Overview
Scheduling in INNERGY® is driven by the dates set on your work orders, not the project record. The heart of the system is the Critical Date, the effective date INNERGY uses for reporting and visibility and it draws from a hierarchy of date fields that give you precise control over your schedule.
Understanding how these fields work together is the key to keeping the Bottlenecks dashboard accurate and your production schedule on track.
Key Date Fields
Every work order milestone has up to four date layers. Here is how they work and which one takes precedence:
Date Field | What It Means |
Target /Planned Date | System-calculated baseline for a milestone. INNERGY derives this automatically from the average step durations configured in your Workflow settings. |
Override Date | The manual date you set to supersede the Target Date. This is your scheduling lever. When set, it becomes the Prevailing Date for that milestone. |
Actual Date | Recorded automatically when a workflow step is completed. Reflects when a milestone was truly reached. |
Prevailing Date | The effective date INNERGY uses for reporting and the Bottlenecks dashboard. Resolved in priority order: Override Date (if set) → Actual Date (if reached) → Target Date. This is the date to watch. |
Critical Date | The anchor milestone all other target dates calculate from. When the Prevailing Date for this milestone passes today, the work order is flagged as overdue in the Bottlenecks dashboard. |
Days In Step / Days Overdue | Additional metrics visible in the Date Management grid. Days In Step shows how long a work order has been at its current step; Days Overdue shows how far past the Critical milestone it is. |
How Prevailing Date resolves: Override Date (if manually set) → Actual Date (if the milestone was completed) → Target Date (system-calculated fallback). The Bottlenecks dashboard It groups work orders by their Prevailing Critical Date. |
Setting Dates on a Work Order
You can update work order dates individually or in bulk. Bulk editing is a major time-saver when a project timeline shifts and you need to move multiple work orders at once.
Update a single work order
Open the project and navigate to the Work Orders tab.
Select the work order you want to update.
Click Edit.
Navigate to the Date Management section.
Enter your new date in the Override Date field for the relevant milestone (typically Critical).
Click Next, then Update Work Orders.
Tip: After saving, confirm the Prevailing Date has updated in the Date Management grid before communicating timeline changes to your team or client. |
Bulk update multiple work orders
In the Work Orders tab, check the boxes next to all work orders you want to update.
Click Edit.
Navigate to the Date Management section and enter the new Override Date.
Click Next, then Update Work Orders.
Best practice: Use bulk edit any time a project’s timeline shifts. Updating work orders one at a time in that scenario is both slow and error-prone. |
How Dates Drive the Bottlenecks Dashboard
The Bottlenecks dashboard (Overview → Bottlenecks) is your primary scheduling visibility tool. It groups work orders by their Prevailing Date and current workflow step across five tabs: Workflow, Labor, PM in Workflow, PM in Time, and Projects.
Here is what to know:
• Updating the Override Date moves the work order to the correct time period in the dashboard.
• Both the date and the workflow step determine where a work order appears. Keep both current for an accurate picture.
Pair with the Gantt: The Work Orders Gantt (on the project’s Gantt tab) gives you a visual timeline view of start dates, progress, and dependencies. Use it alongside the Bottlenecks dashboard for both macro and micro scheduling visibility. |
Tips for Keeping Schedules Accurate
• Review the Bottlenecks dashboard regularly ideally at the start of each week and update Override Dates when schedules change.
• If your Target Dates seem off, check Configuration → Workflow. Target Dates calculate from average step durations if those averages don’t reflect your shop’s reality, your Target Dates won’t either.
• Use bulk edit to update multiple work orders at once when a project timeline shifts.
• Coordinate date updates with workflow step updates so the Bottlenecks dashboard reflects the true state of each job.
• Check Impediments on a work order when extending a Critical Date they often explain why the date needs to move and help you document the reason.
• Use the Working Calendar (Configuration → Working Calendars) to account for company holidays and non-working days so your Target Dates are realistic.
Related Articles
• How to Set and Edit a Work Order’s Critical Date
• How do I bulk edit Work Orders?
• What is and How do I use the Working Calendar?
• What is the Bottlenecks dashboard?