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Destination paths below use the grouped project navigation.
The schedule planner on Projects > Dispatch lets MSP staff plan one project’s tasks as a draft. You can move and resize tasks, assign people, link dependent work, and ask Smart Schedule for a proposal. Nothing in the draft changes in MSPortal or your PSA until you click Save. Booking technicians on the board is separate and writes to your PSA right away (see Book technicians). Narrow the Projects filter to one project to plan it. For the cross-project board and the Needs scheduling queue on the same page, see Dispatch project work.

Before you start

  • You need MSP staff access with the Projects Schedule view permission to open the page, and project write permission to change anything. Company users cannot open it. They read shared dates in Read a project schedule.
  • Saving needs an active MSPortal subscription.
Completed tasks appear dimmed and cannot be moved or edited.

Open the planner

1

Open Projects > Dispatch

Open Projects and click Dispatch. Open the Projects filter and choose exactly one project. The toolbar then adds View, Smart Schedule and the More planner actions menu (…). Choosing a second project, or clearing the filter, returns the page to the cross-project board.
2

Or start from a project

Open the project, click Project Plan, then Schedule, and click Plan schedule at the right end of the toolbar. The page opens with that project already in the Projects filter.
3

Or start from a task

In either calendar, click a task’s … menu and choose Reschedule. The page opens with that task’s project in the Projects filter, the task open in the side sheet, and the board starting on the week of its start date. In the Gantt view, an item’s Plan in schedule workspace action does the same.
While you have changes, the right side of the toolbar shows N unsaved changes, Discard and Save. A native project saves in MSPortal. For a ConnectWise, Autotask or Halo project, dates and assigned people sync to the PSA when you click Save, and the scheduling rules stay in MSPortal.

Choose a view

Click View and choose Board, Calendar, Timeline or Dependencies. The Needs scheduling queue stays beside every view. Use Previous, Next and Today in the toolbar to change the week. When a week has no dated work, the Calendar view reads No scheduled work for this project this week. and offers buttons such as 2 later tasks to jump to the nearest dated work. Find work… in the queue also filters the Calendar bars by title. Task bars show the title, assigned person and remaining hours. An anchor icon and amber accent mark anchored tasks. A teal accent marks tasks on the critical path, where any delay pushes out the end of the linked work.
Dispatch page narrowed to one Demo project, with the Needs scheduling queue on the left, the Calendar view for the week, and the View, Smart Schedule and More planner actions controls in the toolbar

The Calendar view with one project in the Projects filter. The toolbar adds View, Smart Schedule and the ... menu.

Check the schedule settings

Click … and choose Schedule settings… to open a dialog for the project. It appears only when you can edit the project. It has three parts.
  • Working calendar sets Daily capacity (hours per person), Holidays / non-working dates (YYYY-MM-DD, comma separated) and the working weekdays. New plans start with Monday to Friday and 8 hours per day.
  • Project team lists the roles under Roles to schedule. Tick a role to let Smart Schedule assign it. Each role shows how many people hold it, and the panel shows each person’s hours Booked this week. For ConnectWise projects the team comes from the project team in ConnectWise. If it shows This project has no active team members in ConnectWise, add people to the team in ConnectWise and reload the page.
  • Schedule checks lists the issues described in Review schedule checks.

Move and edit tasks

The Needs scheduling queue lists open work in the Projects filter that still has no date, no booking or no technician.
  • Move a task. Drag its bar onto a day in Calendar. The task keeps its duration in working days.
  • Resize a task. Drag the handle on the bar’s last day to a later day to change its end date.
  • Schedule unscheduled work. Drag a row from Needs scheduling onto its start day.
  • Edit a task. Click its bar, queue row, Timeline row or Dependencies box.
Anchored and completed tasks cannot be dragged. Drag and selection pause while a Smart Schedule proposal is open. These drags edit the draft. On the Board view, dragging work for a ConnectWise, Autotask or Halo project books a technician in the PSA right away instead. See Book technicians.

Use the task editor

The task editor opens in a side sheet. For a ConnectWise, Autotask or Halo task, a Bookings section sits above it, where you add, edit and delete bookings that save to the PSA right away. See Book from the task sheet. Date fields in the editor wait for Apply to draft; the other fields update the draft as you change them. If you change a date field without applying it, Save and Smart Schedule stay disabled and the tooltip reads Apply the date change first, or close the task to discard it.
Dispatch page with a task open in the side sheet showing the Bookings section, then Anchor, Start date, End date, Move by days, Also move and Apply to draft, Required role and Assigned person

A task open in the side sheet. For a ConnectWise, Autotask or Halo task, the Bookings section comes first, then the planning fields.

Dependencies live on the later task. Select that task, then choose a Predecessor, a Type and a Lead / lag (working days) value, and select Add dependency. A positive lag adds working days and a negative value creates a lead. Use the remove control beside a listed dependency to delete it. MSPortal rejects a link that creates a loop with These dependencies form a cycle. Remove a link before scheduling.

Use Smart Schedule

Smart Schedule proposes dates, and owners where needed, for open tasks that are not anchored. It uses durations, remaining hours, dependencies, anchors, required skills and daily capacity. It appears only when you can edit the project.
1

Check the planning settings

Open Schedule settings… to confirm Daily capacity (hours per person), holidays, working weekdays and the Roles to schedule.
2

Open Smart Schedule

Click Smart Schedule in the toolbar. Set Schedule from and Hours for unestimated work. Tick Suggest different owners to balance workload to let Smart Schedule reassign tasks that already have owners. Unassigned tasks always get a proposed owner. When the project has more than one phase, tick Run phases in order to add a dependency from each phase to the next. A line at the bottom summarises how many tasks will be dated and for how many people.
3

Generate the proposal

Click Run Smart Schedule. A line under the toolbar reads, for example, 3 changes proposed. Click Show changes to list each changed task with its old and new dates and owner.
4

Accept or reject it

Click Accept to copy the changes into your draft, or Reject to drop them. Accepting does not save. Review the result, then click Save.
Smart Schedule popover showing Schedule from, Hours for unestimated work, the owner and phase checkboxes, a summary line and the Run Smart Schedule button

The Smart Schedule popover with one project in the Projects filter.

If the plan already fits, the planner shows The schedule already fits these constraints. instead of a proposal. Capacity counts this project’s work, the same people’s dated tasks in other open projects on the same PSA connection in the selected company scope, and calendar appointments and busy blocks for staff linked to portal users. Unlinked calendars and unscheduled service work are not counted. Smart Schedule needs Manage on the Projects permission or All appointments on the Calendar permission. With Manage on Projects alone, it reads when people are busy but not what the appointments are. With neither, the line at the bottom of the popover reads Smart Schedule needs to see when your team is busy. Ask an admin to give your role Projects > Manage or Calendar > All appointments in Users & Roles. Smart Schedule plans whole working days within one year of Schedule from; it does not book timed appointments. Run Smart Schedule stays disabled, and the line at the bottom of the popover gives the reason, until assignable people and calendar availability load. If either fails, the line reads Calendar availability or assignable people could not be loaded. Smart Schedule is unavailable until these reads succeed.

Review schedule checks

Schedule settings… lists the checks under Schedule checks (N). Click one to close the dialog and open its task. Resolve the blocking checks before you save. Save then shows the tooltip Fix N schedule checks before saving. See Schedule settings. Conflicts that already exist on work you have not touched do not block saving. The other checks are warnings you can save with.

Save your plan

For a ConnectWise, Autotask or Halo project, the sequence is Smart Schedule → Accept → Save. Saving updates the actual project tickets or tasks in your PSA with the changed start dates, end dates and assigned people. Generating or accepting a proposal alone does not write to the PSA. For ConnectWise, the fields written are the project ticket’s Schedule Start, Schedule End and Owner. See Where ConnectWise dates and people come from.
1

Save

Click Save. The button reads Saving… while MSPortal writes each changed task. Stay on the page until it finishes.
2

Confirm the result

A Schedule saved message confirms success. The planner then reloads the latest project data before you can edit again.
3

Recover from a failure

The schedule could not be saved. Your draft is retained. reports a failed save. Review the reloaded task dates and owners before retrying: an upstream date change can succeed before a later owner update fails. A message such as 3 tasks saved before a failure. Your remaining changes are retained. means earlier tasks already synced. After the reload, your unsaved changes return on top of the latest data. Review them and save again.
Only one save can run for a project at a time. If another planner saved the project after you opened it, your save fails without writing. After the reload, your changes return on top of their saved schedule, so review them and save again.

Protect, discard, print and export

Discard in the toolbar resets the draft to the last loaded schedule. Leaving the page, choosing a different project in the Projects filter, opening another project’s work from the board, or using the browser Back button with unsaved changes asks Discard this schedule draft? Click Keep editing to stay, or Discard changes to leave. Closing the browser tab shows your browser’s own leave warning. In the … menu, Print / save PDF opens your browser’s print dialog with a landscape table of tasks, start dates, end dates and assigned people. Export XML downloads project-schedule.xml with the task dates, owners and planning rules. Both use the tasks currently shown, including an open proposal.

Troubleshooting

Frequently asked questions

Both require an MSP staff account with the Projects Schedule view permission. Company users do not see them. Changing the schedule also needs project write permission.
No. They are MSPortal scheduling rules. Only task dates and assigned people sync to ConnectWise, Autotask or Halo.
The list shows open projects in the current company scope. Change the company selector before opening the page. Closed projects and projects outside the scope do not load.
Check for unapplied date fields, an open Smart Schedule proposal, or a blocking schedule check such as Fixed anchor conflict or Dependency dates conflict. Hover Save to see which applies.
No. It assigns whole working days to tasks in the draft. To book a technician in your PSA, including at set times, use the Bookings section of the task or drag work onto a technician’s day on the board.

Dispatch project work

See who is working on what by day and clear the Needs scheduling queue.

Project calendar

Navigate Schedule and reschedule projects, phases and milestones.

Read a project schedule

Interpret dated items and their details.