You plan a large workforce on the Resource Planner by narrowing first, then booking: filter the people rows to the team, company or skill you are planning, filter To schedule to the jobs that matter, and book from the list, the board or the map. Filters are only for your screen. New to the planner? Start with What is the Resource Planner? A tour for new users.
For planners and office staff first, then admins.
How do I plan 100, 500 or 1,000 technicians without drowning?
Work in three moves, in this order:
Narrow the people you are planning today: one company, one team, one area, one skill.
Narrow the jobs: one project, one work package, or the jobs given to one company or person.
Book in batches: tick or draw round many jobs on the map and assign them together, or let route optimisation fill whole days.
How do I narrow the people I see?
Next to People is a search box (by Name or company) and a funnel. Select the funnel, Filter people, to narrow the rows.
Filter | What it does |
Team | Show people in one or more teams. |
Area | Show people working in one or more service areas. |
Workforce | Everyone, Staff (your own people) or Subcontractors (people in partner companies). |
Company | Pick your own company and any partner companies, several at once. Shown when you have partner companies. |
Technician | Pick people by searching Name, company or role, several at once. |
Skills | Show people who have every skill you add. |
Add each pick with its Add… button; each appears as a pill you can take off with its ×. Clear filters takes them all off. Your own staff sit under your own company, listed first in Company.
How do I narrow the jobs?
In To schedule, select Filter. The panel is called Filter the list.
Choice | What it does |
Show | Both, Jobs or Bookings (when your company uses bookings). |
Sort | Due soonest or Most urgent. |
Project and work package | Show one project, or one work package (a site) within it. Each choice shows how many jobs wait; empty ones are greyed. |
Assigned to | Show what is given to a company or a person. See below. |
Due | Starts from about a month ago. Tick Show jobs more than 30 days late to see older ones. Jobs with no due date always show. |
Map | When the map is open, Only jobs in the map's view. |
How does Assigned to work?
Open Filter, then Assigned to. It says Anyone until you pick.
Type in Find a company or person to search by company, name or role.
Select a company's name or arrow to see its people (Expand all opens every company).
Tick a company to include everything given to it or any of its people, or tick individual people.
Bookings narrow the same way: a booking stays when one of its people is picked, or when its people work for a picked company. This only narrows the list; you can still drag a job onto anyone.
How do I use Week view for a crew?
Select Week. People are rows and days are columns, with hours booked, leave, weekends, Not working days and a crew load line at the bottom.
A day marked over capacity is a person booked for more hours than they work. Select it to open their day.
Under each name, Online or Seen 25 min ago shows who is sharing their live location (where live locations are on).
Drop a job from To schedule on a cell to book it there.
In Board settings, switch Rows to Compact to fit more people.
How do I batch jobs by area?
Open Map. Use Box or Loop to draw round a street or suburb. Every waiting job inside is picked and ticked in To schedule.
Select Box or Loop and draw round the jobs.
Select Assign… on the picked bar.
Choose the person and the date, then Schedule.
For everything about the map, see How to use the map on the Resource Planner.
How do I fill many people's days at once?
Tick the jobs, then choose Plan routes at the bottom of the list (or ⋯, then Plan routes for several people…). Nothing changes until you choose Apply plan and confirm. See How to plan a technician's day with Colobbo route optimisation. Colobbo switches it on company by company, and usage limits apply.
How do I make sure the right skills do the job?
Add Skills in Filter people.
In New booking, Needs skill (optional) narrows who is offered.
In Best matches, a row says Missing and the skill when someone lacks it.
Assigning someone without a needed skill gives a warning, never a block.
How do I keep subcontractors separate?
Set Workforce to Subcontractors, or add a partner company under Company. A subcontractor's own admin sees only their company's people and the jobs given to them.
How do I see who is free?
Open Assign and read Best matches: free first, then nearest.
In Week view, look for people with lighter days.
How do I keep working hours accurate?
For admins. The planner only counts a person's hours once an admin has checked and saved them. Until then the planner never calls them over capacity. For a large crew, work through your people in Settings › Users & Roles. See How to set up the Resource Planner (admin).
What does a good weekly rhythm look like?
A suggestion, not a rule:
When | Do this |
Start of day | Select Today. Clear anything the summary line flags. |
Mid-morning | Sort To schedule by Most urgent and book the top of the list for tomorrow and the day after. |
Early afternoon | Switch to Map and batch the remaining jobs by area. |
End of day | Check Week for over-capacity days tomorrow and fix them. |
Friday | Look at next week in Week view and fill the gaps. |
Tips for getting the most out of it
If the list looks empty, check the Filter count first.
Frequently asked questions
How many people and jobs can the planner handle?
Hundreds of people and thousands of open jobs. It loads jobs 25 at a time as you scroll. A 25+ count means more are waiting.
Do my filters change anything for other people?
No. They only change what you see.
Why can't I see Company or Technician in Filter people?
Company shows when you have partner companies. Technician shows when there is more than one person on your planner.
Why can't I see Assigned to in Filter the list?
It only appears when there are people to pick. If it is missing, contact the Colobbo team.
Can I search people by their skills?
Yes: add skills under Filter people. The search box searches by name or company.