Spread a plan over the period and split it across a team

Use the Execution step of an inspection or preventive maintenance plan to group the work into work packages, spread each cycle over several work dates, and share it between the people who fill the forms or technicians.

Written for Account operators User guide last reviewed on 2026-10-29

The Execution step of the plan wizard decides how each cycle of an inspection plan or a preventive maintenance plan is carried out: all on the due date, or spread over the period and shared across a team. It follows Schedule on inspection plans and Generation on preventive maintenance plans.

Cycles, phases, work packages, and asset lines

A cycle is one occurrence of the plan frequency. On a monthly plan, “October” is one cycle; it runs from the due date to the day before the next one.
A phase is one work date inside the cycle.
A work package is what one person does in one phase.
An asset line is one covered asset or property inside a package, with its own status and result.

Example: a monthly plan covers 160 fire extinguishers, checked 40 every Saturday. Each month is a cycle, each Saturday a phase, and each Saturday’s 40 extinguishers a package. Likewise, 3,000 assets over 3 working days with 5 technicians gives 3 phases of 1,000 assets and 15 packages of about 200.

Choose an execution style

Under Execution style, pick one of three cards:

Standard — one inspection form or one maintenance request per asset or property on its due date. This is how plans worked before, and existing plans stay on it.
Team visit — on the due date, each assignee gets one work package with all of their assets. On preventive maintenance plans each asset in the package still gets its own maintenance request.
Spread over the period — each cycle is split into phases, and the work is shared across the team.

For the extinguisher example, choose Spread over the period, set How to spread to Selected weekdays, tick Saturday under Execution days (at least one day is required), and pick the team. Each extinguisher keeps its Saturday and its person from month to month. When the number of Saturdays changes, the month is re-split evenly in the same visit order, so extinguishers checked early in the month stay early: four Saturdays give four phases of 40, five Saturdays give five phases of 32. For the 3,000-asset example, choose Consecutive working days and set Working days to 3.

Advanced settings in plain words

Picking a card fills these in. On Team visit or Spread over the period, changing an option shows a Customised badge. On Standard, the Package limits and Cycle rules groups are disabled and the badge never shows, because those settings apply only to the other two styles.

Grouping (inspection plans only) — fill each asset’s form on its own, or open one work package sheet for all of an assignee’s assets. Preventive maintenance plans always open one maintenance request per asset.
When the work is done — all on the due date, or spread over the period.
How to spread — consecutive working days, selected weekdays, evenly across the period, or a fixed number of asset lines per working day. When a cycle has fewer working days or phases than the setting needs, the work is shared evenly over the days it has instead of piling up on the last day, and the preview warns you (see Read the split preview below).
Who does the work — on inspection plans there is nothing to pick here: the team follows Inspection forms filled by. When it names specific people, those people (any role) are the team; the step shows them and splits the work among them, with Edit people to change the list in the first step. When it names the supervisors, maintenance managers or service providers of each place, each form goes to the people linked to its asset or property, as it does without packages. Preventive maintenance plans choose the plan default (today’s assignment) or selected technicians. A technician you add must be active and, when the account uses branches, assigned to every branch of the assets and properties the plan covers, because each technician can get work from any of them; otherwise saving names the technician and the missing branches. A technician deactivated after being added stays in the list marked (inactive), gets no new work and does not block saving; replace them when you can.
The work is always shared equally across the team, and neighbouring asset lines (same building or floor) stay with the same person.
Maximum lines per package — a line is an asset or a property; larger packages are split for the same person.
Minutes per line — for planning only; it never changes the split. The preview warns when the largest package needs more than a working day, and each package shows its estimated time (for example about 1 h 30 min) to the technician and on the cycle board. On preventive maintenance plans, leave it empty to use the request’s estimated duration.
Between cycles — keep each asset line in the same phase and with the same person every cycle, or recalculate every cycle. When a cycle has a single phase (Team visit, or a one-day spread), it is about the person only: Keep each asset line with the same person gives everyone the same asset lines every cycle, and new lines go to the lightest load.
Unfinished work after its phase — keep it in its phase as overdue, or move it to the next phase. With a single phase the field is disabled, as there is no next phase: unfinished work stays overdue until the cycle ends.
Closing a cycle — close automatically, or close after approval.
When the cycle period ends (preventive maintenance only) — pending lines become Missed either way. Cancel requests nobody started (default) cancels requests still in draft, awaiting processing, approval or a provider, or assigned, so they leave the technicians’ open work; started requests stay open. Keep requests open leaves every request open. This rule is also the default of the option in Close cycle.

Packages never mix branches: assets of different branches go to separate packages.

Why the plan needs a plan-wide schedule anchor

Team visit and Spread need every asset to share the same cycles. Set Schedule anchor in the Schedule step to Calendar year or Custom date. If the plan counts from each asset’s own date, the step shows Needs a plan-wide schedule anchor with a Switch to Calendar year button. Spreading is not available for daily plans, because each cycle is a single day.

Read the split preview

Split preview shows the next cycle after Working Calendar adjustments: each phase with its date, the packages per person, and their asset counts. Moved marks a phase the Working Calendar shifted. Heavy workload warns when the largest package needs more than a working day. The spread does not fit this cycle warns when the cycle has fewer working days or phases than the spread needs — for example 600 assets at 50 a day in a weekly cycle — and says how the work is shared instead: evenly over the days the cycle has, with the most lines one day gets. Raise the lines per day or choose a longer frequency if that is too much. Plan cards then show what the last cycle really did, such as last cycle: about 100 lines per working day (set to 50). The review step repeats the split and its warnings under Next cycle split. With Team visit or Spread over the period, the review step’s table of upcoming dates lists the work dates of the next cycles instead of the due dates: one row per phase with its Cycle, original and actual date, and the number of requests or forms, so it always matches the split. On preventive maintenance plans each request date is checked against the Working Calendar of its technicians, branch and service, as when the request is created.

Tip: Assets you add to the plan mid-cycle join the next cycle. Assets you remove get no new form or request, and the cycle marks their pending line Skipped.

Unfinished work and closing

A line still pending after its phase shows as overdue and can be finished until the period ends, unless you chose to move it to the next phase. At period end, pending lines become Missed. With Close after approval, a finished cycle waits as Awaiting approval and everyone who can approve it gets a notification that opens the cycle board. Approve or close it from the cycle board.

Changes during a cycle

A team member is deactivated. Their later work goes to the plan’s default assignment. On preventive maintenance plans: the plan’s service provider, otherwise the providers linked to the asset or property, otherwise the request waits for a provider. On inspection plans: the person linked to the place when there is only one, otherwise the form waits for someone eligible to claim it. Work already handed out keeps its assignee.
You change the frequency or the schedule anchor. The running cycle ends the day before the new cycle starts. Its later work dates are dropped, and lines that never got a form or request become Skipped, not Missed. Forms and requests already created stay open until the shortened cycle ends.