PPM Express Help Center

What do you need help with?

Planner connector

In this article, we will review the Planner connector and the steps to add this connector to PPM Express Time.  

Microsoft Office 365 Planner Connector includes the following Readers which can be used as a source for the suggested time entries:

  • Closed tasks (if this reader is enabled, Completed tasks assigned to you become suggested time entries for the date when these tasks are set as Completed in Planner). 
  • In Progress tasks (if this reader is enabled, all In Progress tasks assigned to you, with %Complete more than 0%, appear as suggested time entries).

Configuring Microsoft Office 365 Planner connection

Please note: In order to make sure that the suggested time entries feature will work as expected for all PPM Express Time users in the tenant, it is required to grant PPM Express Time with global permissions for Planner connection. 

PPM Express Time requires 'Group.Read.All' permission to read data from Microsoft Office 365 Planner. The following access rights require Admin Consent, which is provided by PPM Express Time Tenant Administrator. Therefore, before tenant users can connect and use Planner Connection, Tenant Administrator must login in to PPM Express Time and give Admin Consent via “Connect And Give Access” feature. 

To be able to use the “Connect And Give Access” feature, PPM Express Time Tenant Administrator should have Global Tenant Administrator permissions for Microsoft Office 365 Planner.

When PPM Express TimeTenant Administrator gives Admin Concent for Planner connection all other users from the same Planner tenant will be able to add Planner connection using their credentials and Planner tasks will appear as suggested time entries in PPM Express Time. 

To access “Connect And Give Access” feature, open Settings => General => Connectors. 


To add Microsoft Office 365 Planner connector to PPM Express Time perform the following: 

1. Navigate to the Settings => Connections => New Connection => Planner. 

Or you can just click on the Planner icon on the Connection toolbar in the upper right corner of any PPM Express Time page.

2. In the Connect Planner window click Connect

3. Sign in to your Planner account. 

4. In the Connect Planner window click Create

Planner connection is now added to PPM Express Time. 

To set up the Readers for this connection click on the Planner icon on the Connection toolbar in the upper right corner of any PPM Express Time page. All readers are enabled by default, and you can disable the ones you do not need for this connection. 

Suggested time entries from the selected Planner readers will now appear in the Time section. PPM Express Time will now suggest possible time entries from these readers and you will save your time spent on reporting. 


Linking Planner plans and PPM Express Time projects. 

When the connection is added, you can link Planner plans and PPM Express Time projects, get suggested time entries and report time on the projects. Linking projects helps to analyze tasks completed by users to make suggested time entries more precise and relevant. 

If the projects are not linked, tasks will appear as suggested time entries that will not be assigned to any of the projects in PPM Express Time. You can select the required project manually. If the projects are linked by the Project Manager, the suggested time entries will appear for the required project at once. This makes time reporting faster and easier. 

Please note: Projects tab is available for users with Administrator and Project Manager roles

For this purpose perform the following:

1. Navigate to the Projects tab.

2. Choose the desired project in the projects list by marking the checkbox next to it.

3. On the available actions ribbon in the upper part of the page click on the Links

4. The Links menu will open in the right part of the page. Click the Import button and select Planner plans. 

5. In the Import links window select the Planner plan you need to link to the selected PPM Express Time project. Use the Search option to quickly find the required plan. 

Click the Link button. 

6. Save the changes in the Links window. 

7. If the projects are linked, the required project will be already selected in the suggested time entries that appear on the Time tab from the Planner connector.  

 

Unlinking Planner plans and PPM Express Time projects

If you would like to unlink Planner plans and PPM Express Time projects perform the following: 

1. Open PPM Express Time => Projects.

2. Navigate to the plan that you would like to unlink. 

3. Open the menu from the ... icon. Select the Links option.

4. Click delete the Planner plan from the Links window.


Was this article helpful?

Table of contents

    Back To Top