With Miradi work planning, tie your actions (Strategies, Activities, Monitoring Activities, and Tasks) and associated resource Assignments, Work Units and Expenses directly to your theories of change in order to plan budgets and track actual expenditures. These tools have been available in Miradi Desktop for years, and they are now available in a new and improved format in Miradi Share. Get Started with Work Planning Now, or learn more about the new work planning features in Miradi Share:
- Get started with work planning now!
- Work Planning Overview
- Work Plan Hub
- Create, Manage & Copy Work Plan Views
- Manage Assignments and Expenses
- Export Work Plans Views to Excel
- Bulk Import Expenses
- Work plan data that must still be managed in Miradi Desktop
- Troubleshooting Work Planning
Get Started with Work Planning
If you are ready to get started on work planning, follow the steps below or check out the Getting Started with Work Planning in Miradi Share video.
- Navigate to the Work Plan Hub under WORK PLANNING.
- Set your Project Timeframe in the panel on the left. If you do not set the Fiscal Year it will default to the calendar year. The Work Plan Timeframe is optional. Learn more about how the timeframe settings relate to work planning.
- Click on Manage Work Plan Views in the upper right, or navigate to PROJECT ADMIN / Work Plan Views.
- Select + ADD WORK PLAN VIEW to create one or more custom tables for viewing and editing work plan data (assignments, work units, and expenses). Learn more about managing Work Plan VIews.
- Click on the name of your new Work Plan View, or navigate to WORK PLANNING / Assignments & Expenses to view, create and edit work plan content in your Work Plan VIews.
- Select the work Work Plan View you want to work in from the dropdown menu in the upper left, and click on the white cells in the table to add or edit content. If you see orange cells you will be able to convert this data from different time levels (e.g. yearly -> quarterly, or monthly -> yearly). Learn more about managing Assignments and Expenses in Work Plan Views.
- Now that you are managing your work plan data in Miradi, export your Work Plan View tables to Excel, use Bulk Import to import expenses from external spreadsheets, or copy your favorite work plan views to other projects!
Work planning overview
- Work planning data is shared between Work Plan Views. For example, if two Work Plan Views cover the same year, the same work units and expense amounts will show in both.
- For any assignment or expense, you can only enter data on one time level in a specific timeframe. For example, you can not have both quarterly and yearly work units for an assignment in the same year. Often teams will start by developing work plan budget forecasts on an annual level (eg a 5-year work plan with annual work plan estimates), and then convert to planning on a more detailed level, eg monthly or quarterly, for the next 1-2 years.
- You can convert data between time levels. For example, you can create a yearly Work Plan View to forecast data for next year, and later create a quarterly Work Plan View for that year, convert the data, and distribute it across the quarters.
Access the work planning tools under WORK PLANNING:
- Work Plan Hub: Set your project timeframes and access shortcuts to commonly-used work planning features. Learn more about the new Work Plan Hub.
- Actions: Toggle between the action properties tree and the action progress chart.
- Schedule: (formerly called Timeframes) View the action schedule chart and edit action timeframes.
- Assignments & Expenses: Create and manage assignments and expenses within custom work plan views. Learn more about creating and managing assignments and expenses.
- Team & Partners: Manage all project resources (teams and partners) that can be assigned to actions. Learn more about managing your team and partner lists.
- Strategy Effectiveness: View, edit and export strategy ratings. Learn more about rating strategy effectiveness.
To set up your custom Work Plan Views used to manage Assignments and Expenses, use the Work Planning Manager under PROJECT ADMIN / Work Plan Views. Learn more about creating and managing Work Plan Views.
Work Plan Hub
The new Work Plan Hub provides access to the primary tools used for work planning in Miradi Share.
Set the Project Timeframes used for work planning:
Project Dates - The Project Dates define the timeframe within which you can create and edit work planning data, including action timeframes, assignments, and expenses. In work plan views, you will be able to see assignment and expense data outside the project dates, but you will not be able to edit it. Learn more about creating and managing assignments and expenses.
Fiscal Year - Setting the Fiscal Year for your Miradi project is not required but if it is not set, the Fiscal Year will default to the calendar year, January - December. Fiscal Years can be set to January-December, April-March, July-June, or October-September.
The Fiscal Year impacts the planning timeframe in work plan views. For example, work plan views using a yearly time level can span one or more fiscal years. Work plan views using a quarterly or monthly time level cover one fiscal year. Learn more about creating and managing work plan views.
Work Plan Dates - Work Plan Dates are not required but if your project spans a long time period, a shorter work plan timeframe can make planning easier. When work plan dates are set, they do not impact Work Plan Views in Miradi Share, but they delimit the Work Plan in Miradi Desktop. Work Plan Dates also define the boundaries of the Schedule chart and are used to filter the work planning data in exported report documents.
Access custom Work Plan Views used to manage Assignments and Expenses:
The Work Plan View table provides quick access to all of the custom Work Plan Views in your Miradi project. The Work Plan Views are used to create and manage Assignments and Expenses.
- Learn more about creating and managing custom Work Plan Views.
- Learn more about creating and managing Assignments and Expenses using Work Plan Views.
Work Planning Shortcuts provide quick access to additional work planning tools and reports:
- Actions Tree View - This view provides access to create and edit the properties of all actions (Strategies, Activities, Monitoring Activities, Tasks), including actions descriptions, timeframes, assignments, progress reporting, and associated objectives and indicators.
- Schedule Chart - This chart shows the timeframes for all actions in a Gantt Chart view. Action timeframes can also be edited in this view.
- Strategy + Activity Work Plan Data View - Data Views provide summary, view-only reports of project data. This data view includes all assignment and expense data in your Miradi project. The view can be customized and saved as needed to show subsets of your work planning data. Learn more about using, customizing and exporting data views.
Create, manage, and copy Work Plan Views
Work Plan Views are created and managed under PROJECT ADMIN / Work Plan Views. Only Miradi users with Project Editor/Manager/Owner permissions will be able to create and manage Work Plan Views, although anyone with Project Viewer access will be able to see the work plan data under Assignments and Expenses.
A Work Plan View is a window into work planning data (work units and expense amounts) for a certain timeframe (one or multiple fiscal years) and on a certain time level (yearly, quarterly, or monthly). One or many Work Plan Views can be created for any project and work planning data is shared between Work Plan Views. For example, if two Work Plan Views cover the same time period, the same assignments, work units and expense amounts will show and be editable in both.
Use the +ADD WORK PLAN VIEW button in the upper right to create a new view, or use the Edit pencil on the left to edit the properties of any Work Plan View:
- Name and Description - It is helpful to use a name that will be easily recognizable to anyone working in the project, such as "2025-2028 3-Year Work Plan". The Description field can be used to provide more details about how the work plan view is intended to be used.
- Time Level - Fiscal Year, Quarter, or Month. You will be able to enter data on this time level, and if there is work plan data on other time levels within the same timeframe, you will be able to view it and convert it to this time level if needed.
- Planning Timeframe - Define the time period for the work plan view, eg 2025-2030, or just 2025.
- Include Actions From - Choose whether to include Actions from all Situation Models or Results Chains, or focus in on a single Results Chain or Situation Model
- Expand Rows To - This sets the default view whenever the work plan view is first opened (Strategy, Activity, Task). Once in the work plan view, the table can always be collapsed or expanded to show all levels.
- Default Plan Type - This sets the type of data, Assignments or Expenses, that will first be visible upon opening the work plan view. You will always be able to toggle between the two once the work plan view is open.
- Include Classifications - Select the standard or custom classifications used to classify work plan data within your project, such as CMP Conservation Actions, organizational expense codes, or strategic initiatives and priorities.
Duplicate or copy Work Plan Views
Work Plan Views can be duplicated within your project to use as a template for a new work plan view. For example, if you are using a monthly work plan view to manage detailed work plans for the current fiscal year, you can duplicate the same view to preserve all of the same settings but apply the view to a different year. In this way you can create identical work plan views for multiple years.
Use the Duplicate button on the left next to the work plan view name to use the selected work plan view as a template for a new work plan view:
Work Plan Views can also be copied between projects. Using the same work plan views across projects helps ensure that project teams are following consistent business practices for their work planning. To copy one or more work plan views to one or more projects, select the work plan views to copy (1), click on COPY TO (2), and follow the instructions to select the projects to which you want to copy the work plan views.
NOTE: Work Plan Views can only be copied to Miradi projects using the same Fiscal Year. To change the Fiscal Year for a project, use the Timeframes panel on the Work Plan Hub or the Project Overview page. Learn more about setting Project Timeframes.
Create and manage Assignments and Expenses
Add, delete, or edit actions, assignments or expenses using the "..." menu next to the factor name:
Edit work plan data (work units for assignments, costs for expenses) in the white and orange cells in the table:
- White cells contain no work plan data and can be edited.
- Orange cells contain work plan data on a time level (monthly, quarterly or yearly) different than the current work plan view and can be converted to the current view time level (eg yearly -> monthly) by clicking on the cell.
- Gray cells contain roll-up data and often can not be edited.
Edit classifications and Funding Sources by clicking on the cells in these columns. Both white and gray cells are editable if the classification / funding source is associated with the factor. In the example below, the CMP Conservation Action 2.0 classification is associated with strategies so the dark gray rows are editable, and Funding Sources are associated with assignments so the white cells are editable.
Export Work Plan Views to Excel
Work Plan Views can be exported to Excel or as a CSV file for further analysis. Select the Work Plan View to export (1), choose whether to export Assignments or Expenses (2), and export to Excel or as a CSV file (3).
The exported file will include all of the visible data, row groupings, and cell formatting in the Work Plan View, including the individual cell values (white rows), roll up values (gray rows), and any color coded cells noting data on a time scale that is inconsistent with the current Work Plan View time scale (e.g. the orange cell highlighted above).
Note that once data are exported to Excel, any changes made to the spreadsheet in Excel will not be reflected in the Miradi project file. Changes made in Excel will also need to made in the Miradi project file, or imported back into the Miradi project file using the Bulk Import feature. Learn more about importing Expenses using Bulk Import.
Bulk import Expenses
For Miradi projects housed within Miradi Share program spaces, Expense data can be edited and imported using Miradi Share's Bulk Import features. Navigate to PROJECT ADMIN / Bulk Import, and select Import Type = Expenses or Classification of Expenses. Learn more about how to use the Bulk Import tools.
Some Work Plan data must still be managed in Miradi Desktop
Some work plan data must still be managed in Miradi Desktop. It is not necessary to develop this information to do work planning in Miradi Share, but it can help teams ensure that work planning is done consistently and following the best practices defined by your team. In the future, this information will also be accessible in Miradi Share.
To edit this information in Miradi Desktop,
Download and install the latest version of Miradi Desktop software.
Check out your project and import it to Miradi Desktop. (Note that while you have the project checked out, it will be locked in Miradi Share so no one else can edit the project.) Once you have made the necessary edits in Miradi Desktop, follow the same instructions to import your project back into Miradi Share.
Manage project-level work plan and financial settings
In Miradi Desktop, navigate to the Work Plan View to edit project-wide work plan settings.
Under Settings you can manage Work Plan Settings and Financial Settings. Under Work Plan Settings, note that Project Dates, Work Plan Dates and Fiscal Year are also visible and editable in Miradi Share. Any changes in Miradi Desktop will also be reflected in Miradi Share once the project is checked back in.
Under Financial Settings, develop additional work planning details to ensure consistency across your team. Note that none of these fields are currently visible or editable in Miradi Share.
Manage work plan settings for individual resources
For any resource (person or group) in Miradi you can develop additional detailed information. For the purposes of calculating budgets and expenditures, it can be helpful to define the work unit rate for each person. To define the Work Unit Rate for a resource, navigate to the Work Plan View and find the People tab. Create or select a resource, and scroll down in the lower panel to find the Work Unit Rate field. Note that the Work Unit Rate Description shown above is included as a view-only explanation for the Work Unit Rate field below.
Manage Funding Sources
A list of Funding Sources can be created and managed in Miradi Desktop. Once created, the list of Funding Sources is available to apply to all Assignments and Expenses in Miradi Desktop or Miradi Share.
To access the Funding Source list in Miradi Desktop, navigate to Work Plan View / Funding Sources. Once Funding Sources are created in Miradi Desktop, and your project is checked back in to Miradi Share, these funding sources can be applied to assignments and expenses. If you need to edit the list of funding sources in the future, you will need to check the project out and edit the list in Miradi Desktop.
Troubleshooting Work Planning
We know these tools are new so if something is not working as expected, please post a comment below (sign-in required) or let us know!
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.