Setting Up Schedule Templates

Before you start creating Schedule Templates, you should have created your Tasks  first. To be able to start working on individual books, you then must establish your Default Schedules, which will allow you to then allocate a set of tasks to the creation of a title.

The first step is to create a schedule called ‘Default’ that will automatically be applied to all of your titles until you create form-specific schedules (eg paperback, reprint etc).

If you don’t do this, you won’t be able to access your titles in the Book Production screen.

Setting Up Schedule Templates:

Select Schedule Templates from the main Production Admin menu, and you will be taken to a new screen. The list will be empty if you haven't created any schedule templates. In the image below, we have added some schedules as examples.

1. Click on Create New.

2. Form/Class: Choose a format from the list of options in the drop-down menu (ie PB, HB). If you are creating your general Default schedule, then leave this item at Default. What you are doing is creating schedules that can be lumped by product type or form.

If you want a format that is not on the list, click on the little blue button called NEW and you will be able to type a name of your schedule manually. To go back to the drop-down menu, click on Select existing.

3. Schedule Type: Choose a schedule type from the drop-down list. There are six schedule types available: 

Production Checklist: The production Checklist functions very similarly to the Editorial Checklist,

Roles: Roles make up the production workflow and are tasks that are needed to create the title and move it from concept into publication. Roles differ from checklists in that they are assignable. Please note that some client publishers decide to hide the checklist tab in order to use this Roles tab only.

Costs: Here you can add information about costs connected to tasks and set the basis on which the costs are being built, whether it is a fixed cost or by copies ordered or by a page, and you can set the rate and currency. This will then go into your profit and loss estimation.

Rights: Here you can add tasks relating to your Rights schedule. Click here for more information on Rights Contracts.  

Editorial Completion Schedule: for more information, see this page.

Editorial Checklist: for more information, see this page. 

4. Select a Task from from the drop-down menu.

5. Add the Duration of the deadline by typing in a numerical value, and chose the Period from the drop down menu as either days or weeks. You must set at least 1 deadline in your schedule; otherwise, you will get an error message when accessing a title in Book Production.  You can tick the boxes to mark whether your deadline is a milestone or is immovable.

6. Repeat items 4 and 5 until you've added all of the tasks related to that schedule template.

7. If you are setting up a Roles template, you can also modify the dependencies of the tasks, by selecting 'Modify Dependencies. The following fields will appear.

In this example, the second task (B) is dependent on the first task (A) being completed, and the third task (C) is dependent on the second task (B) being completed. This basic train of dependencies will be automatically applied, but if, for example, you have several tasks relying on one prior task being completed, you can modify the dependency fields to reflect this. This will then map when the dates are included in the Production Roles tab so that the start dates of each of the tasks that is dependent on the prior task will sync with the end date of the prior task.

Top Tip:

It is vital that you include durations in your schedule templates as this is what triggers the system to include a title on your Prod Scheduling. If you do not do this, then you will need to go into the Checklists tab of each title you have added to your production schedule and manually add information to the column we have circled below in red. Click 'cancel' when the system tries to 'automatically update' the rest of the items in the schedule and continue to type items in manually.

Once you have created your Default schedule, you can create as many schedules as needed for different formats. If you want to copy an existing schedule, click on the looking glass symbol (shown in the image below) and a pop up window will appear enabling you to choose from the list of schedules you have already created:

 

Click on the relevant item and the screen will be populated with the tasks related to that schedule. You can start to manipulate in there, adjusting where necessary..

To remove a Schedule template, click on a box in front of the Schedule template and click Remove Selected:

 

 

 

Top Tip for Schedule Templates:

If you change any elements of a template that have already been applied to a project in Book Production, these changes will not filter through to the rest of the system. You will need to go back into the individual titles within Book Production and adjust the schedule.

We've have circled the relevant item in the image below:

You have two options.

1. You can click on a different schedule template and then back onto the original one (in this case Default). When the screen refreshes, the schedule should update accordingly.
2. If it does not, then you can click onto the Edit All button. By doing so, you will be able to adjust the various tasks within the schedule against this individual title only.

3. Please note that the system will not necessarily be able to map dates from the original schedule onto the updated schedule with 100% accuracy. If, for example, the updated schedule has a few extra tasks, this will result in an incomplete mapping of dates. You will therefore want to check the dates once the new schedule has been applied.

Click Update when you are done.