Search the user guide:

glossary
Contents

Resources:
Traffic FAQs

Production FAQs

• Helpful?
• 029 Yes
• 029 No

The Production Planner gives you an overview of selected jobs' key information such as the due date, production status, priority, and schedule timeline.

The Production Planner is your gateway to traffic management in Clients & Profits X. This new feature works in conjunction with your Weekly Traffic Report. Unlike the Weekly Traffic Report, which shows a job’s milestone due dates, the Production Planner shows all open jobs, their due dates, production status, and priority.

The Production Planner takes a timeline view of the job status and traffic reports. The window lists open jobs by priority, displays graphically when each job starts and ends. Managers can better plan for new work using the Production Planner timeline, which graphically represents the time a job will be unfinished (e.g., worked on) in the shop.

To use the Production Planner

1 Choose Production > Production Planner.

The Production Planner window opens, listing all of the shop's open jobs. Jobs are sorted by priority (i.e., bleeding rush, rush, normal, etc.) then by production status and job number.



Jobs can be sorted by job number, name/title, priority, due date, or production status by clicking on one of the list's column heading. The sort direction (i.e., ascending or descending) can be changed by clicking the up/down arrow. Clicking the previous month and next month buttons moves the timeline backward or forward one month at a time.

Double-clicking on a job will automatically take you to the job ticket window for the selected job.

	Learn how to use the production planner to edit many aspects of job trafficking in this Clients & Profits classroom video training session. Running time: 4:23

To show only open jobs for one client

In the production planner window, you can view job tickets for one client or for all clients.

1 Enter the client number into the "find client" field then click the Find button.

To change a job status

The Change Job Status window lets you update the selected jobs' production or billing status. This window is a useful shortcut when you need to give a group of jobs that same status. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To filter jobs on the Production Planner by priority

The Production Planner can be used to show only rush jobs, postponed jobs, or any of the other rush categories that your shop uses (see job preferences). The default rush categories, in order of severity, are: Bleeding Rush!, Killer Rush, Rush, Normal, Whenever (no rush), and Postponed. There is an additional filter for overdue jobs, which shows only jobs with a due date prior to today.

Unfinished and overdue? The Rush Manager, a built-in part of the Production Planner, lets you assign priorities to jobs. Rush jobs are automatically moved to the top of the list for immediate attention.

To postpone a job

The Postpone Job Tickets window lets you postpone the start dates or due dates for a group of jobs in a single step. This window will change the start dates or due dates for the jobs you've selected in the Production Planner. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

To reschedule a job

The Reschedule Jobs window lets you postpone the start dates or due dates for a group of jobs in a single step. This window will change the start dates or due dates for the jobs you've selected in the Production Planner. Reschedule Jobs

To reassign a job

The Reassign Job Tickets window lets you change the traffic assignments (i.e., the people assigned to key production and creative roles) on a selected group of jobs. This window prompts you for the initials of the new people working on these jobs, then changes the traffic assignments in one step.

To print the Production Planner

1 Choose File > Print Planner or click the print planner button to print a hard copy of the production planner report.

To update jobs from the Production Planner

The Production Planner can be used to update the status, priority, due dates, and more for a set of selected jobs. By using the update buttons in the window's toolbar, you can change the jobs' production or billing status, change their priority, postpone the start date or due date, reschedule start dates or due dates, reassign traffic assignments, or close them. Select multiple jobs by holding down the Command key and mouse clicking on the jobs you wish to update then click one of the toolbar buttons:

change status updates the selected jobs' production or billing status. A window will prompt you to choose a new status code. When you click OK, all of the jobs you selected will get the status you chose.

change priorityupdates the selected jobs' priority. A window will prompt you to choose a new priority, which will be applied to all of the jobs you selected.

postpone will change the start date or due date for all of the jobs you selected.

reschedule will change the selected jobs' start date and due date to a new date that you choose. All of the jobs you select will get the same start date and due date. This tool is used to reschedule a group of new jobs that usually don't have task schedules yet; for this reason, the jobs' tasks are unaffected by the new start date or due date.

reassign changes the traffic assignments on the jobs you selected. Different people can be assigned to the jobs as production managers, traffic coordinators, creative directors, etc. This tool is useful when a creative team needs to be moved to the jobs of a different client.

close jobs will close out all of the selected jobs. The jobs' status will be given the default "closed" status (see status code preferences). The same rules regarding closing jobs (i.e., can't close jobs with unbilled costs, etc.) apply here as they do from the Job Ticket window).

In addition, a selected job ticket’s traffic information (i.e., status note, milestones, traffic assignments, etc.) can be updated by clicking on the traffic link.