pulpPlan help

pulpPlan is the project management app in pulpSuite. It brings together the schedule of a tool like MS Project (task hierarchy, durations in working days, links, critical path, baseline) and the team board of a tool like Monday (statuses, owners, priorities, Kanban). It runs in the browser with nothing to install, and is meant for project managers, teams and tradespeople running a job site. You can also share a project with a team or open it on a phone: see Working together.

One project can be viewed six ways, using the tabs at the top: Table, Gantt, Kanban, Calendar, Workload and Dashboard.

Getting started

1. Open pulpPlan. The first time you open it, a sample project appears on its own (a fictitious company's building-site schedule: linked tasks, milestones, resources and a slip against the baseline) so you can see what pulpPlan looks like; Start from scratch or Remove the example clears it in one click, and File › See the example again brings it back. As soon as you change it, it becomes your project. The Templates menu offers Product launch, Construction, Event and Blank project; each template opens in a new project tab.
2. To pick up an existing schedule, use File › Open… (Ctrl+O) or drag the file onto the window: MS Project (.xml, .mpx), GanttProject (.gan), CSV or pulpPlan (.pplan). A window shows how many tasks, resources and links were imported, and flags anything that was adapted.
3. Click New item to add a task. In the Table view, New group creates a group and + Add item adds a task to it. Type straight into the name to change it.
4. In the Gantt view, drag a bar to move it, drag its right edge to change its duration, and drag the dot that appears at the end of a bar onto another bar to link them.
5. Save with Ctrl+S: the project is written in pulpPlan format (.pplan). To hand it back to an MS Project user, use Export › MS Project (.xml).

Common tasks

How do I open an MS Project file?

pulpPlan reads Microsoft Project XML (File › Save As › XML Format in Project) and MPX files. Open them with File › Open… or by dragging them onto the window. The hierarchy, durations (hours, days, weeks, elapsed and estimated durations), links and their lags, constraints, deadlines, the project calendar and its exceptions, resources, assignments, progress, actual dates, the main baseline and notes all come across. The import report lists what is not applied to the schedule calculation (resource calendars, assignment units, custom fields…).

An .mpp file (Project's own format) is recognised, even when renamed, but not read: pulpPlan shows the detected Project version and explains how to save it as XML. Without Project, ask the sender for the XML export. A Primavera P6 XML export is not read either: export it from P6 in Microsoft Project (XML) format.

While a file takes a while to open, pulpPlan shows its name and a Cancel button. After three minutes, opening is stopped with a message: the file is probably too large or damaged.

How do I bring in a schedule kept in a spreadsheet (CSV)?

Save your sheet as CSV (from pulpSheet, Excel or an MS Project export), then open it with File › Open… or drag it onto the window. pulpPlan recognises columns by their heading, in English, French or Spanish: task name, start, finish, duration, progress, owner, status, group or phase, priority, notes, predecessors, milestone, ID or WBS. Durations can be written the way you would say them (“5 d”, “2 wk”, “3 h”), and the day/month order of dates is worked out from the file; the import report flags ambiguous dates, which are read as day/month. The project opens in the Table view.

If no schedule column is recognised, pulpPlan shows “This CSV file is not a schedule; open it in pulpSheet.” A CSV file with more than 100,000 rows is turned down too: “This CSV file has more than 100,000 rows: it is a data table, not a schedule. Open it in pulpSheet.” In both cases, the Open in pulpSheet button opens the file straight in the spreadsheet.

How do I build a Gantt chart online?

Choose the Gantt view. On the left, the grid shows the row number, name, duration, start, finish and predecessors; on the right, the bars. Change the scale with Days, Weeks, Months or Quarters, jump back to the current date with Today, and use Indent or Outdent to put a task inside a group. Groups become summary tasks whose dates and progress are calculated for you. The handle between the grid and the bars sets the grid's width.

How do I link tasks and set dependencies?

Drag the dot at the end of a bar onto the next bar: a finish-to-start link is created. To fine-tune it, open the task's details (double-click, or the Open button that appears when you hover over a row in the table). Under Predecessors, choose Add predecessor, then the link type (FS finish-to-start, SS start-to-start, FF finish-to-finish, SF start-to-finish) and the lag in working days (a negative number brings the task forward). The dates of the following tasks are recalculated straight away. If links form a loop, they are ignored and the number of circular links ignored is shown above the Gantt chart.

How do I pin a date or schedule a task manually?

In the details panel, the Constraint field offers As soon as possible, Start no earlier than, Must start on, Finish no later than, Start no later than, Finish no earlier than and Must finish on, with the matching date. Tick Manually scheduled so a task keeps exactly the start and finish you entered, whatever its links. Tick Milestone for a step with no duration, shown as a diamond.

How do I track the critical path and delays?

In the Gantt view, the Critical path button highlights the tasks that push back the end of the project if they slip. Click Save baseline to freeze the planned schedule, then turn on Baseline to see the differences under each bar. A task whose finish date has passed without being completed is marked Overdue. The Dashboard view sums up overall progress, done and overdue tasks, the forecast finish, the slip against the baseline, critical tasks, the split by status, progress by group, workload by person and upcoming milestones.

How do I share out work across the team?

In a task's details or in the Owner column of the table, click to assign someone; type a name to Add person. You can also set the Status, the Priority (Low, Medium, High, Critical) and the Progress. The Kanban view sorts tasks by status (To do, Working on it, Stuck, Done): drag a card to change its status. The Workload view shows, week by week, each person's load as a percentage of their capacity. The Calendar view shows the month, with each task stretched across its days and milestones as diamonds. A task's details also hold its Notes (background, decisions, useful links) and its Color.

How do I find a task in a large project?

Type a few letters in the Search… box in the top bar (on a wide enough screen): the Table and Kanban views then only show items whose name contains them. In a project with thousands of tasks, the table and the Kanban columns are shown in batches: click Show more at the bottom of the list to see the next items.

How do I print a Gantt chart or make a PDF?

Ctrl+P (or File › Print…) opens the print window: Gantt or Table view, entire project or custom dates, timescale, columns, paper (A5 to A1, Letter, Legal, Tabloid), portrait or landscape, margins, scaling (a percentage, or a number of pages wide and tall), legend, links, critical path and baseline. The page count is shown before you print. For a PDF, choose Save as PDF in the browser's print window. See also printing.

How do I see deadlines in my calendar?

Tasks and milestones from your projects are published to the suite's shared calendar: the pulpInbox calendar shows them next to your appointments. Opening an item from the calendar takes you straight to its details in pulpPlan. These deadlines stay on your device.

How do I export to Excel or MS Project?

Click Export: MS Project (.xml) for Project, CSV for a spreadsheet (WBS, name, start, finish, duration, progress, status, owner, predecessors; the file opens in pulpSheet), and pulpPlan (.pplan) for a complete copy.

Working together

A project can be shared with a team, or opened on a phone, with no account and no pulpSuite server. The general idea is explained in Share a file with your team or your phone; to compare it with the other ways of working: Where your data lives and how to work with others.

• Share a project: File › Save as a shared file… copies the project on screen into a synced folder (OneDrive, Nextcloud, kDrive) or onto a network drive, for example Site.pplan. It opens in a new tab; your original project is not modified. Your colleagues open it with File › Open a shared folder… and everyone sees the others' changes as soon as the folder syncs.
• An MS Project (.xml) or GanttProject (.gan) file: open it, then share it the same way. So that several people can edit it at the same time, it is saved in the pulpSuite format (a folder); your original file is not modified, and the window explains this before creating the folder. Export (MS Project .xml, CSV, .pplan) stays available at any time to send it or open it in another program.
• What combines without a conflict: two people changing two tasks, or two fields of the same task (one the duration, the other the notes), or adding tasks, dependency links or resources at the same time, do not get in each other's way. Dates, the critical path and row numbers are recalculated for everyone after the merge.
• If two people change the same field (the duration of the same task, for example), the most recent value is kept and a notice tells you, with Keep or Use the other value.
• Order and hierarchy: moving a task up or down, under another group, Tab and Shift+Tab are shared. If two people put the same task in two places, the most recent wins. A task added under a group that someone else has just deleted is kept, at the top level. Two links in opposite directions added at the same time form a loop: pulpPlan ignores it and flags it, as for any circular link.
• Deletion: a task deleted while a colleague is editing it stays deleted, and a notice tells you.
• Undo never undoes other people's work: only your own changes are undone.
• File status: the badge in the title bar says On this computer or Shared · N devices; a click shows who has received your changes and offers Sync now.
• Phone and guests: File › Open on my phone… shows a QR code; compare the 6-digit code on both devices, then choose Read-only or Edit. The Invite to this project button in the title bar does the same for a colleague. A guest sees the whole project; in read-only mode the editing controls do not respond.
• Automatic backup: File › Automatic backup… keeps a full copy every day in the folder of your choice.

Limits specific to pulpPlan

• Only one shared file is open at a time; it appears as one more tab. Closing that tab takes you back to your projects on this device.
• A guest is invited onto the whole project, not onto a single task.
• The resources of a task form a list: if two people put different resources on it at the same time, the most recent is kept (with a notice).
• Collapsed or expanded groups are not shared: everyone keeps their own view (the file reopens expanded).
• Anyone with access to the folder can see and edit the whole project; encrypt the file if needed. Changes arrive at the pace of the folder's synchronization, not in real time (about a second between two computers open at the same time).

Supported formats

Known limitations:

• Ctrl+S never overwrites an .xml, .mpx or .gan file: it saves a .pplan file. To hand the project back to Project, use Export › MS Project (.xml).
• The project calendar (working days, holidays, exceptions) comes from the imported file; it cannot be edited in pulpPlan yet. A new project works Monday to Friday.
• Task and resource calendars (leave, working hours) are not applied to the calculation: their effect on dates is kept at import, but a later change is recalculated with the project calendar.
• Assignment units (part-time) are kept, but the Workload view counts 100%. Resource work is not recalculated for fixed-duration, fixed-work or fixed-units tasks.
• Custom fields and hyperlinks are kept and exported again, but not displayed yet.
• Only the main baseline is imported; baselines 1 to 10 are ignored. Projects scheduled from their finish date are recalculated from their start; subprojects become plain tasks; there is no automatic resource levelling.
• Material and cost resources are shown as people (their type is kept on export). Recurring tasks become ordinary tasks.

Keyboard shortcuts

On a Mac, Cmd replaces Ctrl.

Anywhere in the suite, Ctrl+J opens pulpAssist and Ctrl+Shift+O opens the open-documents panel.

AI in pulpPlan

pulpPlan does not include an AI model: the schedule calculation (dates, slack, critical path) follows fixed rules, the same ones scheduling software uses.

With pulpAssist (Ctrl+J) you can ask for the list of tasks (all, open, overdue or milestones) with their calculated dates, or have a task or milestone added to a group, with its date, duration and owners. The addition is shown on a confirmation card before it is made, and Ctrl+Z undoes it. pulpAssist uses the AI set up for your pulpSuite: the project content needed for your request is sent to that service. Check the dates it suggests. See the pulpAssist help.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Why won't my .mpp file open?

An .mpp file uses Microsoft Project's own format, which changes from one version to the next: pulpPlan recognises it and shows its version, but cannot read it reliably. In Project, choose File › Save As › XML Format (*.xml), then open the .xml file in pulpPlan.

Do the dates differ from MS Project?

When a file opens, pulpPlan recalculates the schedule with the project calendar and matches the dates saved by Project on the files tested. Differences can appear later if the project uses task or resource calendars, or part-time assignments, which the calculation does not apply yet. Check key dates before you share them.

Where is my project saved?

Open projects are kept in your browser, on your device, and saved automatically after each change. They are only written to disk when you press Ctrl+S. See open documents and saving.

Can I open several projects at once?

Yes. Opening a file or choosing a template adds a project in a new tab without replacing the one on screen; each keeps its own undo history and view.

Does pulpPlan work offline?

Yes, once the suite has loaded: scheduling, saving, exporting and printing all happen on your device. Only pulpAssist needs the network.

My CSV file opens in pulpSheet instead of pulpPlan.

pulpPlan only opens a CSV file that looks like a schedule (at least one column such as “Task”, “Start”, “Duration” or “WBS”) and has no more than 100,000 rows. Otherwise, it offers Open in pulpSheet. To turn it into a schedule, rename the column headings (see bringing in a schedule kept in a spreadsheet), then open the file in pulpPlan again.

How do I send a project during a pulpCrew meeting?

In pulpCrew, the Share a pulpSuite document button offers your project in pulpPlan format (.pplan): participants can open it in pulpPlan exactly as it is. See the pulpCrew help.

A message mentions circular links. What should I do?

Two or more tasks depend on each other in a loop. pulpPlan ignores those links so it can still calculate. Open the details of the tasks involved and remove the extra predecessor.