Overview
Gantt Charts in Aspire help you plan and manage Construction and Design/Build projects by showing work order projects, tasks, deadlines, and dependencies in a visual timeline.
Use Gantt Charts to track work tickets, additional tasks, and project phases so you can schedule work more accurately—not just based on completion dates.
They also help ensure your team has the time and resources needed to meet deadlines and avoid delays.
Requirements
To view gantt charts in Aspire, you need to have View Opportunities permission added to your user role.
If you only need to view the gantt chart for work tickets, or the work tickets themselves, you need Read Only Access to the Schedule Board added to your user role.
To edit the information displayed in a gantt chart, you need to be able to edit the fields on the opportunity details screen. This requires you to add either Edit Opportunities or Edit My Opportunities to your user role.
To schedule or edit work tickets that are reflected in the gantt chart, you need Full Access to the Schedule Board added to your user role.
Using gantt charts for work orders
Fixed price open billing work orders and gantt charts work seamlessly together to provide flexible billing as you monitor the scope of your work. Before you can use a gantt chart, the opportunity must be in a Won status so that work tickets can be generated.
To open the Gantt Chart:
Open the work order opportunity.
Select the Gantt Chart tab at the top of the screen.
The gantt chart details screen displays line items for the Opportunity as a whole and for each work ticket.
The image below shows a gantt chart for a Spring Build and Landscape opportunity at Alora’s Place. This project has different phases, including services for Site Prep, Paver Installation, Landscape Site Work, and Post Job Clean up. The gantt chart has line items for the opportunity as a whole and then for each work ticket:
Note
Work tickets don’t need to be scheduled to appear on the gantt chart list, and they display an Open status.
You’ll see the gantt chart start to change when work tickets are scheduled on the schedule board, and when activities are added and tied to the opportunity.
Adding activities in the gantt chart
Select the New button to add activities to the gantt chart. You can also add and edit activities from the Quick Menu or in the Activities module when not working with gantt charts.
The following Activity types are available:
Appointments — Create meetings on your calendar.
Tasks — Internal tasks that don’t notify customers. Tasks affect the project timeline, so complete them on time.
Issues — Help you identify roadblocks that affect progress. Learn more in Creating an Issue.
Milestones — Serve as benchmarks to track delivery dates or inform your internal team when to mark items as purchased (for example, when waiting on materials for a job). Milestones do not notify customers.
Note:
Milestones always remain on the gantt chart regardless of their completion status.
Ways to view the gantt chart
The gantt chart screen provides buttons to switch between Month and Week views. Use these views to review the timeline and progress of your project with more or less detail.
You can also Export or Print your gantt chart from this screen. Printing or exporting is useful when you need to show visual project progress to customers or organizational stakeholders.
Reviewing the gantt chart as progress is made
As work tickets are scheduled and activities are added, the gantt chart updates to reflect progress. In our example, all of the work tickets have been scheduled, and a task and milestone have been added to the project at Alora’s Place.
Understanding the Gantt Chart Lines
Each color and line type on the Gantt Chart represents a different element of your project.
Project Duration Lines
Yellow Line
The yellow line shows the planned start and end dates of the opportunity, its work tickets, tasks, or appointments. Multiple yellow lines appear on the chart because the opportunity, work tickets, and activities each have their own dates.
Important:
If work tickets are not yet scheduled, they default to the start date of the work order opportunity until they reach Scheduled status.
Opportunity Lines
Light Grey Line
The light grey line displays the opportunity's start and end dates. It appears at the top of the gantt chart and helps you quickly understand the general timeline for completing the work.
Dark Grey Line
The dark grey line sits inside the light grey line and displays the opportunity's work in progress and estimated hours.
Work Ticket Lines
The next group of lines displays for each work ticket estimated for the opportunity.
Light Green Line
The light green line displays the estimated start and end dates for each work ticket.
Dark Green Line
The dark green line sits inside the light green line and displays the work in progress and estimated hours for each work ticket.
Activities Lines and Icons
Activities on the Gantt Chart represent appointments, tasks, milestones, or issues tied to either the opportunity or a specific work ticket.
Appointments
Dark Blue Line: The dark blue line with a yellow bar beneath it displays an appointment's scheduled start and end date.
Tasks
Light Blue Line: The light blue line with a yellow bar displays a task's estimated start and end dates.
Dark Blue Line: The dark blue line with a yellow line beneath it displays a task's actual start and end dates (also known as the completion date). This line replaces the light blue line when the task is marked as complete. The yellow line retains the original estimated start and end dates from the activity details screen.
Milestone and Issue Icons
Milestones and Issues do not have standard Start and End Dates, so the Gantt Chart displays them as diamonds instead of lines.
Note:
If a Milestone or Issue has not been completed, both diamond colors display on top of each other.
Yellow Diamond: Represents the Due Date tied to a Milestone or Issue.
Grey Diamond: Represents the Completed Date of a Milestone or Issue.
Reviewing the Gantt Chart for Individual Work Tickets
To view the Gantt Chart for a specific Work Ticket, open the Work Ticket.
When to use an individual Work Ticket Gantt Chart
Track the progress of a specific job for the week to identify scheduling issues.
Export and send Work Ticket information to a customer without including the rest of the Gantt Chart.
Review a service that requires permitting, engineering, or external coordination in greater detail.
How to open an individual Work Ticket Gantt Chart
Navigate to the scheduled visit in the Scheduling module.
Right-click on the visit and select Open Work Ticket.
On the Work Ticket detail screen, click the three-dot menu.
Click View Gantt Chart from the list.
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The individual Work Ticket Gantt Chart appears. If any Activities are tied to this Work Ticket, they also display here.
Note:
You can also access the Work Ticket detail screen from the Work Tickets module.