When to use the preview
The Calendar's job is to show you when things are happening, not to replace the full record pages for editing. But sometimes you spot something on the grid and want to know a bit more without navigating away.
Click any event on the Calendar — whether it's a span bar or a single-day item — and a preview pops open with the key details. Use it when you want to:
- Check the value of an Invoice without leaving the Calendar
- Confirm which supplier a Purchase Order belongs to
- See the full description of an Action you've spotted on the grid
- Check what project a Variation is on when you're looking at the company-wide Calendar
- Get the current status of a Work Package at a glance
The preview is read-only. It's a quick look, not an edit screen. If you need to make changes, there's a button at the bottom to open the full record.
Opening a preview
- 1
Find the event you want to look at on the grid.
- 2
Click it. For a span bar, click anywhere along the bar. For a single-day item, click the item inside the day cell.
- 3
The preview slides open beside the grid with all the details for that event.
The main grid stays visible so you can keep referring to the rest of the month while the preview is open — useful when you're comparing one event against something else happening the same week.
What you'll see
The exact content of the preview depends on what kind of record you've clicked — a Work Package shows different things to an Invoice — but the layout follows the same pattern across all record types.
A coloured module badge and status
At the top you'll see a coloured badge showing which module the record belongs to (Contract Management, Procurement, or Site Commander) and, if it has a status, the current status. For an Action, you'll also see its priority (Critical, High, Medium, or Low).
The name and number
Below the badges, the preview shows the name of the record and its reference number if it has one — for example, an Invoice number, a Variation number, or a Purchase Order number.
A description
If the record has a description, it appears next as plain text.
Financial totals (for financial records)
For anything with money on it — Invoices, Variations, Applications, Purchase Orders, Direct Costs, and so on — the preview shows the totals formatted in pounds. You get a quick read on the value of the record without having to open it.
A progress bar (for Work Packages)
Work Packages and Sub-Packages show a progress bar so you can see how far through the work is at a glance.
References and identifiers
Any reference fields on the record are shown — your internal reference, the client's reference, the supplier's reference, a certificate number, a serial number, or an asset tag, depending on what the record has.
Counts of related items
If the record has a list of items attached — line items on an Invoice, attachments, assignments, or comments — you'll see a count of each so you know how much is going on inside the record.
Related supplier, project, or hire company
If the record relates to another record (a Purchase Order to a supplier, a Work Package to a project, a hired Asset to a hire company), the name of that related record is shown.
The dates
Every date on the record is listed with a nicely formatted date, so you can see the full picture at once. For span records, the dates show as a range — for example, 15 Apr 2026 – 22 Apr 2026.
An Open full details button
At the bottom, an Open full details button takes you to the record's full detail page. Click it when you want to do anything the preview doesn't let you — edit fields, add comments, upload attachments, change status, and so on.
Closing the preview
Three ways to close the preview and get back to the clean Calendar grid:
- Click the close button (the X) in the preview header
- Click outside the preview, anywhere on the main grid
- Press Esc on the keyboard
The grid stays exactly where you left it — same month, same filters, same project dropdown — so you can immediately click another event and open its preview.
Jumping from one event to another
You can click straight from one event's preview to another without closing in between. Click an event, read the preview, then click a different event on the grid — the preview updates to show the new one.
This is a fast way to work through a day's events: click the first one, scan the preview, click the next, scan the preview, and so on until you've caught up on everything happening that day.
Why it's the same layout for every record
The preview is deliberately consistent across all record types, rather than having a different layout for Invoices, Work Packages, hired Assets, and so on. That means:
- You learn one layout and it works for everything
- New fields show up automatically as they become relevant — if a record has a reference, you see a reference; if it doesn't, that row just doesn't appear
- You always know where to look for the value, the dates, the related project, and the Open full details button
The trade-off is that the preview can't show every single field on every record. For anything deeply specific, click Open full details to go to the record's home page.
Real-world examples
- Value check on the run-up to an Application — scan the Calendar for the week, click each Variation in turn, and note the values for the claim.
- Morning triage — click each Action on today's cell to see the descriptions and decide which ones to pick up first.
- Delivery confirmation — click a Purchase Order bar on the Calendar to see the supplier and the delivery address before making a phone call.
- Context for a site visit — click a Work Package bar for the day you're visiting to see the progress and the current status without leaving the Calendar.
Next steps
- What shows up on the Calendar — for the list of records you can preview.
- Rescheduling with drag and drop — for changing dates without opening the preview.
- Creating records from the Calendar — for the click-to-create flow.