Creating records from the Calendar

When to create from the Calendar

Most of the time, you create records inside their own modules — Work Packages in Site Commander, Invoices in Contract Management, and so on. But when you're already looking at the Calendar and spot a gap that needs filling, it's much quicker to create the record right there on the grid.

Create from the Calendar when you're:

• Planning out next week's work and you want to drop Work Packages straight onto their target days
• Booking a site visit by clicking the date you want and picking Calendar Event
• Scheduling a delivery while you're looking at the rest of the day's procurement activity
• Adding an Action with a due date you can see in context with everything else already in play
• Blocking out a hire period for a piece of kit and want to drag across the exact range

The key idea: the date you click becomes the date on the new record. No need to fiddle with date pickers after the fact.

Creating from a single day

The simplest flow: click an empty spot on a date and pick what to create.

1. 1

   Find the day you want the new record to sit on. Click an empty part of the cell — anywhere that isn't on top of an existing event.

2. 2

   A command palette opens listing every record type you can create from the Calendar, grouped by module.

3. 3

   Search or scroll to find what you want. Type a few letters of the record type to filter the list.

4. 4

   Click the record type. Depending on what you picked, you may be asked to pick a project or a parent record next (see below).

5. 5

   The create form opens with the day you clicked already filled in as the date. Fill in anything else you need and click Create.

The new record appears on the grid straight away on the date you chose.

Creating across a range of days

For span records — Work Packages, Sub-Packages, Calendar Events, and hired Assets — you can drag across a range of days to pre-fill both the start and the end date in one go.

1. 1

   Click and hold on the day you want the record to start.

2. 2

   Drag across to the day you want it to end. The cells in the range light up as you drag, and a New event label appears on the start cell.

3. 3

   Release the mouse. The command palette opens with both dates already pre-filled.

4. 4

   Pick a span record type — Work Package, Sub-Package, Calendar Event, or hired Asset — and the create form opens with both dates set.

This is the fastest way to block out multi-day things. You can drag across two weeks for a Work Package, four days for a hire, three days for a training event — whatever the duration, the dates are already right when the form opens.

Picking a project first

Some record types — anything from Contract Management or Procurement — need to know which project they belong to. If you're on the company-wide Calendar with All Projects selected, the Calendar asks you which project before opening the create form.

1. 1

   Click an empty day and pick, say, Invoice from the command palette.

2. 2

   A project picker appears with a searchable list of your projects.

3. 3

   Pick the project the new Invoice should belong to.

4. 4

   The create form opens, already scoped to that project, with the date you clicked pre-filled.

If you're on the project-scoped Calendar, or you've already picked a project from the dropdown at the top, the Calendar knows the project and skips this step.

Picking a parent record

A couple of record types need not just a project but a parent record to attach to:

For these, the Calendar slots in an extra step to pick the parent.

1. 1

   Click an empty day and pick Sub-Package from the command palette.

2. 2

   If you're on the company-wide Calendar, pick a project first.

3. 3

   A parent picker appears with the Work Packages on that project. Pick the one the Sub-Package should sit under.

4. 4

   The Sub-Package create form opens, scoped to that Work Package, with the date pre-filled.

This is what lets you create a deeply-nested record like a Sub-Package directly from the Calendar without having to navigate through the project structure to find the parent Work Package first.

What the command palette offers

The command palette is searchable and grouped by the module each record type comes from — Contract Management, Procurement, and Site Commander, plus Calendar Event on its own.

• Type to filter by name
• Arrow keys to move up and down the list
• Enter to pick the highlighted item
• Esc to close and back out

If you know the name, typing a few letters is usually the fastest way to find it.

Changing the date after you've opened the form

If you clicked the wrong day by mistake, don't panic — every create form has a date field you can change before submitting. The clicked date is just a pre-fill, not a commitment. Edit it in the form before clicking Create.

Records appear straight away

Once you click Create, the new record appears on the Calendar immediately. No need to refresh. If something goes wrong with the save — a missing field, say, or a problem with one of the values — you'll see a message explaining what happened and the record won't be left stuck on the grid.

Backing out at any step

You can cancel the create flow at any point without anything being saved:

• Close the command palette if you've changed your mind before picking a record type
• Close the project or parent picker if you've picked a record type but don't want to continue
• Close the create form itself to abandon a half-filled new record

Nothing is saved until you click Create on the final form.

Real-world examples

• Monday planning session — drag across a week on the grid, pick Work Package, type a name, and you've blocked out the week for that piece of work in about ten seconds.
• Booking a site visit — click the day, pick Calendar Event, fill in a title, and drop it on the calendar with a reminder.
• Adding a snag — click the day the snag needs to be fixed by, pick Action, fill in a description, and you've created a dated Action that's already visible on the Calendar.
• Scheduling a hire — drag across the hire period, pick Asset, and the hire dates are already set.

Next steps

• Rescheduling with drag and drop — to move records around after you've created them.
• Calendar Events — for the native event type with colours and reminders.
• What shows up on the Calendar — for the full list of record types you can pick from the command palette.