How to Manage Task Deadlines and Duration in Planfix
Task deadlines are where plans quietly fall apart: the assignee remembers a different date, and nobody notices until the work is late. Planfix keeps the deadline inside the task itself, so online task management comes with a date everyone involved can see, a duration the system counts for you, and a choice between calendar days and working days. This one-minute video shows all three.
What you’ll learn: how to manage task deadlines in Planfix
- Why controlling task deadlines keeps a team on schedule (0:00).
- Set a task due date from the calendar in the task card (0:11).
- Use duration so Planfix calculates the due date from the start date (0:23).
- Tell calendar time from working hours before you promise a date (0:40).
- Count only the working days and hours set in an employee’s work schedule.
How to manage task deadlines in Planfix, step by step
Step 1. Set the task due date
Open the task card and click the calendar icon in the upper right corner; if a date is already there, click the current due date instead. Select the date in the calendar that opens, and everyone involved can see when the result is expected. To make sure the team notices a change, add a comment and mention the participants who need it — the Help Center article on how to change a task’s due date covers the details. If your team sets dates all day long, turn on the quick date selection block in Account management → System settings → Advanced features → Quick date selection block, and options such as Today, Tomorrow and In a week become one click.
Step 2. Let duration calculate the deadline
Some work has a length rather than a fixed end date: three days to make edits, for example. In that case set the duration in the calendar, and Planfix calculates the due date from the start date for you, with no recounting by hand. This is the setting for standard timelines and for work that comes back regularly — the rule stays the same, and every new task gets its own deadline from it.
Step 3. Choose calendar time or working hours
Deadlines go wrong most often because the system and the team count days differently. Planfix lets you choose. With calendar time, all days are included in the calculation, weekends and holidays among them. With working hours, the system takes into account only the working hours and working days already defined in the employee’s work schedule, which is what makes workload planning accurate and keeps scheduling conflicts out of the plan. Those hours, along with the time-off calendar, live in employee work schedules, so deadlines follow the calendar your team actually works by.
Step 4. Watch the deadlines you have set
A task that has not moved to Completed or Finished by the end of its scheduled completion date becomes overdue. Its name is shown in red, the completion date in the task card turns red as well, and the task is added to the overdue list in the Planner. What happens next is a conversation rather than a dashboard: the assigner clarifies the reason for the delay with the assignee, and they agree on a new completion date in the comments.
Three days to make edits: duration in practice
The example in the video is a short editing task: three days of work, no fixed end date. You set the start date, set a duration of three days, and Planfix fills in the due date. Switch the same task to working hours and the weekend drops out of the calculation, so the deadline moves to a working day instead of landing on a Sunday nobody will be at the keyboard. Because the duration is stored with the task, the next request of the same kind inherits the timeline instead of a date someone guessed.
Who it’s for
- Managers and team leads: a visible due date in every task, so “when is this due” stops being a chat question.
- Operations and service teams: standard timelines kept as a duration, identical for every new request.
- Resource and workload planners: dates that respect the work schedule, with weekends and holidays left out of the count.
- Distributed teams: one date in the task card that assignees, assigners and participants all read the same way.
FAQ
How do I set a due date for a task in Planfix?
Open the task card and click the calendar icon in the upper right corner, or click the current due date if one is set, then select the date. Add a comment and mention the participants so the team sees the new deadline.
What is the difference between calendar time and working hours?
Calendar time includes all days in the calculation, weekends and holidays among them. Working hours count only the working hours and working days defined in the employee’s work schedule, which gives a more accurate picture of the team’s workload.
Can an assignee change a task due date?
When the assignee tries to change the task dates, a request to reschedule is created and sent to the assigner automatically. For tasks without mandatory result verification, the assignee can change the dates directly.
Set the date once, then keep it in view
Pick one task your team keeps renegotiating and give it a real deadline: a due date in the card, a duration if the work has a standard length, and working hours if weekends should not count. To read the week ahead instead of reacting to what is already late, show those dates as a task calendar list, and see how workload management in the Planfix Planner builds on the same dates. New to Planfix? Sign up to try it.
