Real-world scheduling is often complex: Locations, resources, teams, phases, and event types can all be important. Standard calendars, however, don’t provide options and flexibility to track all the key details in an organized way. With Teamup, you can combine sub-calendars and custom fields for an organized structure that can handle multi-dimensional scheduling.
The complexity of real-world scheduling
Real-world scheduling often has multiple dimensions:
- Team members are working on multiple projects.
- A service business assigns a crew member as well as a fleet vehicle for each job.
- A coach needs to book a room for a client meeting.
- A conference includes a workshop on a specific topic hosted by a sponsor company and led by a speaker.
Fortunately, with Teamup’s combination of sub-calendars and custom fields, you can get all the dimensions into the calendar structure. No need to pick and choose what you’ll track and ignore the rest. Choose a few primary dimensions to build the base of your calendar with sub-calendars. Then layer on custom fields as structural elements that extend across the base as needed.
Combining sub-calendars and custom fields
Sub-calendars: Vertical columns
Sub-calendars form the base of a calendar’s structure. They define main categories and clearly separate events. However, using only sub-calendars can lead to an overwhelming list that’s hard to navigate and manage.Think of sub-calendars as the pillars of a structure, standing vertically. You want enough that the structure is well-supported, but not so many that you can’t navigate in it.
Choice fields: Horizontal beams
Custom choice fields add a horizontal layer to the calendar structure. Think of choice fields like beams that extend across the space, connecting a row of pillars.
How do choice fields connect these sub-calendar pillars? A sub-calendar puts an event in a certain categorical box. A choice field gives an event a certain state or characteristic that can carry across all categories.
It’s not always clear whether a particular factor should be a sub-calendar or a custom field. Here’s what to consider.
Quick Look: What to consider
- Access control: If access control is important, use sub-calendars. When you add a user, you can select which sub-calendars are included and set the permission level for each sub-calendar individually. More details here.
- Conflict prevention: If it’s important to avoid double-booking, use sub-calendars. Each sub-calendar can be configured to automatically prevent overlapping events.
- Track across categories: If a certain factor (project phase, task status, ID) needs to be tracked across other categories, use a custom field. Custom choice fields have built-in filters for easy sorting and tracking.
- High variation: For a high number of possible options (course numbers, clients, keywords), use a custom field. Choice fields allow many predetermined options without cluttering the calendar. Text fields work well for items that need to be included, but aren’t necessarily known ahead of time (tasks, assignments, contact names).
Sub-calendars for primary categories
Typically, sub-calendars are best for the primary scheduling categories, like staff members, projects, or locations. Sub-calendars have access control and automatic conflict prevention built in.
Access control
You can control access to events on a specific sub-calendar by choosing which users get access to that sub-calendar and assigning specific permission levels:
- Allow all employees to create events on their own sub-calendar (e.g. scheduling time-off/PTO requests) but prevent them from making changes to events on other employees’ calendars. Using a combination of permissions (modify-my-events, add-only, read-only) makes it work. See how to set this up.
- Sharing a public events calendar, either by embedding it in a website or sharing a calendar link. The calendar link is set up with read-only access, which lets viewers SEE the events but not make any changes.
Access control is a feature of sub-calendars, but not of custom fields.
Overlapping events
Overlapping events are fine in some categories. For example, there could be multiple tasks, all with the same status, all belonging to the same project; it’s normal that there would be several concurrent tasks happening.
For other categories of events, overlapping events are a disaster. For example, if there’s a bookable meeting room, it should never be reserved for use at the same time by multiple people. For shared spaces and resources, double-bookings are a big problem that should be prevented.
Sub-calendars have a built-in setting which can be turned on that automatically prevents overlapping events. So, if it’s important to prevent double-bookings for a certain category of events, they should be represented by sub-calendars. Custom fields do not have this ability.
For primary scheduling dimensions, those features are invaluable. Take a look at these examples.
Example: Shift scheduling
Click to enlarge: The manager has modify access to all staff sub-calendars. Each staff member has access only to their own sub-calendar.
A calendar for assigning shifts to staff members can be structured with one sub-calendar assigned to each shift member. To assign a shift, an event for that shift time is created and assigned to the appropriate calendar(s). Each sub-calendar can be set to disallow overlapping events, which prevents anyone from being accidentally assigned to two shifts at the same time. Each staff member can have access only to their own sub-calendar, so they can see their own shift assignments but not the schedule for other staff members.
Example: Academic class schedule
Click to enlarge: Sub-calendars grouped into folders. Nested folders organized rooms in different buildings.
A calendar for scheduling classes can be set up with two primary sets of sub-calendars. The first set is for instructors; each instructor has a sub-calendar, and these calendars are grouped in a folder. The second set is for locations: namely, individual rooms where classes will be held. There are several buildings, so these calendars are grouped in nesting folders to keep them organized by building. All the sub-calendars disallow overlapping events to prevent double-booking instructors or classrooms.
Custom fields for secondary layers
Custom fields are best for scheduling factors that need cross-category reach, such as project phases and task status. There are different field types and field contents can be shown in event titles.
Any event on a Teamup calendar must be assigned to one or more sub-calendars. However, custom fields are optional for any event. You can create custom fields but you don’t have to use them on each event. That’s why custom fields work well for capturing traits and attributes that are specific to individual events, but independent of the broader event categories:
- Status changes such as requested, in progress, completed, invoiced, or delivered. The status for each task would change while the large job or project category, designated by sub-calendar, stays the same.
- Details specific to an individual event, such as a contact phone number for a service job or numerical field to capture the estimated price. The contact number or price would be specifically tied to that specific job only, so should be captured in fields. The sub-calendars would hold “groups” of jobs according to broader categories like service type, crew, or job location.
Use sub-calendars for event groups which can be color-coded and should have access that is controlled or customized. Use custom fields to track unique attributes for each individual events.
Example: Shift responsibilities
Click to enlarge: Managers can assign a role to staff members when scheduling shifts using a custom field.
On the shift scheduling calendar above, the manager schedules each staff member by adding events to their calendar. This tells each staff member when they’re working. If the manager also wants to assign specific roles or tasks, a custom field works well. For example, a custom field could be added for Shift responsibilities or Staff role.
When a manager schedules someone to a shift, they can also assign a role and/or designate certain responsibilities. If there are regular roles, a choice field with predetermined options works best. If the manager wants to write in different tasks that change frequently, a text field works best.
Example: Course numbers
Click to enlarge: Schedulers can assign the course number to every class, lab, or studio session and easily track all the scheduled hours for a particular course.
For academic scheduling, each class session is added to the calendar for the instructor and the classroom. Schedulers may also want to track the course number for each class, so they can then look over the whole calendar and make sure there are adequate classroom hours to meet the different course requirements. They can add a custom choice field, prefilled with the course numbers. Then each class can be “tagged” with the appropriate course number by choosing it from the field. Schedulers can filter to see all the scheduled classes, and total hours, for any course. Having the ability to filter by course number across all sub-calendars helps schedulers find the info they need quickly.
Build a structure that works for your needs
Both sub-calendars and custom fields have a lot to offer. When deciding which one is best for a particular part of scheduling, like room assignment or shift responsibility, think about what’s important. Then choose the best fit.
Want to test out what works best? Open a live demo calendar and try out the possibilities with sub-calendars and custom fields.
