Agenda used as Production Calendar?

Using my Dolibarr Feedback
1

I am evaluating Dolibarr for my company. We do custom screen printing and embroidery and currently use Google calendar as our production calendar. All jobs are scheduled onto the calendar, everyone has access to it, and our production workers refer to it to see what jobs are scheduled for them for the day. However, it has obvious drawbacks since it isn’t connected to our main system and no information can really be captured or stored on a Google calendar (any info that I can run reports on, anyway).

In testing Dolibarr, I am finding that the Agenda actually works very well as a production scheduling calendar. I disabled all automatically inserted “events” except for orders validated. Thus, all orders show up on the calendar when they are validated but nothing else does. My thought is that our production scheduler can then check the calendar daily to see what jobs have been added to the calendar, review them, and schedule them accordingly, using Resources to assign them to a particular piece of equipment as well. Then our production people can check the calendar, using the filter to find the jobs that are just for them, and open the “event/job” to see the details. They can then click NOW to log in the Start date/time when they begin, and then when done they can click NOW to log the End date/time. (I plan on adding these fields separate from the current Start and End fields to track “scheduled” vs. “actual” time.) I also like the way the “events” are attached to a particular order, and show up on both the order and customer cards.

Of course, this means I no longer have a CRM calendar of events.

So I was wondering, would there be a way to clone the Agenda module and have two similar modules tracking different things (one tracking CRM events, one tracking jobs)? Or is there a much better way to do what I want to do?

I have checked DoliStore and saw the Factory and the CAPM modules, but neither seemed to fit my exact need, whereas the Agenda calendar really does. It is simple and easy to understand and puts the information I want where I want it.

Thoughts? Has anyone tried this, or has another suggestion?

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Hello, just a few thoughts…

I tested dolibarr on my local retail business for one year slowly adding products etc. I decided this year to use it officially for suppliers and incoming stock. I tried all the other open source crm/erp’s but nothing suited my business needs but I never had a business computer system before either.

I believe in v6 or v7 there will be a scrumboard type module for teamwork.

I haven’t tried, but I am sure you can use your other google calendars through webdav etc.

I personally use a selfhosted kanban (kanboard.net) for all my business projects. It’s more job-based but you might find it more useful in a team. I only use it when I work with designers/develops.

Hope it helps.

3

aljawaid,

Appreciate the reply and suggestions. My goal is to keep everything in one system. My company currently uses four separate pieces of software (calendar, order entry, invoice/payroll, and crm) and the data is too scattered. So I’m trying to avoid adding additional software to dolibarr should we implement it (which I am heavily leaning toward). Converting the Agenda to a Production Calendar, or copying the Agenda module to create a Production Calendar, seems the easiest way to rid ourselves of the need for Google calendar, and it seems like it would allow me to run reports on actual vs. scheduled work time plus keep the job production history tied to the order and the customer. I see Tasks can do this somewhat, too, but they aren’t related to customers or orders, just projects. I was hoping someone had already tried my idea and would have some input, but I think I will just try copying the Agenda module myself and test that out. I’ll let you know how it works. :happy: