> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://changelog.visilean.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://changelog.visilean.com/changelog/release-5.0-2026/5.1-gearing-up-for-hourly-granularity-in-visilean.md).

# 5.1  Gearing up for Hourly Granularity in Visilean

A daily programme tells you what should happen on Tuesday, but not whether the pour starts at 06:00 or 13:00. On shutdowns, night possessions, takt trains and tight floor cycles, that gap is where time gets lost. To close it, we've reworked VisiLean's scheduling architecture under the hood to work in hours and minutes, not just days. Hourly Planning is the first step built on that foundation, letting you plan, run and measure work at the resolution your site actually works at.

#### Why This Matters

When planning stops at the day, slippage inside a shift stays invisible until it becomes a lost day. Start times live on paper, stops for a late permit or broken-down plant go unrecorded, and a delay only reaches the next trade by phone. Without hourly actuals, PPC shows whether work got done, not whether it got done when committed. Hourly Planning records what happens against the plan, to the minute, and carries the consequences downstream automatically.

#### What's New?

* **An hourly project, set up at creation.** Enable Hourly Planning on a new project, pick its time zone, working calendar and a 15, 30 or 60-minute time step. Start and Complete then capture the exact time automatically.
* **A working calendar that drives everything.** Define working hours, breaks and non-working days per weekday, and edit them at any time. Tasks can run on their own calendar, such as a night shift, and starts outside working hours are rejected with the next available slot suggested.
* **Durations in working time.** On a 06:00–14:00 calendar with a 10:00–10:15 break, a 4 h task starting at 07:00 ends at 11:15. Pushes skip breaks and evenings, and unfinished tasks stay In Progress overnight without counting time.
* **Start, Pause and Complete from site.** Start records the exact time and runs a timer that excludes breaks. Pause logs each stop with a reason, such as Material Shortage or Permit Delay, and Complete records the finish, calculates variance and updates downstream tasks.
* **A live ETA with confirmed rescheduling.** The ETA updates on every start, pause and resume, and turns red once past the planned finish. Before dependent tasks move, you review every affected task, current versus new time, and confirm or cancel.
* **Notifications and reminders.** The assignee and supervisor are alerted when a task hasn't started 15 minutes after its due time or runs past its planned finish. Owners are told when an upstream slip moves their task, and start reminders fire 5–30 minutes ahead.
* **Hours across every view.** The Scheduler gains an Hourly view grouped by User, Trade, Location or Zone, with cards sized by duration. Gantt, Takt, Table, Dashboard and 4D BIM all show hourly times, and a time-range filter works across them.
* **The shift on mobile.** A Today timeline and an hour-grid Timeline view show the shift at a glance, with cards coloured by status. The timer shows the ETA and reads "On Break" while paused.
* **Daily PPC and Planned vs Actual.** Daily PPC compares tasks finished at or before their planned finish against tasks planned for today, with a 7- or 14-day trend. Planned vs Actual shows start and finish variance, filterable by date, location, person and status.
* **Power BI and event feeds.** Task times, variance, pause records and Daily PPC feed Power BI. Event subscriptions cover start, pause, resume, completion, hold, reschedule and delay.

#### How It Helps: Three Example Use Case Scenarios

A Planner preparing a fit-out sequence for a night possession puts the MEP crew on a night-shift calendar and drags a proven first-fix template onto the hourly Scheduler. When a late start pushes the chain, the confirmation list shows exactly which tasks move and by how much before anything changes.

A Site Engineer starts drilling at 07:00, then pauses for 30 minutes for a late delivery, logged as Material Shortage. The ETA moves out by 30 minutes, the supervisor is alerted once the planned finish passes, and the downstream task owner learns their start has moved without a phone call.

A Project Manager sees a Daily PPC of 80% and clicks into the day to find the two tasks that slipped. Planned vs Actual shows ventilation tasks consistently running 15–20 minutes over, so the team updates the template from 45 to 60 minutes.

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#### Key Considerations & Caution Points

**Set at Creation Only:** Hourly Planning is chosen when a project is created and can't be switched off. Existing and daily projects are unchanged.

**One Time Zone per Project:** Times show in the project time zone for everyone, and the zone can't be changed once tasks exist.

**Calendar Rename:** The "Standard" calendar category is now called "Global" across all projects.

**No Delay Tolerance:** Any overrun, even 1 minute, marks a task as delayed and counts against Daily PPC.

**Editing Times:** Edit times in the Property Panel. Time columns in Table View and Dashboard lists are read-only, and the Scheduler's Hourly view changes times but not dates.

**Notifications:** Web pop-ups aren't stored, so there's no history to check later.

**Pause Reasons:** Mobile uses slightly different wording for some reasons, and all web pauses appear as "Break" in Power BI.
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{% hint style="warning" %}
The timer doesn't pause itself at shift end. It continues to show as running overnight but stops counting working time.
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{% hint style="danger" %}
Hourly Planning can only be enabled by a VisiLean Admin or Customer Success when a new project is created. Contact your Customer Success team to set up an hourly project.
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