In this article, we will review Calendar Management in PPM Express.
The settings on the Calendar Management page are taken into account when calculating resource capacity and scheduling tasks in PPM Express (on condition that calendar-based schedule calculation is enabled within the Project Settings).
Please note that when you create or clone a task after adding a calendar exception, the task dates will automatically shift according to the exception rules. However, if you created a task before adding the exception, the task dates won't update automatically unless you enable the “Enable calendar-based schedule calculation” toggle.
To ensure that calendar exceptions are correctly applied to tasks, we recommend the following flow:
- Configure your tenant calendar, including all required exceptions.
- Create new tasks (or clone tasks, copy tasks, or import them from Microsoft Project).
By following this sequence, the system will take all existing exceptions into account during task scheduling.
Calendar exceptions also apply to internal tasks (task dependencies). If you set up task dependencies, the start or due date of the dependent task (successor) becomes dependent on the predecessor's start or due date. If the due date of the predecessor's task is right before the calendar exception (national holiday), the dependent task will start one day later (taking into account the holiday set in the calendar exceptions).
To access the Calendar Management page, click the gear button in the upper-right corner and select Calendar Management.
The Calendar Management page consists of two sections:
- Calendars: displays global calendars that can be assigned to projects and resources.
- My Calendar: displays the current user's personal calendar, where you can review and manage individual working-week settings and calendar exceptions.
Managing Calendars
The Calendars section displays the global calendars available in PPM Express (one calendar is available by default).
To create a calendar, click New Calendar, enter the calendar name, and create the calendar.
The calendar is created in the Draft status with default working days and hours.
After you create the calendar, it opens for editing, and you can configure its working week and calendar exceptions.
Calendars can have three statuses:
- Draft: the calendar has been created but is not yet active. Draft calendars can be activated or deleted.
- Active: the calendar is available for assignment to projects and resources.
- Inactive: the calendar is not available for new assignments but continues to apply to projects and resources that already use it.
By default, the Calendar Management page displays active calendars. When you create multiple calendars, you can use the filter in the upper-right corner to view calendars with other statuses.
The available actions for each calendar depend on the calendar status:
- Active calendars can be edited, cloned, or deactivated.
- Inactive calendars can be edited, cloned, activated, or deleted.
- Draft calendars can be edited, cloned, deactivated, activated, or deleted.
You can perform these actions from the toolbar or the three-dot menu.
For active and inactive calendars, you can also check which projects and resources use a particular calendar.
Open the three-dot menu of the calendar and select View Related Projects or Resources, if these options are available. The corresponding page opens with a filter applied to display the projects or resources associated with the selected calendar.
If both options are available, the calendar is used by both projects and resources.
Only one calendar can be designated as the default calendar.
The default calendar must have an Active status. It is automatically assigned to newly created projects and resources.
The default calendar cannot be deactivated or deleted.
Global Calendar Settings and Configuration
To configure or edit a global calendar, open it from the Calendars section.
The calendar page consists of three sections:
- Details
- Work Week
- Calendar Exceptions
The Details section displays the calendar name, status, and description.
The Work Week section allows you to define the number of working hours per day for the selected calendar.
These settings are used when calculating resource capacity and task schedules for projects and resources that use this calendar.
To configure the working week, click Edit Working Times.
Here, you can define the working hours for each day. The start and finish times specified here are used for the Start and Due dates of tasks in PPM Express, according to the applicable calendar calculation settings.
By default, an eight-hour workday is divided into two working time periods:
- 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM
- 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
You can edit the From and To columns, add a working time period, or remove the last one.
If no working time is planned for a day, select the Nonworking option.
The Calendar Exceptions section allows you to define exceptions to the regular working schedule, such as national or international holidays, company holidays, and other non-working periods.
Calendar exceptions are configured separately for each global calendar.
To add an exception, click Add Exception (for the first exception) or New Exception.
Provide the required information and click Create Exception.
If an exception is created for one week or less, the Days of Week field is not editable. All days within the selected period are included in the exception.
If the exception covers more than one week, you can exclude specific days of the week.
Users with the appropriate permissions can edit existing exceptions, export them to CSV, and delete them.
You can also use the Import from CSV option to create calendar exceptions.
When importing exceptions, make sure the CSV file contains the required dates: a start and finish date, or a start date only. Exceptions without the required date information will not be imported.
It is also possible to specify Days of the week names in the language selected in the Regional Format settings.
The use of regional language for days of the week is supported for CSV files only.
My Calendar Settings and Configuration
The My Calendar section allows users to review their individual working schedule and manage personal calendar exceptions.
To open it, select My Calendar on the Calendar Management page.
The My Calendar page consists of three sections:
- Details
- Calendar
- Calendar Exceptions
The Details section displays the personal calendar name, status, and description.
The Calendar section displays the global calendar assigned to the resource associated with the current user and the working-week settings applied to that resource.
When global calendar settings are used, the working days and hours are taken from the selected global calendar.
You can define an individual working week by clicking Use personal work week.
In this mode, the personal working-week settings override the working days and hours from the global calendar.
When the personal working week is selected, the Calendar field becomes read-only. To change the assigned global calendar, switch back to the global calendar settings mode.
Changes to working-week settings are also reflected in the corresponding resource's Calendar section on the Resources page, and vice versa.
These settings affect the calculation of resource capacity.
The Calendar Exceptions section allows users and team members to specify their personal calendar exceptions, such as vacation, sick leave, and other periods of unavailability.
This section can be edited by all users, including team members without additional management permissions.
To add an exception, click Add Exception or New Exception, provide the required information, and click Create Exception.
If a personal calendar exception is defined for the same date as a global calendar exception, the personal exception overrides the global exception for that resource.
These settings are considered when calculating resource capacity.
Personal calendar exceptions can also be imported from CSV files.
Users can edit existing exceptions, export them to CSV, and delete them using the available actions.
All changes made in My Calendar -> Calendar Exceptions are reflected in the corresponding resource's Calendar Exceptions section, and vice versa.
Calendar Permissions
The Calendar Management page is available to all users in the tenant, including team members and users with read-only permissions.
All users can open the page and review global calendar settings.
However, editing global calendar settings requires the appropriate permissions.
Users with Administrator or Manage Resources permissions can edit global working-week settings and calendar exceptions, export to CSV, and delete the exceptions.
Users without these permissions can review global calendar settings but cannot modify them.
Users with the Admin or Manage Resources permission can edit their work week on this page. If the user who is viewing this page does not have Administrator or Manage Resources permission, the section is in read-only mode. For them, the user with 'Manage Resources' permission can edit their “My Work Week” setting on the Resource dashboard -> Work Week section.
All users can manage their own calendar exceptions, regardless of their permissions.
Changes made to the personal working-week settings are reflected in the corresponding resource's Calendar section.
How Calendar Settings Affect Scheduling
Calendar settings are considered when calculating resource capacity, expected working hours, and task schedules.
The effect depends on the calendar assigned to a project or resource and the project's Enable calendar-based schedule calculation setting.
When this setting is enabled:
- The project calendar is used to calculate schedules for tasks without resource assignments.
- Resource calendars are used for tasks with resource assignments.
- Changes to applicable calendars and exceptions automatically trigger task schedule recalculations.
When this setting is disabled, the project calendar is used for task schedule calculations regardless of whether resources are assigned. Resource calendar changes do not automatically recalculate assigned task schedules.
Calendar exceptions are also considered when calculating task dependencies.
For example, if the predecessor task finishes immediately before a non-working holiday, the successor task starts on the next available working day according to the applicable calendar.
When a task is created, cloned, copied, or imported from Microsoft Project, the applicable calendar settings and exceptions are considered during scheduling.
For existing tasks, changes to calendars and exceptions may trigger recalculation depending on the calendar calculation settings.
To ensure that calendar exceptions are correctly applied, we recommend configuring the required working weeks and exceptions before creating or importing tasks.
For more information about calendar-based schedule calculation, refer to Project Settings.