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This article is part of two series:

In our main article on Scheduled Time, we explained that it is a Planhat data model designed for forecasted time / upcoming work - for example, Task X (e.g. a training session) will be 2 hours of work, or Workflow Y (e.g. an SMB onboarding) will take 15 hours over 3 weeks. This is perfect for Professional Services / Service Delivery use cases, and is suitable for many departments (such as Implementation and Customer Success). Scheduled Time can be visualized, analyzed and interacted with in various ways in Planhat, including the "Resource Allocation" System Report Page, and helps you plan and manage projects. You can either manually create Scheduled Time records (as described here), or you can automatically create them via Workflow Templates, as we discuss in this article.

Workflows are a way to automate a series of steps in Planhat. There are two types of Workflows, "Projects" being the type designed for project management and Task steps. Workflow Templates are where you configure the steps and their timings/dependencies, e.g. that step 1 should be scheduled for 3 days after step 2. These Workflow Templates can be automatically or manually applied to records of the appropriate model - e.g. for a Company Project Workflow, it could be applied to the Company "Microsoft". This creates a Workflow record with the details filled in (with specific Task dates filled in for that Company, for example, based on the date that Workflow was created).

In this article, we'll focus particularly on how you can include Scheduled Time (technically, Scheduled Time Templates) within Workflow Templates, so Scheduled Time records are automatically created (i.e. work/time is automatically scheduled) when a Workflow Template is applied / a Workflow is created. For example, it could be that when the Enterprise Onboarding Project Workflow is applied to the Company "Apple", the Scheduled Time is automatically blocked out in Planhat for the relevant Onboarding Manager, or it's created unassigned for you (as a PSA Manager) to assign to the most appropriate Team Member via a Resource Allocation Page.

When you include Scheduled Time in Workflow Templates, it can be linked to either individual Tasks or the whole Workflow - i.e. the "Parent" (also sometimes called the "Schedule Time For" field) of the Scheduled Time can be either a Task or a Workflow.

When you're configuring a Workflow Template for a Project, e.g. an implementation, onboarding or other process, you can include Scheduled Time (technically Scheduled Time Templates). This means that when the Workflow Template is used to create a Workflow (e.g. let's say the Workflow Template is "SMB Onboarding" and it's used to create an SMB Onboarding Workflow for a particular Company), the associated Scheduled Time is automatically created too.

You can add Scheduled Time (technically Scheduled Time Templates) to Workflow Templates in two different ways:

Screenshot showing Scheduled Time on a Task in a Workflow Template, including where to add/create a new Scheduled Time

Screenshot showing the "Scheduled Times" tab of a Workflow Template, another place where you can see these Scheduled Times linked directly to Tasks

Click the image to view it enlarged

Screenshot showing the "Scheduled Times" tab of a Workflow Template, showing where to view and add/create Scheduled Time linked directly to the whole Workflow

Click the image to view it enlarged

Once the Workflow Template has been applied and an actual Workflow has been created - in the screenshots above it's a Company Project and so the Workflow Template will be applied to a Company record to create a Workflow for that Company - then the actual Scheduled Time records are automatically created. This includes allocating the appropriate dates and owner etc., and setting the "Parent" to be the specific Task or Workflow as appropriate.

As with other PSA features, this functionality is particularly useful for Service Delivery applications, such as Professional Services teams, but it's also great for Implementation, Onboarding and Customer Success teams, as well as many others.

The ability to include Scheduled Time in Workflow Templates means that the necessary time for any Project can be automatically blocked out (i.e. booked in) when a Workflow is created. Depending on how you have set this up, the Scheduled Time can even automatically be assigned to the relevant User (Team Member).

This automation makes the process extra quick and easy compared to creating the Scheduled Time manually. It also ensures consistency/standardization. You don't need to remember to add the Scheduled Time for each piece of work (e.g. each customer onboarding), and there isn't the variation that could happen if different people were all just doing this manually.

The Scheduled Time records created automatically in this way can then be used in the same way as Scheduled Time created manually - e.g. they feed into "Resource Allocation" System Report Pages, either as part of a User's utilization percentage if it's been assigned to a User, or in the "Unassigned work" list if it needs to be assigned.

It's great to have the flexibility to set the Scheduled Time either on individual Tasks in a Workflow Template, or on the whole Workflow. This is aligned with the options you have when creating Scheduled Time manually (where you choose a parent model), and means you can select the association that best suits your application - whether you think about the Workflow being a single piece of work for a User, or multiple individual pieces of work, potentially for multiple Users.

As mentioned earlier in this article, you can add Scheduled Time (technically Scheduled Time Templates) to Workflow Templates in two different ways: to Tasks or to a whole Workflow. We'll go through each of these options here.