The Program is your construction schedule — a Gantt chart of the job’s tasks, their durations, dependencies and progress. Because tasks can be linked to cost codes, the program also drives a job-specific cash flow that reflects how the job is actually planned to run, not a generic forecast.
What a program is
- A program is a schedule for one project. You can have more than one (for example a baseline and a working version), and mark one as the baseline.
- A program is made of tasks — each with a duration, start and finish, and a percent complete.
- Tasks link with dependencies so the schedule recalculates when something moves.
- Tasks can carry resources (your trades, staff, plant) and link to cost codes, which is what ties the schedule to cost and cash flow.
Creating or opening a program
- From the job, choose Create or open program. If one already exists you go straight in; if not, you create one.
- Give it a name and start date. You can link it to the job’s estimate so tasks can reference estimate lines and cost codes.
You then land in the Gantt view to build the schedule.
Building the schedule
Adding tasks
Add tasks to the program and set their duration. Tasks support:
- Hierarchy — indent tasks under a parent to create a work breakdown (WBS), so you can roll up phases and trades.
- Milestones — zero-duration markers for key dates (slab down, lock-up, PC).
- Scheduling mode — Auto lets CortexPM calculate dates from durations and dependencies; Manual lets you pin a task’s dates. Constraints (ASAP, start-no-earlier than, deadlines, etc.) are supported for finer control.
- Cost code / estimate line — link a task to a cost code (and estimate line) so it feeds cost and cash-flow reporting.
Dependencies
Link tasks with dependencies so the program behaves like a real schedule:
- Finish to Start (the usual one), Start to Start, Finish to Finish and Start to Finish.
- When you move or extend a task, dependent tasks reschedule automatically.
Critical path
CortexPM works out the critical path — the chain of tasks that determines the finish date — and highlights those tasks. Watch these closely: slip one and the end date slips.
Tracking progress
- Set each task’s percent complete and status — Not Started, Commenced, On Schedule, Behind Schedule, Complete or Future Task — so the Gantt shows where the job really is.
- Set a baseline to freeze the planned dates, then compare actual progress against it as the job runs. Tasks record actual start/finish and slack/float so you can see what’s drifting.
Resources
Assign resources to tasks — the people and things doing the work:
- Resource categories include Vendor, Subcontractor, Staff and Client; resource types cover Labour, Equipment, Material and Other.
- You can pull your vendors straight in as resources, so trades on the program match your actual subcontractors and suppliers.
- Send a resource summary to notify selected resources of task changes, with a PDF snapshot of the program — a quick way to keep trades across what’s coming up.
Lookahead
Generate a lookahead — the short-window view (the coming weeks) that site teams actually work to. It pulls the near-term tasks out of the full program so the people on site see what’s due now without the whole Gantt.
Holidays, non-working days and markers
- Holidays set non-working days so the schedule doesn’t run work across public holidays or shutdowns. National public holidays are added automatically, and you can add your own (single days or ranges).
- Event markers drop reference points onto the timeline for important dates that aren’t tasks.
Weather
Pull a weather forecast for the site across the program window, so you can plan weather-sensitive work (pours, roofing, earthworks) around what’s coming and flag likely delays early.
Templates
Reuse your standard schedules instead of rebuilding them:
- Save a program as a template to capture your typical task list and structure.
- Load a template into a program to start a new job’s schedule from it.
Importing from MS Project
Already scheduling in MS Project? Import an MS Project export (Excel/CSV) to bring its tasks into a CortexPM program, rather than re-entering them.
Cash flow from the program
Because tasks carry durations and link to cost codes, the program produces a job-specific cash flow — projecting spend across time based on when the work is actually scheduled. This is the cash flow you see against the job in Jobs & Job Cost; keeping the program current keeps the cash-flow forecast honest.
The portfolio (meta) program
The meta program lifts you above one job to see scheduling across multiple projects at once — useful for spotting resource clashes and seeing where your trades are committed across the business.
Progress recorded from site
Your site team update task progress from the mobile app, and every update is attributed — who recorded it, what percentage, and whether the task was on the critical path at that moment.
Setting a task to 100% with no finish date fills in today’s date; recording any progress on a task that hasn’t started fills in the start. Status keeps itself in step — past 0% a task becomes Commenced, at 100% it becomes Complete.
Updates from site never reschedule your program. If an update lands on a task on the critical path, the dates don’t move — you’re told instead. A card appears on your Today feed reading “N critical-path task(s) updated from site”, showing the task, the percentage and who recorded it. Tap through to the schedule and decide whether to re-plan. A progress figure tapped in on a phone shouldn’t move thirty downstream tasks — that’s a decision for whoever runs the program.
Tip: the card disappears after three days and there’s nothing to acknowledge. It’s a prompt, not a queue. Only people with edit rights on the program see it, and you don’t see your own updates.
Other ways to look at the program
The Gantt is the default, not the only view.
Calendar shows the program as a month, week, day or agenda calendar, colour-coded by phase with status overriding, and rain-forecast days marked. It has its own Print layout — a clean Monday-aligned month grid with the program and project on it, which is the one to stick on the site office wall.
List is the whole task tree as an editable grid — Task Name, Start, Duration, Progress, Status, Weather, Resources — with search, filtering, sorting and drag to reorder. It’s the fast keyboard-driven way to update a lot of tasks without dragging bars. Export PDF gives you the task list as a document.
Lookahead is a kanban board of the weeks ahead, one column per week, with each task badged Ready, At Risk, Blocked or Complete. Filter to just the blocked ones before a coordination meeting. Pick your horizon and export a branded lookahead PDF for the pre-start.
Resources groups tasks under whoever’s allocated to them, so double-bookings are obvious. It’s for reviewing rather than editing — to change the plan, go back to the Gantt.
Sending a program update
When dates move, Send Task Update tells the people affected.
CortexPM collects the task changes you’ve made — a change counts when a start date or a duration actually moved — and lists the recipients those tasks touch: subcontractors, staff and the client, pulled from the resource allocations. Set a subject and a message, then Send Task Update Now.
They receive the Gantt chart as a PDF, with the list of what changed — task name, old and new start, old and new duration — on the cover sheet.
It goes out as a proper transmittal: the PDF is frozen as a controlled document, each recipient gets their own secure link, and the whole thing appears in your communications register. So “we notified the plumber on the 14th” is a record, not a recollection. See Communications.
Vendors are emailed on every address you hold for them — primary, accounts and secondary contact — because the one person who needed to know is often not the one on the contract.
Watch out: leave the program with changes nobody’s been told about and CortexPM will ask before you go. Worth heeding — an unnotified date change is how a subcontractor turns up in the wrong week.
Where to next
The program ties closely to the contract’s practical completion dates — see Contracts — and feeds the cash flow in Jobs & Job Cost. The lookahead and task progress connect to day-to-day site work in Site Management.