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How does "Look Ahead Schedule" work in Protiv?

Look Ahead Schedule lets managers plan next week's non-recurring job work before Monday, committing crew, hours, and milestones so leadership has visibility and budgets stay on track.

When a plan is submitted, leadership gets notified by email. The plan is then compared against the job's budget and logged time so everyone can see whether the job is on track, behind, or ahead.

What do I need before I can use it?

Look Ahead Schedule only works when all four of these are true:

  1. Protiv has enabled the feature on your organization (off by default, contact support to enable it)
  2. The job is non-recurring, Look Ahead does not apply to recurring maintenance routes
  3. Look Ahead Schedules are turned on in Settings → Jobs
  4. The job has sub-jobs (locations) and milestones with services set up

If Look Ahead isn't showing up on a job, check these four things first.

How do I configure Look Ahead settings? 

There are two layers: org-wide defaults and per-job overrides.

  •  Settings → Jobs → Look Ahead Schedule Settings

Admins set these. They apply to all non-recurring jobs unless a job overrides them.

Setting What it does
Default look ahead range How many weeks out to plan (1, 2, 3, or custom)
Work days Which days count for man-day and hour math (e.g., Mon–Fri)
Hours per day 8 or 10 — converts crew × days into planned hours
Submittal deadline Day + time the plan is due before the work period starts (e.g., Friday 5:00 PM)
Notify receiver via email Whether submission triggers an email to selected admins/managers

How do I build and submit a plan?

  1. Open a non-recurring job → go to the Look Ahead Schedule section
  2. Create a new schedule or open an existing draft
  3. Add work items — one row per milestone:
    • Select a Location (sub-job)
    • Select a Service — the system resolves the milestone automatically
    • Set employees, start/end dates, and planned hours (auto-calculated or manually overridden)
    • Set expected completion %
  4. Review the budget insight on each row, it shows budgeted vs. logged vs. planned hours and flags whether the milestone is behind, on track, or ahead
  5. Submit the plan — pick which admins or managers to notify, add any custom email addresses, and send

Once submitted, the plan is locked unless you revert it to draft (available while still submitted or in progress).

What do the plan statuses mean?

Status What it means
Draft Manager is still building the plan
Submitted Plan sent; work period hasn't started yet
In progress Work period has started
Closed Period ended; plan vs. actual comparison is available
Cancelled Plan was discarded

What is the submittal deadline?

When a deadline is set, the job tile shows a banner:

  • Yellow — plan is due soon
  • Red — deadline has passed and no plan has been submitted

The deadline is a visual warning — there's no automatic lockout if a plan is submitted late.

Where does Look Ahead not apply?

  • Recurring jobs — hidden by design
  • Jobs without sub-jobs or milestones — the work item picker requires a location + service to resolve a milestone
  • Formal approval workflows — there is no approve/reject step; submission sends an email only

Still need help? Email or call us!

Email us at help@protiv.com: This is the fastest way to get a response. You can expect a reply in 1-2 hours during business hours.

Call us at +1 848-220-1416: You can also call us during business hours, weekdays from 9 am to 6 pm EST.