Troubleshooting
Symptoms and the exact text of Planning messages, with their causes and fixes - for planners, employees and administrators.
Search this page for the text you see. Messages are quoted exactly as Planning shows them; italics stand for a name or number that changes.
Screens that look wrong or empty#
The Open Shifts row on the schedule looks empty#
Cause. In release 17.0.3, on Planning → Schedule → By Resource, a panel that belongs to the Total row at the bottom is drawn over the top of the timeline body and covers the bars of the Open Shifts row. We saw it on the system used to write this documentation (1280 by 760 screen). The open shifts exist; they are only not visible there. The technical cause appears to be the minimum height and the background that the stylesheet gives to every element of the Total row, including a hidden copy of it that sits at the top.
Fix. Use another view of the same data: the Open Shifts list, the To plan panel on the schedule, or Schedule → By Role, which has no Total row.
A person is missing from the schedule#
- The switch Only people with shifts is on, and the person has no shift in the period. Turn it off.
- A filter hides them. Rows follow filters on role, department, user and resource; with two values of one filter, or a custom filter, everyone appears instead.
- The person has no resource, or belongs to another company than the ones you are working in.
- Materials appear like people; make sure the resource is active.
Shifts do not show for an employee#
- The shift is a Draft. Employees see only published shifts.
- The employee has no Planning group and the shift belongs to someone else; plain Internal Users see only their own and open published shifts.
- The employee's user is not linked to an employee record. My Planning shows shifts of the resource linked to the user.
Allocated time is not what I expected#
Allocated time is working hours × percentage − break; see Concepts. Common causes: the person's working hours differ from the shift's hours; the shift covers a public holiday or approved time off; the shift is outside working time (then the clock duration is used); a percentage below 100; a default break added by the company setting.
The Utilisation report does not match the schedule#
Utilisation rows are saved: they update when a shift or time off changes, and are rebuilt every night for 62 days back and 184 days ahead. If you changed a working calendar, wait for the nightly job or run Planning: rebuild utilisation figures from Settings → Technical → Automation → Scheduled Actions (developer mode).
Messages you may meet#
Access and rights#
| Message | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Only planning managers can do this. | The action is for Planning Administrators: Auto Plan, Copy Previous Week, Plan with Template. |
| You are not allowed to plan these shifts. | You tried to edit, publish, move, split or delete a shift you cannot plan (not an Administrator, and not the manager of its project). |
| Only planning managers can change fields on a shift. Use Assign to Me, Unassign or Ask to Switch instead. | An employee tried to change a protected field. Only the Note is editable by employees. |
| Only the shift manager or a planning manager can approve changes. | You tried to approve a change that is not yours to approve. |
| The planning dashboard is for planners. | The Dashboard needs the Planning Administrator group (or being a project manager). |
| You can only plan shifts on projects you manage. | A project manager tried to put a shift on a project they do not manage. |
| Do not have access, skip this data for user's digest email | Internal message: the Digest KPI is for Planning Administrators and is skipped for others. No action needed. |
The Publish button ends in an access error#
The error is: "You are not allowed to access 'Publish and Send Planning' (smarterp.planning.send) records. This operation is allowed for the following groups: - Planning/Administrator".
Cause. The schedule's Publish button is shown to project managers, but the dialog behind it is restricted to Planning Administrators.
Fix. Publish from a shift: open it, or its card on the schedule, and press Publish; or select shifts and press Publish in the selection bar. Or give the user the Planning Administrator group.
Creating and saving shifts#
| Message | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Shift name ends before it starts. | End is before Start. |
| A shift must end after it starts. | The same rule at database level. |
| Allocated time cannot be negative. / Allocated time percentage cannot be negative. / A break cannot be negative. | A negative value. |
| A forecast books someone's time: choose the employee or material. | Allocation Type is Forecast with no Resource. |
| Conflicting shifts: Name already has n shift(s) during this period. You can still save; the conflict stays visible on the schedule until it is resolved. | A warning, not an error. Save, or change the time or person. |
| Choose the date until which the shift repeats. | Repeat Type is Until with no Repeat Until. |
| A shift must repeat at least once. | Repetitions is below 1. |
| A shift must repeat at least every 1 unit. | Repeat Every is zero or negative. |
| A planning role with this name already exists in this company. | A role of the same name exists; use another name or reuse it. |
| The hourly cost of role name cannot be negative. | Hourly Cost below zero. |
| The start hour must be between 00:00 and 23:59. / A shift template must last longer than zero hours. / A shift template cannot last longer than a week. | Invalid template values. |
Splitting, duplicating, copying, planning#
| Message | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Split the shift at a time between its start and end. | Split At is outside the shift. |
| A forecast cannot be split into an open shift. / A forecast needs a person. | A forecast must keep a person. |
| Choose a date range that ends on or after it starts. / Duplicate over a year at most. / There is no day to copy this shift to. | Duplicate dialog: change the dates or mode. |
| The end date must be on or after the start date. | To is before From in a planning dialog. |
| There are no shifts to publish in this period. | Publish and Send found no shift for the period, people and company. |
| Plan at most a year at once. / Nothing to plan: every day is skipped or no weekday is chosen. | Plan with Template: change the dates, weekdays or people. |
| No working time found to plan these hours. | The Plan dialog found no working time for the people and hours. Check their calendars and time off. |
| You are not allowed to plan this work. | You cannot plan the project or task you chose. |
| The schedule window is not valid. | A technical message; reload the page. |
| Choose who should get these shifts. | Bulk Assign to… needs a person. |
| This open shift no longer exists. / This item cannot be planned from the schedule. | The To plan item was deleted or changed meanwhile; reload. |
Auto Plan#
| Message | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| There are no open shifts to plan. | No open shift in the period that has not ended. |
| Nobody holds the roles these open shifts need. | Give the roles to people. |
| n open shift(s) assigned. m could not be assigned (reasons). | See Assign open shifts with Auto Plan for each reason. |
Employee self-service#
| Message | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Only upcoming published shifts can be taken. | Draft, started or ended shift. |
| This shift has already been taken. | Someone was faster. |
| Forecasts cannot be taken. | Forecasts are not shifts. |
| This shift needs the role Role, which is not one of your planning roles. | Add the role to the employee. |
| You already have a shift during this period. | The employee has another shift at that time. |
| Your user is not linked to an employee in Company. | Link the user to an employee. |
| Unassigning yourself is not allowed in this company. | The company setting Allow unassignment is off. |
| It is too late to unassign yourself: the deadline was n day(s) before the shift. | The deadline has passed. |
| Only upcoming published shifts can be unassigned. | The shift is not published or has started. |
| You can only unassign yourself from your own shifts. | Not the employee's shift. |
| You cannot ask to switch this shift. | Not the employee's shift, a switch is already requested, or unassigning is allowed in this company. |
| Nobody has asked to switch this shift. / This is already your shift. | I Take It cannot be used. |
| You can only cancel your own switch request. | Only the person who asked, or a planner, can cancel. |
Bridge modules#
| Message | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Only services can be planned: Product is not a service. | Plan Services is on for a product that is not a service. |
| Product is sold in Unit. A planned service must be sold in a unit of time, such as Hours or Days. | Change the unit of measure. |
| The skill Skill is not of this skill type. / The level Level is not of this skill type. | Choose a skill or level of the chosen skill type. |
| Only timesheets to confirm can be confirmed. | The timesheet line is already confirmed. |
| Unsupported search on 'Wrong Role' / 'Is Past' / 'On Time Off' / 'Outside Contract'. | A custom filter used an operator these fields do not support. Use the built-in filters, or a custom filter that tests equal or not equal to true or false. |
| You can only search for shifts that have conflicts. | The conflict count can only be searched with "greater than 0" or "not equal to 0". |
Company settings#
| Message | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| The recurring shift horizon must be at least one month. | Recurring shifts below 1. |
| The default break cannot be negative. | Default break below zero. |
| The overload threshold must be at or above the busy threshold. | Overloaded Above (%) is below Busy From (%). |
| The unassignment deadline cannot be negative. | Negative days. |
| The reminder time cannot be negative. | Negative hours. |
| Schedule links must stay valid for at least a week. | Schedule Links Valid (weeks) below 1. |
Email and notifications#
Nobody received the "published" email.
- The employee has no work email and the user has no email either; nothing can be sent.
- The shift was a forecast, an open shift or was not publishable (waiting for approval).
- The outgoing mail server is not configured; look at Settings → Technical → Email → Emails (developer mode).
No reminder. Shift reminders is off for the company; the shift is a draft or open; the shift starts after the reminder window; the employee has no email address; the scheduled action Planning: send shift reminders is inactive.
No open shift email. Broadcast open shifts is off; the shift was already published, or is published directly rather than moved from Draft; nobody qualified and free has an email address; the daily limit was reached; there are no candidates (role, skills, contract or time off).
Personal schedule links#
The link shows "Internal Server Error"#
Cause. In release 17.0.3, the public routes under /planning/... are declared without the website flag. On a system where the Website application is installed, the page layout then needs a website that the request does not have, and the server answers with an error (the log shows KeyError: 'website' while rendering portal.frontend_layout). The automated tests pass because they run without Website installed. We saw the error on the system used to write this documentation, for both the schedule page and the open shift page.
Fix. A developer adds website=True to each @http.route in controllers/portal.py, then updates the module. Until then, employees cannot use the links on a system with Website; they can use the application instead (Planning → My Planning, and Open Shifts) if they have a login.
| Page | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| The link shows a "not found" page | The codes are wrong or incomplete, the employee was not part of that sent schedule, or the employee and the schedule belong to different companies. Ask for a new email. |
| This schedule link has expired | The link is older than Schedule Links Valid (weeks) after the end of the period. Publish and send again. |
| The open shift link says "Already taken: someone accepted this shift first." | Another employee accepted first. |
Recurrence#
A repeating shift stopped creating shifts. A series of type Number of Repetitions is never extended, and a series is never extended beyond the horizon. For an open-ended series, check that the scheduled action Planning: generate recurring shifts is active.
Still stuck?#
Collect the exact message, the shift's name and times, and the user's groups, then ask your administrator. Developers can read the Data model and the Automation reference.