily Briefing”, which provides a daily notification to each contractor, listing all tasks starting today, and any changes that were made. 

• The tutorial also covers how to turn off the daily briefing notifications for yourself and your contractors.

'Classic' Task Gantt Schedule Updates

• The tutorial goes through the various ways to update the ‘Classic’ schedule, including examples of the task Click and Drag, selecting a block of tasks to click and drag, and the NEW 'Classic' move 'All tasks in this milestone’ scheduling update feature.  We really recommend checking out the video for the how-to on these ones, as the visuals really show them off well.

NEW Activate Schedule button

• You can now share your project details and documentation, before sharing the schedule – as shown via the tutorial video.  When you are ready, sharing your schedule is achieved via the cool NEW ‘Activate Schedule’ button.  The ‘Activate Schedule’ button becomes available when a project status is changed ‘Active’.   When you activate the schedule, you can view all contractors assigned to the project, choose to communicate access to the schedule with your contractors, and also ‘enable schedule notifications’.

NEW 'Advanced' Contractor Task Acceptance/Communication DEMO

• As with ‘Classic’ scheduling, you can allow contractors to Request sign off on tasks, this can be toggled on and off via the project settings. With ‘Advanced’ Scheduling, you can also allow them to accept or decline tasks, and propose a new start date.  Again, we recommend checking the video out, to see these different contractor task acceptance/communication options in action!

Client Access controls - More clarity on what the client can see

• The project settings feature really refines your ability to choose what the client can see. You have options to toggle on/off the Milestone Gantt/Task List, the Task Gantt, Task Calendar, and allow clients to view all visible tasks.  IMPORTANT: If you don’t select at least either the Milestone Gantt or Task List, the client won’t have access to the Schedule tab at all.

NEW ‘Advanced’ Task Gantt updates - Add a Milestone, Add a Task, Linked Tasks, and a Critical Paths demo

• In this portion of the tutorial, we demo more of the ‘Advanced’ features including how to add a milestone, and a task via the Task Gantt view, some examples of linking tasks, and how the ‘Show Critical Paths’ feature highlights which tasks impact on the finish date.

So, now that we’ve given you a taster of some of the updated features, we really hope you take the time to check out the full video, as it’s a really valuable resource in getting the most out of RAVE! If after reading this article and/or watching the video, you would like to upgrade to our NEW ‘Advanced’ Project Management and Communication System, please contact us via 07 210 2228 or email us at help@ravebuild.co.nz.