When to narrow by project
The company-wide Calendar shows events from every project you have access to. That's perfect when you're stepping back to see the portfolio — where the busy weeks sit, which jobs are running hot, what the whole business is doing this month.
But most of the time you want to focus on one job. Use the project dropdown when you:
- Want to see everything happening on the Hounslow refurb next week without the noise from other sites
- Are in a client meeting and need to show them just their project
- Are planning a site visit and only care about that one site's schedule
- Want to print or share the Calendar for a project review
Where to find the dropdown
On the company-wide Calendar (opened from the main sidebar), you'll see a project dropdown at the top of the page, above the month grid. It shows:
- All Projects — the default, showing records from every project you can access
- Each project's name — listed so you can pick one to focus on
If you've opened the Calendar from inside a project (the project sidebar), the dropdown isn't there. You're already locked to that project, and the whole grid is just for that one job.
Picking a project
- 1
Open the company-wide Calendar from the main sidebar.
- 2
Click the Project dropdown at the top of the page.
- 3
Scroll or type to find the project you want.
- 4
Click the project name. The Calendar reloads immediately with only that project's events visible.
Switch back to All Projects the same way to see everything across the portfolio again.
What changes when you pick a project
Every record type on the Calendar gets filtered to that project at once. So if you've got Work Packages, Invoices, Actions, Purchase Orders, and hired Assets all ticked on in the sidebar, they're all narrowed to the chosen project in one go.
Records that don't belong to any project (for example, certain Actions raised at company level) stop showing when you pick a specific project, because they don't match the filter. Switch back to All Projects to see them again.
Combining with the sidebar filter
The project dropdown works alongside the filter sidebar. They do different jobs:
- Project dropdown — narrows by which project
- Filter sidebar — narrows by which record type
Combining them is where the Calendar gets really powerful. A few examples:
- The site manager view — pick the project, then hide everything in the sidebar except Work Packages, Sub-Packages, and Actions. You end up with a clean view of just the scheduled work and outstanding issues for that one job.
- The project QS view — pick the project, then hide everything except Variations, Invoices, Applications, and Payment Notices. Just the commercial paperwork, no site noise.
- The buyer view on a single job — pick the project, hide everything except Purchase Orders, Delivery Notes, and Direct Costs. You can scan across the month and spot the week everything's landing.
The project-scoped Calendar
If you open the Calendar from inside a project (the project sidebar's Calendar link), you skip the dropdown entirely. The grid is already locked to that one project and can't be switched.
This is usually the faster way to focus on a single job. You avoid a step, and the Calendar loads quicker because it only has to fetch records from one project.
Use the company-wide view with the dropdown when you want the flexibility to jump between projects without navigating back out; use the project-scoped view when you're settled on one job.
When the dropdown is empty
If the project dropdown shows no projects, a few things could be going on:
- You might not have access to any projects yet. Speak to whoever sets up permissions in your business.
- There might not be any projects created yet. On a brand-new Project Commander setup, you'll only see All Projects until someone creates a project.
- The list loads when the page loads. Refresh the page if you think projects should be there but aren't.
Real-world examples
- Monday morning focus — open the company-wide Calendar, pick the one job you're responsible for this week, hide everything except Work Packages and Actions, and you've got your week's plan in one view.
- Client meeting prep — pick the client's project, show just Work Packages and Calendar Events, screenshot or walk through the month grid together.
- Portfolio review — leave the dropdown on All Projects, scan across the month, and spot the weeks where two or three jobs have critical deadlines stacking up.
Next steps
- Filtering what's shown — for the record-type filter that combines with the project dropdown.
- Getting started with the Calendar — for the difference between the company-wide and project-scoped Calendars.
- What shows up on the Calendar — for the list of records that respect the project filter.