¶ Managing Activities
¶ Overview
An activity is a task or deliverable within a project phase. Opening an activity brings together everything you need to complete it: its status and dates, its form, attachments, discussion, related work, permissions, and history. That way progress, collaboration, and governance stay in one place.
Activities open in a window over your project, so you never lose your place. Each activity has its own link that you can share.
¶ Key Features
- Header: Status, dates, assignee, and Save.
- Copy Link: Share a direct link to the activity.
- Expand: Make the window full-screen.
- Details: Purpose, reference documents, and the activity form.
- Attachments: Upload and manage files.
- Related Work: Link other activities and set dependencies.
- Permissions: Who can endorse or approve each status change.
- Audit Trail: A full history of changes.
- Settings: Phase, swimlane, date locking, metadata, and delete.
- Discussion: Comments and rejection reasons.
¶ Opening and Sharing an Activity
- Open an activity by clicking its card or name in any workflow view, a dashboard, Reminders, or a notification.
- Copy Link: click Copy Link in the activity's header (the button shows Copied!), or use Copy Link on the card's ⋮ menu in Phase Gate View. Anyone with access who opens the link goes straight to the activity.
- Expand the window with the expand icon at the top right; click it again to return to the normal size.
- Close the activity with the × to return to your project view.
Links to activities from before Version 8 still work: they open the activity in the new window.
¶ Activity Status
Status shows whether your activity is Not Planned, Planned, In Progress, or Completed, and whether it is late. It drives tracking and notifications.
¶ Status Details
- Not Planned: Not scheduled yet.
- Planned: Needs a Planned Start Date, Planned End Date, and Assignee.
- In Progress: Needs an Actual Start Date.
- Completed: Needs an Actual End Date.
Endorsements and approvals may be required at any step, depending on the activity's permissions.
¶ Understanding Late Status
"Late" is applied automatically. You never set it. Planally decides it by comparing an activity's planned dates with its progress. Late is a fixed fact about the activity, so it doesn't change with how you view the board.
| Status | Meaning | Late when |
|---|---|---|
| Not Planned | No dates set yet | Never: work with no plan can't be late |
| Planned | Scheduled and assigned, not started | Past its planned start date and not started → Planned – Late |
| In Progress | Started, not finished | Past its planned end date and not complete → In Progress – Late |
| Completed | Finished | Finished after its planned end date → Completed – Late |
Notifications and Reminders focus on open work that's overdue now: Planned – Late and In Progress – Late. Completed – Late records that an activity finished behind schedule but needs no further action.
The Actual Dates toggle in Phase Gate View only changes which dates are shown on cards. It doesn't change whether an activity is late.
¶ Steps
- Open the activity.
- In the header, set the dates and Assignee the new status needs.
- Choose the new Status.
- If endorsement or approval is required, the endorser or approver is notified. They open the activity and click Endorse, Approve, or Reject (with a reason if rejecting).
- Click Save.
Important Notes:
- Always click Save after changing status or acting on an endorsement or approval.
- Rejection reasons appear in Discussion.
¶ Details: The Activity Form
The Details tab holds the information needed to complete the activity:
- Approvals (when an endorsement or approval is waiting): where endorsers and approvers Endorse, Approve, or Reject.
- Purpose (if set): What the activity is for.
- Reference Documents (if set): Guidelines and templates for this activity. They also appear in Documents.
- The form: The fields defined by the activity's template. Some fields may be calculated for you (see below).
¶ Calculated fields
Some forms include formulas: fields that work out a total, score, rating, or date from your other answers. They fill themselves in as you type, and you can't edit them. A calculated field shows - until every answer it needs is filled in. See Formula Builder if you build forms.
¶ Linked dropdowns
Some dropdowns depend on an earlier answer. For example, choosing a Country changes the list of States. The second dropdown stays disabled until you answer the first, and changing the first answer clears the second.
¶ Editable tables
Some forms include an editable table for line items such as deliverables, actions, or invoice lines. Each row is a small form of its own.
- Click Add to add a row, fill it in, and click Save.
- Select a row and click Update to change it, or Delete to remove it.
- Some columns may be calculated, such as a line total.
¶ Completed activities
When an activity is Completed, its form and settings are locked. To make a change, set the status back to In Progress, update the form, then set it to Completed again and click Save.
¶ Attachments
Keep every file for the activity in one place. Attachments also appear in the project's folder in Documents.
¶ Steps to Add Attachments
- Open the Attachments tab.
- Click Upload or drag and drop files.
- Add details such as name and description.
- Click Save.
¶ Steps to Update or Delete Attachments
- Select the attachment.
- Click Update to edit its details, or Delete to remove it, then confirm.
¶ Revisions
Keep a file's history instead of uploading a second copy:
- Select the attachment and click Revisions.
- Click Add Revision, choose the new file (or enter the new link), and add Revision Notes describing what changed.
- Save. The list shows every revision with its Revision Note and Added At date, newest first.
¶ Related Work
Link related activities to keep context and set dependencies.
¶ Relationship Types
- Related: A general link for reference.
- Start-to-Start (SS): The linked activity can't start until this one starts.
- Finish-to-Start (FS): The linked activity can't start until this one finishes.
- Start-to-Finish (SF): The linked activity can't finish until this one starts.
- Finish-to-Finish (FF): The linked activity can't finish until this one finishes.
¶ Steps
- Open the Related Work tab.
- Click Add Link.
- Select the activity and the relationship type.
- Click Save.
¶ Permissions
Permissions set who is assigned to the activity and who must endorse or approve each status change.
¶ Steps to Configure Permissions
- Open the Permissions tab.
- Click Add Permission.
- Select a user or role.
- Choose where endorsement and approval are needed: Not Planned → Planned, Planned → In Progress, In Progress → Completed.
- Click Save.
Important Notes:
- Roles come from your project team roles.
- Activities added to a project can start with permissions set by your admin on the roadmap. See Designing Roadmaps.
- Endorsers and approvers are notified when their action is needed.
¶ Audit Trail
See every change to the activity: status updates, data changes, and discussion.
- Open the Audit Trail tab.
- Click a status entry to see what data changed.
- Click the discussion icon to see the related comments.
¶ Settings
The Settings tab shows:
- Information: the activity's Phase, Swimlane, and Applicability, and the Lock manual updates to Actual Dates toggle.
- Metadata (read-only): the activity's ID, Created At, Last Updated, Activity Template, and Form.
- Delete Activity (for admins and Key Role users).
¶ Delete or waive an activity
What happens depends on the activity's applicability:
- Applicable: type DELETE to confirm and the activity is deleted.
- Mandatory: it can't be deleted. Enter a Justification and it's waived (archived) instead. A waived activity shows Activity has been deleted., with View Justification and Restore.
- Prerequisite: it can't be deleted or waived.
¶ Discussion
Discussion is a space for comments on the activity, at the bottom of the tab list.
- Open Discussion.
- Type your comment. Tag colleagues to notify them.
- Press Enter or click Post.
Rejection reasons for endorsements and approvals appear here too.
¶ Best Practices
- Update status promptly to keep dashboards accurate.
- Share activities with Copy Link instead of describing where to find them.
- Attach files to the activity so everything is in one place.
- Use Discussion for decisions you want on record.
- Set permissions early to avoid delays in endorsements and approvals.