Overview
The Calendar screen allows you to schedule events and appointments for your projects in BQE CORE. The quick-view Calendar drop-down on the top icon bar gives you an overview of all the events scheduled for today or that week for the logged-in user. You can click on the event to see the details or open the full calendar. There you can use different views (Month, Week or Day) and filters to show events scheduled only in the current month for a particular project or employee. It is a great view for figuring out when people are available so that you can invite them to a new event. For the scheduled events, you get notifications before the start time. You can also convert your calendar events into time entries and task allocations. Click to watch this video on using Calendar in CORE.
As a CORE user, you can integrate with Office 365 so as to connect your Microsoft 365 Outlook/Hotmail/Exchange calendar events with the CORE calendar. This integration supports any Microsoft Cloud account that connects with Office 365 Calendar. You can also integrate with your Google Calendar and sync those events to CORE Calendar. It is a real-time connection wherein you can create events in CORE and instantly send them to your Office 365 or Google calendar. You can also get the Office 365/Google calendar events into CORE and edit them, merging the changes back to Office 365/Google.
How To
Field Descriptions
Field Name | Field Description |
Calendar > Create Event > | |
Calendar |
If you are integrating with Office 365 or Google, you can select the relevant calendar from the drop-down for which you want to create an event, say Outlook Calendar or Google calendar; else it will default to CORE Calendar. |
Calendar > Create Time Entry > | |
Employee |
Name of the employee whose time entry is being recorded from the event. It is pre-filled by the logged-in user, but can be changed. |
Entry Date | Date of the time entry. This date is pre-filled by the event's start date, but can be changed. |
Project | This is the project associated with the time entry. If the event had a project selected, the Project field is pre-filled with the same. |
Hours | It is pre-filled with the duration of the event, but can be changed. These represent the actual hours worked by the employee and are carried to the Client Hours field (billing hours). |
Calendar > Create Allocation > | |
Project |
This is the project associated with the task allocation. If the event had a project selected, the Project field is pre-filled with the same. Else, you can select one from the drop-down. |
Resource | Employee or vendor associated with the task allocation. It is pre-filled by the logged-in user, but can be changed. |
Task Name | The relevant activity item (or expense item) associated with the task allocation. |
Start Date/ End Date | This date is pre-filled by the event's start date and end date, but can be changed. These are the dates when a resource is expected to start and end work on the assigned task and project. |
Task Follows | Allows you to specify a predecessor task for the current task, thus creating a dependency between the two (parent-child). If the predecessor task gets delayed, the current task will be delayed accordingly. |
Units |
This field is pre-filled with the duration of the calendar event, but can be changed. It represents the number of hours or units you expect a resource to spend on the selected activity (or expense). When allocating hours or units for a group of activities or expenses, the value is applied to all items in the group combined. Note: Units can be standard hours or actual hours from the event, whichever is less. Standard hours (say 8 hours a day) are used for a full-day event instead of 24 hours. |
% Complete | Reported percentage of completion of the allocated task that tells you how far the task has been done. This percentage can be entered and updated by the employee or project manager, depending on their security permissions. |
Create New Events
You can create new events in the CORE calendar. If you have integrated with Office 365 or Google, CORE also allows you to create new events here and instantly sync them to your Office 365 or Google calendar. However, a new event can belong to only one calendar, not multiple calendars. When creating events, you can also create task allocations automatically from them.
Note: The date and time stamp reflects the time zone from your calendar's settings (local time).
To create a new event, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Click on the top icon bar and then click Create Event on the quick-view calendar drop-down.
- Alternatively, you can click Full Calendar on it to open the main Calendar screen and then click Create Event on the top-right.
- On the Create Event dialog, enter the required information. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
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- Name
- Calendar
- Description
- Project
- Start date and time
- End date and time (by default, 1 hour event duration)
- Click Save. (If you have opted for Auto-Create Allocation, then click Continue and enter the required information instead.)
The event is displayed on the calendar. CORE maintains a color coding for all the calendar events so that it is easy to identify them on a single CORE Calendar.
View Outlook Calendars
You can connect only one Office 365 email account and from there be able to configure your Outlook/Hotmail/Exchange calendar. After you have connected to your Office 365 account from the Integrations screen, you can view your Outlook/Hotmail/Exchange calendar here. Not only can you select one or multiple calendars to display at once, CORE even displays the color codes of your Office 365 calendars. It is recommended to color-code your Office 365 calendar so that you can visually differentiate between it and CORE Calendar.
Note: Established Office 365 holidays are not editable in CORE, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.
To view your Outlook Calendar events in CORE, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Click on the top icon bar.
- On the quick-view calendar drop-down, click Full Calendar.
- On the Calendar screen, choose your view: Month, Week or Day at the top.
- On the left, select the calendar whose events you want to view, say Outlook > Calendar.
- Click any event to view its details or edit it. You can also create a time entry or task allocation from it by adding the required information to it on the fly.
View Google Calendars
You can connect only one Google account and from there be able to configure your Google calendars. After you have connected to your Google account from the Integrations screen, you can view your synced Google calendars here. Not only can you select one or multiple calendars to display at once, CORE even displays the color codes of your Google calendars. It is recommended to color-code your Google calendars so that you can visually differentiate between them and CORE Calendar.
In CORE Calendar, you can see your synced calendar events and also be able to create new events. Any events you create in CORE and designate to one of your Google calendars syncs back to it. If you sign into your Google Calendar, you can see all the events created in CORE that are designated to your Google Calendar. Any edits to the Google events from the Google Calendar are reflected in CORE and vice versa. You can show/hide specific Google Calendars from within the CORE Calendar screen and also manually sync your calendars to ensure you have the latest event data. You can review your events in various views.
Note: Established Google holidays are not editable in CORE, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.
To view your Google calendar events in CORE, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Click on the top icon bar.
- On the quick-view calendar drop-down, click Full Calendar.
- On the Calendar screen, choose your view: Month, Week or Day at the top.
- On the left, select the calendars whose events you want to view, say Google.
- Click any event to view its details or edit it. You can also create a time entry or task allocation from it by adding the required information to it on the fly.
Edit Events
You can easily make some changes to your Calendar events, such as duration or date.
To edit an event, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Click on the top icon bar and then click Full Calendar on the quick-view calendar drop-down.
- On the Calendar screen, click the event you want to edit.
- On the Event Detail dialog, click Delete to delete that event. Else, click Edit > Event Details.
- On the Edit Event screen, enter more details or make the desired changes.
- Click Save.
Note: On updating an event (fields such as start date, end date, project, and description), the task allocation linked to that event also gets updated automatically.
Add Attendees
To add an attendee to a calendar event, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Click on the top icon bar.
- On the quick-view calendar drop-down, you can choose to see the Full Calendar for existing events or just click Add Event.
- On the Create Event dialog, click Add Attendees.
- Select the name of the attendees (individuals or groups of employees, contract employees or outside consultants) from the drop-down and click Save. The name of the logged-in user is selected by default, but you can change it.
Add Documents
You can attach documents or any files to your event record while creating an event or later in the edit mode.
To attach a document to an event, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Click on the top icon bar.
- On the quick-view calendar drop-down, you can choose to see the Full Calendar for existing events.
- On the Calendar screen, click an existing event to edit its details.
- On the Edit Event screen, go to its Documents tab and click Add.
- On the Add Documents dialog, select the relevant tab, depending on the type of attachment.
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Computer: To attach files stored on your computer, enter its Description and drag your file or click to browse to that location.
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Hyperlink: To attach an external link, enter its Description and then insert the hyperlink.
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Dropbox: To link files stored in your Dropbox account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
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Google Drive: To link files stored in your Google Drive account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
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OneDrive: To link files stored in your Microsoft OneDrive account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
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Box: To link files stored in your Box account, enter its Description and then browse for it.
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Resource Library: To link company resources, select the resource from the library. This option is available only with CORE CRM.
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- Click Add.
CORE pre-fills some of the information about the attached documents in the grid. You can also check the detailed video on managing documents in CORE.
Create Time Entries
You can convert your calendar events (CORE, Office 365 or Google) into time entries. CORE then displays a time entry icon on the event to indicate that it has been converted into a time entry.
To create a time entry from an event, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Click on the top icon bar and then click Full Calendar on the quick-view calendar drop-down.
- On the Calendar screen, click on the event which you want to convert to time entry.
- On the Event Detail dialog, check the event information.
- Click Create > Time Entry.
- On the Create Time Entry screen, enter the required information or edit the details. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
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Employee
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Entry Date
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Project
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Activity
-
Description
-
Hours
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- Click Save when you have finished. The time entry is created and you can view it on any time entry screen.
Note: You can add memos and attachments to the time entry here. The memo is pre-filled by the event description by default.
Create Task Allocations
You can create task allocations from your calendar events (CORE, Office 365 or Google). This can be done when creating a new calendar event or from existing events.
To create a task allocation from an event, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Click on the top icon bar and then click Full Calendar on the quick-view calendar drop-down.
- Click on the calendar event from which you want to create task allocation. (You can also click Create New on the top-right and opt for Auto-Create Allocation while creating a new event.)
- On the Event Detail dialog, check the event information.
- Click Create > Allocation.
- On the Create Allocation screen, enter the required information or edit the details. Check Field Descriptions above for details.
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- Project
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Resource
- Task Name
- Description
- Start Date/End Date
- Task Follows: Allows you to specify a predecessor task for the current task
- Units: This field is pre-filled with the duration of the calendar event, but can be changed.
Note: Units can be standard hours or actual hours from the event, whichever is less. Standard hours (say 8 hours a day) are used for a full-day event instead of 24 hours. - % Complete
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- Click Create when you have finished. The task allocation is created and you can view it on the Allocation & Forecasting screen.
Note: On updating an event (fields such as start date, end date, project, and description), the task allocation linked to that event also gets updated automatically.
Mark Screen as Favorite
You can mark or flag the most-often used and important screens in CORE as your favorites up to a maximum of ten. These favorite screens then display separately on the side menu under the Favorites list. You can manage all your favorite screens in CORE from User Settings.
To mark this screen as your favorite, watch this video or follow these steps:
- Click on the top icon bar and then click Full Calendar.
- On the Calendar screen, click on the top-right.
- You can access this screen from the side menu under Favorites.
You can also check the detailed video on marking screens as favorite in CORE.