The look-ahead

1. By the deadline (Thursday at noon unless your company changes it), each superintendent sends the look-ahead for the two weeks starting the coming Monday.
2. The planners book what's asked on the planning board. Each ask turns green on its own as it's booked.
3. By the publish time (Friday at 3 pm unless changed), a planner publishes. Everyone whose days changed is told once, and taps Got it.

Earlier in the week, the project manager brings each job's schedule up to date on Jobs › Schedule › Monday update (see the Monday update guide), so the look-ahead starts from dates that are right.

‹ Previous week and Next week › at the top step between look-aheads, and The coming two weeks comes back; the page opens on the coming one. A job's Look-ahead tab steps through the weeks the same way without leaving the job. Each look-ahead overlaps the one before it by a week, so the second week of this one is the first week of the next.

Each job's look-ahead is sent by one person: its superintendent. A superintendent is one of the company's foremen, project managers or resource managers, and can look after several jobs.

Resource managers, project managers, owners and admins choose the superintendent for each job in the jobs list on the left of the page, under Superintendent. Choose No superintendent named to clear it. The superintendent can also be named in the Team card on the job's Summary (choose Edit), and a new job's Set up this job list asks for it. A job with nobody named has no look-ahead sent for it and nobody is reminded. Your company starts getting the look-ahead's reminders once a superintendent is named on an open job.

Your jobs are listed first under Your jobs, each with where its look-ahead stands: Not started, Draft, Sent or Sent late. Choose a job to open its look-ahead.

1. Start from what's booked.

   A new look-ahead starts as what's booked on the job now, a row for each trade and kind of machine, day by day. Booked on the job now at the top shows the people and machines booked each day. If nothing's booked on the job yet, it starts from the job's schedule instead: every line running these two weeks is asked for with its bid crew. If nothing changes, send it as it is.

2. Check the schedule's lines.

   On the schedule these two weeks lists each schedule line running in the fortnight, with its dates, stations and percent done, and whether it's asked for. Ask for its crew adds a line's bid crew as rows; Ask for every line's crew does the rest at once. Each line has Ready checks: locates, material, submittal, inspection, equipment or anything else. Tap a check to move it from not ready to ready to not needed; Add the usual checks adds the ones the work usually needs, and Add a check one more. A submittal or inspection check can name the job's submittal or inspection (Link a submittal…), and then checks itself when the submittal comes back approved or the inspection passes; the submittal or inspection then says Holding up and the line.

3. Set how many a day.

   Each row has the fourteen days across it, the weekends shaded and today marked. For a trade or a kind of machine, enter how many you need each day; leave a day blank for none. For someone or a machine by name, select the day to ask for them. Under How many, enter a number and select Every weekday to set every weekday from today on at once.

4. Add or remove rows.

   Under Add a row, choose a trade, someone by name, a kind of machine or a machine by name. A new row starts at one every weekday. Select Remove to take a row away. Ask by name only when it has to be that person or that machine; a trade gives the planners room to move people about.

5. Mark the days that can't move.

   Select the ⚑ under a day to mark it as one that must have what's asked: a pour, an inspection, a milestone. A row with a ⚑ day needs a reason under Why the ⚑ days can't move; the look-ahead can't be saved without one. The planners see the reason with the ask.

6. Add notes.

   Each row has a Note for anything about that ask. Leave Keep the crew I have now checked to keep the people and machines the job has now, unless a row says otherwise. Use Note for the planners for anything holding the work up.

7. Give a rough count for weeks 3–6.

   Under Weeks 3–6 (rough), add a trade or kind of machine and how many you expect each week. These counts warn the planners about moves, rentals and hiring. They aren't booked and go to nobody's phone. Fill weeks 3 to 6 from the schedule fills them from the schedule's lines and their bid crews.

8. Save or send.

   Save keeps it as a draft that only you and the planners see. Send to the planners saves it and sends it; the planners are told under the bell. To change a look-ahead after sending it, make the change and select Send changes. A change starts the answers over, so the planners answer it again.

Instead of filling in the boxes, you can say what changes. On the phone, open the job's look-ahead, tap Say it and talk; tap Stop when you're done. On the website, open Type it above the grid, type a sentence (your computer's or keyboard's dictation works in the box too) and select Read it. For example: “Next week I need two more pipe layers, and the 336 Tuesday through Friday for the pour.”

What it understands:

• Trades and kinds of machine by your company's names for them (“pipe layers”, “an excavator”), people by name, and machines by their number or model (“EX-12”, “the 336”). A model two of your machines share asks for that kind of machine.
• How many: a number, or “a” or “another”. “More” or “extra” adds to what the grid has; “fewer”, “less” or “don't need” takes away, all of them when no number is said. “No pipe layers Friday” means none that day.
• Which days: a weekday (“Tuesday”), a run of them (“Tuesday through Friday”) or “all week”, in “next week”, “the week after” or “both weeks”. A week said once holds for what's said after it. With no days said, it means every weekday of both weeks.
• “For the pour” (or an inspection, a test, a tie-in), “must have” or “can't move” marks those days as ones that can't move, with the reason.

Each part of what you said is shown in plain words first, with anything it didn't catch to say again or put in by hand. Nothing changes until you select Put it in the grid; check the grid, then Save or Send to the planners as usual. On the phone it's read on the phone itself, so it works with no signal; saving still needs signal. A phone set to Spanish understands Spanish days and numbers.

The top of the page says when the look-ahead is due and when the plan is to be published. A look-ahead sent after the deadline is still taken, and is marked Sent late. Sending a change later doesn't make it late.

• Superintendents whose look-ahead hasn't been sent are reminded the afternoon before it's due (Wednesday, by default) and again the morning it's due. One reminder names every job still to send.
• When the publish time passes with nothing published, the resource managers are reminded; where the company has none, the project managers are.
• Reminders go out between 6 am and 9 pm where your company is, under the bell and by email. Each person can change that under Notifications.

Resource managers, project managers, owners and admins set the times under Deadlines at the foot of the page: the day and hour the look-ahead is due, and the day and hour the plan is to be published, both in the week before the two weeks start. Select Save.

Open a job with a sent look-ahead to see its Answers: each ask with its days, any ⚑ reason and note, and where it stands. Book people and machines on the job on the planning board as usual, and the asks answer themselves:

• Filled: booked in full on every day asked. Anyone booked on the job in that trade counts, named or a placeholder; an ask by name is filled only by that person or machine.
• Partly: some of it booked. It says how many are booked every day and which days are short.
• Open: nothing booked yet.
• Declined: a planner said no, with the reason.

Book the rest books what's short in one go: placeholders on the job for the short days, or the named person or machine. Name the placeholders on the planning board as usual. Undo takes them back off.

Decline… asks Why not. Enter the reason (nobody free that week, the excavator is on another job) and select Decline; the superintendent sees it. Reopen takes the decline back.

All jobs, by trade and machine, below the jobs, adds up every sent look-ahead by trade and kind of machine, day by day. Each day shows asked/booked, and under it how many the company has that day: active, and not off, sick, on vacation, at training or down. A person counts in their main trade.

• Red: the company is short. More is asked or booked than it has, however the board is moved about.
• Amber: more is asked than is booked. Still to book.
• Green: booked as asked.

Point at a day to read it in words. On a phone the days scroll sideways.

On the planning board, check Pencil in (planners only) when planning someone to hold a place without telling them yet. A penciled-in plan is drawn hatched (marked Penciled in on a phone). It counts towards the look-ahead's asks, but it isn't published to anyone's phone and isn't made into a dispatch. Uncheck it to book it.

Under Publish, select Publish the two weeks, read what will happen, and select Publish. Everyone's days from today to the end of the coming two weeks go out as the boards have them now:

• a dispatch for the day comes first, with the foreman, when to start and where to meet;
• then the dispatch board's shop, yard, off, sick, vacation and training days;
• then booked plans on the planning board.

Each person whose days changed gets one notice for the whole publish, saying which days changed and to what. Moving people about between publishes tells nobody anything; only publishing does. Publishing again sends only what changed since.

The page then says what happened:

• how many people had days change, and how many were told;
• people with no Aggrado sign-in, whose foreman tells them;
• texts sent to people without the app who agreed to them, and any not sent (see Texts for people without the app, below);
• penciled-in plans left out, and placeholders that went to nobody;
• people booked on two jobs on the same day, who were sent the first;
• how many superintendents were told how their asks came out (filled, partly, not filled, declined);
• the machine moves it made for the equipment manager, changed or found no longer needed, and any booked moves the plan has changed since (see Machine moves, below).

Each person taps Got it when they've seen their days. The last publication shows how many have confirmed, and Not confirmed yet lists who hasn't and who has no sign-in.

Everyone sees Where you'll be on the phone: their next fourteen days as last published, with the job and its address, the foreman, when to start and where to meet, the machines and any note. Days that changed are marked; tap Got it once you've seen them. The same page is on the website under Field › Where you'll be, and the notice links to it.

Superintendents can fill in and send the look-ahead on the phone too, or say it (see Say it or type it, above).

A foreman also sees Your crew under their own days: everyone in the crews they run and on the dispatches they lead in the next two weeks. Each person shows Hasn't seen 2 changed days or Up to date, and where they'll be tomorrow, with those still to see their days first. Someone without the app is marked No phone app: tell them, or Texted when they get schedule texts. The phone keeps the list for when there's no signal, and the website's Where you'll be page shows it too.

Machine moves are at Equipment › Machine moves. Equipment managers, owners and admins book and change them. Shop, project and resource managers, foremen and viewers can read them.

1. Publishing makes the moves.

   When the plan is published, Aggrado works out where each machine is each day, the way the boards say it, starting from where it is now. Each time a machine is wanted somewhere new, that's a move, needed by its first day there. The equipment managers are told under the bell. Moves made this way are marked From the plan.

   Select Add a move for one the plan doesn't know about: choose the Machine, where it goes under To (a job or the Yard) and the day it's Needed there by. It moves from where it is now. Moves added this way are marked Added by hand.

2. Read the page.

   The top counts the moves Needed, not booked, Booked, On the road and Changed by the plan. Under it, each day of the next three weeks shows how many hauls are booked on our own trailers, and how many of the trailers they use. A red day needs more trailers than there are.

   The moves follow, by the day each is needed: the machine, from and to with the address and who to call at the job, the haul day, who is hauling it, and Needed, Booked, On the road, Delivered or Canceled. Check Show delivered and canceled to see the finished ones too.

3. Haul it ourselves.

   Select Haul it ourselves, choose the Trailer and the Driver, and select Book it. A trailer is listed when it's a towed machine whose category is called a lowboy, float, tilt, step deck or equipment trailer. A driver with no CDL on their certifications or employee documents shows No CDL on file. Aggrado still books them, so add the CDL to their record if they hold one.

   Leave Haul on empty to haul it the working day before it's needed: the Friday for a Monday. The driver gets a notice and sees the move on their phone.

4. Or hire a hauler.

   Select Hire a hauler. Under From the directory, search for the trucking company to fill in its name, phone and email, or type a new one. Leave Send the move sheet checked and Aggrado emails them in your company's name: the machine, where from and where to, the haul day, who to call at each end, and whether it's oversize. Add a Message if you like. Their reply comes to you.

   The page says whether the move sheet went. Where your Aggrado has no mail service set up, it's saved to the local outbox instead, so send it yourself. When they reply, enter their Confirmation number on the move and select Save.

5. Change or cancel it.

   Change details sets the haul day, whether it's Oversize (it needs a permit), and a note. Cancel the move asks why. Aggrado doesn't tell the driver or the hauler that it's canceled, so call them.

On the phone. The driver sees the moves they're driving, and the superintendent sees the ones coming to their job. The driver taps loaded when the machine is on the trailer, and delivered when it's there. The receiving superintendent can mark it delivered too. The office can do either on the website with Mark loaded and Mark delivered. Once delivered, the machine's job is where it went.

Rent for the plan is at the foot of Equipment › Rentals. It lists the machine placeholders on the planning board from today to the end of the coming two weeks that nobody has named and no reservation covers: the kind of machine, the job, the days, how many, and whether it's penciled in or booked.

1. Look at ours first.

   Under Ours that are free, each candidate shows up to three of our own machines of that kind that are free every one of those days, with where each is and how far it is from the job, nearest first. A project or resource manager selects Use this one to name it on the placeholder, as on the planning board. Publishing then makes its move.

2. Or reserve a rental.

   Select Reserve a rental. Choose the rental house From the directory or type it, and add their phone, email, reservation number, the day, week and 4-week rates and the delivery fee. Check They've already confirmed it if they have, and select Reserve it. The placeholder stops being a candidate.

3. Confirm it.

   Under Reservations, a reservation is Requested until the rental house confirms it. Select Confirm, enter their number, and select They've confirmed it. Cancel takes it back; call the rental house.

4. When it arrives, select It's here.

   Enter the Number on the machine, as the rental house painted it, and the day it went On rent from (today unless you change it). If that number is already one of yours, Aggrado suggests putting R- in front of it. If Aggrado can't tell what kind of machine it is, it asks you to choose one. Select Put it on rent.

   The machine joins the fleet as rented in, on the job, with its rental listed above on the same page, and it's named on the placeholder it was reserved for. From there it's like any other rental: the foreman calls it off from the phone the day it's done.

Hiring needs are at People and safety › Hiring needs. Resource managers and project managers send them; HR works them. HR is the owners and anyone holding the HR manager role. Whoever's roles read Hiring needs sees them too.

1. Read the shortage.

   Each trade says how short and how often (2 short on 4 of the next 6 weeks), then the six weeks side by side with need, have and how many short, the short weeks marked. Under them are the jobs driving it, and how many are already being hired.

2. Send it to HR.

   Select Send to HR. The form starts from the shortage: How many, Start by (the first short week), Until (the last short week, or empty when it runs past the six), and the jobs. Choose the Employment: full time, part time, seasonal, temporary or 1099 contractor. Add any Certifications they need, one at a time (CDL class A, competent person). Change Why if you like, add a note for HR, and select Send to HR. Everyone in HR is told under the bell; the page says how many.

   To send one that isn't listed as short, select Send a hiring need and choose the trade yourself.

3. HR works it.

   Each need is listed under Sent to HR, open and recruiting first. HR selects Start recruiting when the search starts, and keeps notes under Note and people hired: where it's advertised, who's coming in. When people are hired, add each as an employee on the Directory's Employees tab first, then name them under People hired (the list starts with people in the need's trade) and select Filled. A need can't be filled without the people hired. Cancel closes it unfilled; Reopen brings either back.

4. Whoever sent it hears.

   Each time HR changes a need's status, whoever sent it is told under the bell, with HR's note. Once a need is sent, its people count as the company's in the shortage until it's filled or canceled, so the trade usually drops off Short ahead.

The Look-ahead scorecard is a tab of the Planning board, and is linked from the look-ahead and hiring pages. Each row is the first week of a fortnight, the coming one last; choose 8, 13 or 26 weeks. The bottom row adds them all up.

• Asks delivered: of the people and machines that fortnight's look-aheads asked for, how many were booked when the plan was published. A declined ask counts as not delivered.
• Look-aheads: how many were sent by the deadline, of those sent, and how many were left as drafts.
• Got it: of the people with a sign-in whose days changed in the plan published the week before, how many tapped Got it.
• Moves: machine moves delivered that week, and how many machines.
• Rental days: the days rented machines were on rent that week, added up.
• Weeks short by trade: each trade listed under Short ahead, with how many short in each of the next six weeks.

Someone without the Aggrado app or a sign-in can get a text when a publish changes their days. Under People and safety › Directory, on the Employees tab, open the employee and choose Edit employee; enter their cell number and check OK to text. Aggrado then texts them once to ask them to reply YES, and schedule texts wait until they do. The list marks them OK to text. Only people with no sign-in are texted; everyone else is told on the phone.

The text names your company and gives up to five changed days, each with where they'll be, when to start and where to meet, and says to ask their foreman with questions. Replying STOP stops the texts.

Resource manager is a Job role for whoever balances the company's people and machines across its jobs. An owner or admin gives it onDirectory › Users and roles. A resource manager changes the planning board and makes dispatches from it as a project manager does, answers every job's look-ahead, publishes the plan, names superintendents, sets the deadlines and sends hiring needs to HR. A resource manager can also be named a job's superintendent.

A company with no resource manager works the same way with its project managers: they answer, publish, send hiring needs, and get the publish-time reminder.