Method-Related Planning

With method-related planning, you can plan time-based allowances, such as General Conditions, in a visual way using Gantt-based schedule tasks.

In this article:

Create a Schedule Task

With this capability set, teams can add key schedule milestones and associate budget items to them to visually plan their budgets in a Gantt view. There are two ways to add schedule milestones:

Create a Schedule Task by Adding a Reference from Autodesk Build

To do so:

  1. Go to the Forecast tool from the left navigation.

  2. In the first Cost & Time tab, select the arrow next to the Create Schedule Task button, then select Add reference from Autodesk Build.

    Add reference from Autodesk Build option in the Create Schedule Task dropdown menu

  3. The Add schedule reference dialog box will appear. Use the drop-down menu to choose the appropriate schedule.

  4. Select tasks that you want to pull over.

    Add schedule reference dialogue box showing schedule dropdown and task selection

  5. Select Add schedule activity to automatically bring the tasks into the Cost & Time tab in Cost Management.

  6. If needed, the start and end date can be updated and color changed.

To automatically update tasks pulled in from the schedule later on, select the arrow next to the Create schedule task button, then select Update all reference tasks.

Add a Schedule Task Manually

To manually add a schedule task:

  1. Select the Forecast tool from the left navigation.
  2. Switch to the Cost & Time tab.
  3. Click Create Schedule Task.
  4. Enter a Task Name.
  5. Select a Start and End Date.
  6. Pick a color for the Gantt chart.

Cost & Time tab showing schedule tasks in a Gantt chart view with task details

Manage Schedule Tasks

Once the task is created, use the More menu More menu icon in the task table to do any of the following:

More menu options for schedule tasks including Add subitems, Move up, Move down, Link to budgets, and Delete

Use the Settings icon to edit the visibility and order of the columns in the table.

All budget items are automatically pulled into the budget section underneath the schedule tasks.

To link a schedule task to a budget item:

  1. Use the More menu More menu icon in the budget table.

  2. Click Link to budgets.

    Link to budgets option in the More menu

  3. Check the box next to one or more budget items to link.

Once linked, the bar color of the task and budget item will be the same. The start and end dates will be linked automatically as well. You can change the dates manually.

Gantt chart view showing linked schedule tasks and budget items with matching colors

Once you have linked all of your budget items to tasks, you can:

Budget table view with options to toggle, filter, and manage linked items

Update Linked Schedule Tasks and Budgets Dates

Once schedule tasks and budget items are linked, the start and end dates will be populated automatically. You have the flexibility to modify the start or end date of the budget, and the dates of the linked schedule tasks. Simply click the Start or End column next to the respective task or budget item.

If the dates are the same for both linked budgets and tasks, any changes made to the schedule task dates will automatically update the corresponding dates for the budget items.

However, if the budget dates are manually modified or differ from the schedule task dates, the dates of the budget items will not be automatically updated.

Next Steps

Once all budget line items are linked with schedule tasks, you can go to the Cash Flow tab to create distributions and see a project-level cash flow analysis.