How a task gets its dates
Where a bar lands and why, how hours pack into days, and when the schedule recomputes.
Every bar is computed the same way, every time. Nothing is guessed, and nothing is left where you dropped it if something stricter applies.
The three steps
- Start. A task with dependencies starts right after they finish. A task without them starts exactly where you typed it.
- Span. Its duration laid across the shop's working days only. A 3-day task started Thursday in a Mon to Thu shop ends the following Tuesday.
- Hours pack front first. A 14-hour task in a 10-hour day does 10h on day one and 4h on day two, leaving 6 hours of that second day genuinely free.
Your date, unless it has dependencies
A task without dependencies starts exactly where you type it: no floor, no drift. A task with dependencies follows them, and your typed date is kept as a saved memo, set aside while the dependencies exist and restored the moment you remove them.
It is always one of two things: a date you set, or a date computed from dependencies. Nothing in between.
A bar needs a length
A start date on its own draws nothing. Add a duration (or an end date, which sets the duration for you) and the bar appears. Until then the task is a name in the list, out of everyone's way.
Small tasks can share a day
When a task ends partway through a day, the next task in the chain can start that same day using the leftover hours. That is why two bars sometimes touch on the same date. The schedule guarantees the day has room; the order within the day is the floor's call.
When it recomputes
Automatically, after anything that matters: editing dates, hours or dependencies; adding or removing tasks; assigning people; publishing or deploying; changing working days or holidays.
It runs on every change, so it is always current, and Check now forces a fresh pass whenever you want one.
Keep the calendar honest. Working days and holidays drive every span. A missing holiday shows up as a schedule wrong by exactly one day everywhere. Set it once in Shop Settings.
Task or checklist item?
The one rule: if the schedule needs to know about it, it is a task. If only the worker and QA need to know, it is a checklist item.
A different person, a real wait, a contended machine, or day-scale work means a task. "This, then this, then this" at one bench is a checklist on one task.
Common questions
Why isn't my task where I put it?
Something stricter won: a predecessor finishing later, or the shop being closed that day. The caption under the bar names it. Your typed date is not lost; it is saved, and takes over again if the dependencies are removed.
Why do two bars share the same day?
The first task ended partway through the day and the second fits in the leftover hours. That is the schedule being efficient, not a mistake. The caption shows the exact hours.