The whole manual

What this is

Clarity Resource replaces the yearly Resource Plan spreadsheet. It shows the same thing in the same shape - every project stacked down the page, the people on it underneath, and one column for every day - but it is live, several people can work in it at once, and it never needs rebuilding in January.

The calendar rolls on without a break. December runs straight into January; there is no year-end copy to make.

There is no Save button anywhere on the plan. A change is written the moment you let go of the mouse, and Clarity Resource records who made it.

Across the top is the dark Clarity bar - the same on every Clarity product: the app's name on the left, its pages as tabs (Plan, Resources, Users & sharing, Settings), and on the right your company logo, Help, who is signed in and Sign out. Under it is the plan's ribbon, laid out the way MS Project lays out its buttons: three tabs - Plan (+ Add project, Export PDF and setting up), Dates and Show (the filters) - with the dates on screen at the right-hand end.

The ribbon's buttons are open to start with, under the tabs; a tab just changes which ones show. If you would rather give the plan the room, press the pin at the right-hand end (or double-click a tab) to fold them away: then only the tabs show, a tab drops its buttons down over the plan, and pressing one, clicking anywhere else or pressing Esc puts them away again. Press the pin again to keep them open. Each computer remembers which you chose. A small dot on Show means a filter is on.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Sign in with your email address and password.
2. The plan opens on today's month, scrolled so today's column sits just past the names.
3. Choose the dates and filters you want from the ribbon's Dates and Show tabs.
4. Fill in days, or use Who's free to find cover.

How to

• Sign in at the address you were sent. Five wrong passwords in a row locks that account for fifteen minutes - wait, then try again.
• Move through the dates: Dates, then Earlier or Later. This month jumps back to the current month.
• Show more or less: Dates, then 1, 3, 6 or 12 months.
• Fold the buttons away for more room: press the pin at the right-hand end of the ribbon, or double-click a tab. Press it again to keep them open.
• Scroll sideways with the bar along the bottom of the grid, or hold Shift and use the mouse wheel. The names column stays where it is.
• Find your place again: Clarity Resource remembers how far you had scrolled, so it does not throw you back to the start every time the page reloads.
• Sign out at the right-hand end of the dark bar. On a shared computer, always sign out.

What this is

Each coloured square is one person, on one project, on one day. The colour and the letter together say what they are doing - the key along the top of the page lists every one.

Today is outlined in dark blue, and its date is picked out at the top of the column. Weekends are shaded grey.

Bank holidays are hatched in red down the whole column, with the date in red. They are treated as non-working. If somebody is booked on one anyway, their colour shows as normal with a red bar along the bottom of the square, so a bank holiday never stops looking like one.

A red dot in the corner of a square means that person is also booked on another project that day. It is a warning, not an error - sometimes a double booking is deliberate. Holiday, off shift and unavailable never raise it.

Hover over any square to see it in words: the status, the person, the date, the bank holiday if it is one, and who set it.

Each project's heading shows its client, number, project manager, site email, audits and anticipated end date - and, if it has an end date, how many weekdays have no cover. Those days are hatched in fine amber on the project's Who's free? strip.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Find the project.
2. Read across a person's row for their days.
3. Read down a column for who is where on one day.
4. Hover a square for the detail.

How to

• See one day across every site: Dates, then Today - it shows only today, and only the people actually on site.
• See one person everywhere: Show, then pick them from the Person drop-down.
• Tell an old copy from a live one: a yellow bar across the top means you are looking at a saved copy (see Installing it like an app). With no yellow bar, what you see is live.

What this is

You fill the plan in the way you would colour cells in the spreadsheet: pick a colour from the key, then click or drag across the days.

There is no Save. A day is written the moment you let go of the mouse, and it records who set it - hover any square to see.

The colour stays picked until you put it down, so you can paint several people in a row without picking it again.

Painted over the wrong days? Undo puts them back. It remembers your last 30 paints and clears until you leave the page.

You need a connection to make changes. If Clarity Resource cannot reach the server it reloads the page, so you always see what was really saved rather than a change that never arrived.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Pick a colour from the key along the top. It gets a gold outline.
2. Click a day, or drag along a row or down a column.
3. Carry on with the same colour as long as you need it.
4. Click the picked colour again to put it down.

How to

• Paint one day: pick a colour, then click the square.
• Paint a run of days: pick a colour and drag along the row. You can also press on the colour itself and sweep straight onto the days in one movement.
• Paint the same day for several people: drag down a column.
• Change a day: paint over it with a different colour.
• Clear days: pick × Clear and click or drag over them.
• Pencil someone in: use TBC (the grey ?) until it is confirmed, then paint over it.
• Put the colour down so you cannot paint by accident: click it a second time.
• Undo a mistake: press Undo - the curved arrow beside the pin at the right of the ribbon - or Ctrl+Z. It puts the squares back exactly as they were and saves that. It goes back through your last 30 paints and clears; a Who's free booking is cleared by hand instead.

What this is

Every project has a Who's free? strip under its people. Drag across the days you need covering and Clarity Resource works out who has nothing booked anywhere on those days - not just on this project.

The list comes in two parts: people already on this project first, then people who would be new to it. Someone free for only part of your selection shows a count such as 2/3, and clicking them books only the days they can actually do.

Anyone marked Holiday or Unavailable on any day you selected is left out altogether, rather than offered for the rest of the week. The panel says how many were left out, so nobody disappears without you knowing.

Bank holidays are ignored - they are not days you are trying to fill.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Drag across the days on the project's Who's free? strip. They turn gold.
2. Read the list that appears above the plan.
3. Click a name to book them.
4. The plan reloads with them in place, and a green bar confirms how many days were booked.

How to

• Find cover: drag along the Who's free? strip for the days you need.
• Change the selection: drag again; dragging over gold days takes them back out.
• Book someone: click their name. They are added to the project if they were not already on it, and their free days are filled in as On Shift.
• Clear the selection: press Clear in the panel.
• A booking can never create a double booking - only days the person is genuinely free are taken. Bank holidays are left clear for you to paint by hand if they really are being worked.

What this is

The filters live on two of the ribbon's tabs. Dates has the On site views, which narrow the dates *and* hide anyone not working in that window, and How long, which chooses how much of the calendar to show. Show narrows the people: Active only, one person or one site.

Each filter changes only itself. Turning Active only on will not throw away From today or a person you picked.

Whenever a filter is on, a dot appears on the Show tab, and a blue bar under the key says exactly what you are looking at and how many people are hidden, with a link to clear everything.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Dates: pick the period, or one of the on-site views.
2. Show: narrow further by person or site if you want.
3. Clear filters (on Show, or the link in the blue bar) when you are done.

How to

• Today / This week / Next week (on Dates) show just that period and only the people on site in it. Weeks run Monday to Sunday. Earlier and Later then step a day or a week at a time, and Now brings you back.
• 1, 3, 6 or 12 months (on Dates) set how much of the calendar to show.
• From today (on Dates) starts the plan at today instead of the first of the month, and works with any of the month lengths - 1 month from today is a true month ahead.
• Active only (on Show) hides anyone with no days on a project from today onwards. People stay on a project's list long after their last shift, so this is the quickest way to see just the current crew.
• Person (on Show) picks one person and shows them on every site they are on. Site picks one site.
• Clear filters: on Show, or the link at the end of the blue bar.

What this is

Give a project an anticipated end date and Clarity Resource checks every weekday from today up to that date. Any weekday with nobody on a covering shift is hatched in fine amber on the project's Who's free? strip, and the project heading says how many days are short.

Weekends and bank holidays are never flagged - they are not expected to be staffed. Days in the past are not flagged either.

What counts as cover is yours to decide on the Settings page, under The key. On Shift, Night Shift and the two handovers count to begin with.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Press Edit on the project heading and set the anticipated end date.
2. Uncovered weekdays appear hatched on the Who's free? strip.
3. Drag across the hatched days to see who is free.
4. Click a name to fill them.

How to

• Set the end date: Edit on the project heading, then Anticipated end date.
• Stop the flagging: clear the end date again.
• Change what counts as cover: Edit key, then tick or untick Covers against a status.

What this is

Export PDF gives you whatever you are looking at - the same dates and the same filters. Pick a week, one site, one person or Active only first, and that is what you get.

It is always a single page: A4 landscape while that stays comfortable, A3 when it does not, and then everything is scaled down until the whole view fits.

On a very long view, such as a full year, the letters and day numbers drop out rather than print as smudges, and the sheet reads as a block plan of who is where.

The sheet carries the company name and logo, each project's details and end date, the colours and letters, and the key along the bottom.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Set the dates and filters you want.
2. Press Plan, then Export PDF, in the ribbon.
3. Open, print or attach the file.

How to

• Export what you can see: Plan, then Export PDF.
• A tidier sheet: narrow it first - one site, or Active only - so only the rows you care about are on it.
• Print it: A3 views print best on A3 paper; on A4 choose Fit to page.
• The file name carries its dates, so several exports never overwrite each other.

What this is

A project carries its client and address, number, site email, project manager, audits and anticipated end date. They show under the project name on the plan and on the PDF.

The Resources page is where everybody lives: a list of everyone, with how many sites each is on and whether their link is on. Click a name to change them - it changes them on every project at once.

Roles are picked from a list rather than typed, so they stay consistent. The list is at the bottom of the Resources page.

Being on a project's list is not the same as working on it. People stay listed after their last shift - Active only hides them.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Add the project.
2. Put people on it - someone already known, or someone new.
3. Keep contact details up to date on Resources.

How to

• Add a project: Plan, then Add project, in the ribbon.
• Edit a project: Edit on its heading. Tick Archive to take it off the plan without deleting anything.
• Bring an archived project back: Plan, then Archived projects, in the ribbon. Each one shows how many days it has planned; press Restore and it is back on the plan with all of them.
• Put someone on a project: + Person on the project heading, then choose who. Pick someone already known, or choose + Someone new and fill in their details.
• Change someone: click their name on the plan, or on Resources, change what you need and press Save.
• Find someone on Resources: type part of their name or role in the Find box.
• Add someone without putting them on a site yet: + Add a person, on Resources.
• Take someone off a project: click their name, then Remove from project. Their days on that project go; everywhere else is untouched.
• Delete someone entirely: on Resources, click their name, then Delete. It wipes all their planned days, so it asks first and says how many sites they come off.
• Add or remove a role: the Roles list at the bottom of Resources. Removing a role does not change anyone who already holds it.

What this is

The coloured chips along the top of the plan are the key, and they are yours to change. Press Edit key at the end of them, or open the Settings tab.

Settings shows each colour exactly as it looks on the plan, in the order it sits along the top, with what it does beside it and how many days it is on. Click one to change it, use the arrows to move it, or add your own. The plan changes everywhere at once.

Three ticks decide how a colour behaves - the box you change it in says what each one does, beside it:

Working - counts as being at work. Two of these on one day is what raises the red double-booking dot. Holiday, off shift and training are not ticked, so they never raise a false one.

Covers the site - what the no-cover check looks for.

Blocks Who's free - takes the person out of Who's free completely if any day you selected is marked with it. Holiday and Unavailable are ticked.

If two colours ever look the same - the same letter on the same colour - Settings says so, because their squares could not be told apart.

A status already used on the plan cannot be deleted, only hidden - hiding keeps every day already marked with it exactly as it is.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Press Edit key at the end of the key on the plan, or open Settings.
2. Click the colour you want to change, or + Add a colour.
3. Change it in the box and press Save.

How to

• Rename or recolour: click the colour (or Edit), change it - the square at the top shows what it will look like - and press Save.
• Reorder: the up and down arrows beside each colour.
• Add a colour: + Add a colour, under the list - a name, a letter and a colour.
• Retire one: tick Hide in its box. Delete is only offered for a colour nothing has ever used.
• On Shift is built in: it can be renamed and recoloured but not deleted, because Who's free books people as it.

What this is

England & Wales bank holidays are worked out automatically for every year, Easter and substitute days included. Nobody has to keep a list.

They are non-working by default: hatched red on the plan, skipped by Who's free, never booked by it, and never counted as missing cover.

They can still be worked - paint over the day as normal and it keeps a red bar along the bottom so it still reads as a bank holiday.

A date you remove stays removed; it does not come back on its own.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Open Settings, then Bank holidays.
2. The next 12 months are listed; later ones and the ones already gone this year are folded underneath.
3. Add a date or remove one.

How to

• Add a shutdown or a one-off: pick the date, say what it is, press Add.
• Make a bank holiday a working day: Remove against it. It asks first.
• Work a bank holiday anyway: just paint the day on the plan.

What this is

Everybody on the Resources page has their own link. It opens the live plan for only the sites they have days on in the dates being shown, read-only, with no sign-in. See *What a site team sees* for their side of it.

Because the link is live there is nothing to re-send when the plan changes. Each link is unique to one person and should not be passed on.

There is also one whole-plan link showing every site, for anyone who needs to see everything. Creating or replacing that one needs an admin.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Open Resources.
2. Send everyone their link at once, or click a name to send one person theirs.
3. Re-send a single link whenever someone loses theirs.
4. Switch a link off when someone leaves.

How to

• Send everyone their link: Email everyone their link, at the top of Resources. One email each, to everybody with an email address; anyone without one is counted and skipped.
• Send one person theirs: click their name on Resources, then Email it to them - your own mail program opens with the message already written. Copy link puts it on your clipboard instead.
• Someone leaves: click their name, then Switch off. Their link stops working immediately, and the Link column says Off.
• Turn a link back on: Give them a new link, in their box. The old one never works again.
• The whole-plan link (admin): Users & sharing, under The whole plan, read-only. Copy link copies it; Make a new link replaces it and kills the old one.

What this is

Your logo sits on a white chip at the right of the dark bar, on every page and every personal and whole-plan link, so any logo can be read. Your company name is on the sign-in page, the footer, the PDF and the emails the links are sent in.

Your brand colour goes on the page headings. The bar itself is the same dark Clarity bar on every product - it never takes your colour - and a colour too pale to read on white is left off the headings automatically.

Emails go out through the shared mailbox, so your company carries in the subject, the signature and the reply-to address. Replies come to the address you set, not the sending mailbox.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Open Settings, then Branding.
2. Fill in Company branding.
3. Press Save branding.

How to

• Set it up: Settings, then Company branding - the company name, the brand colour, the reply-to address, and a logo.
• Add a logo: drag an image onto the dashed box, or click it to choose one. PNG, JPG, WEBP or SVG, up to 2 MB.
• Logo on the PDF too: use a PNG or JPG. A PDF cannot carry an SVG, so an SVG logo is left off the export.
• Remove the logo: Remove logo, beside Save branding.

What this is

Signing in is only for the people who build the plan. Everyone else gets a personal link and never needs an account.

An admin adds each user with a starting password. Change yours as soon as you first sign in - Clarity Resource does not yet send invitations or password-reset emails.

Five wrong passwords in a row locks that account for fifteen minutes, both in Clarity Resource and at the server in front of it.

The very first time Clarity Resource is set up there are no users at all, and it asks for the first admin account.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. An admin adds you under Users & sharing.
2. You sign in with the starting password.
3. You change it: Users & sharing, Change your password, at the bottom.

How to

• Change your password: Users & sharing, then Change your password at the bottom. Your current password, then the new one twice, at least 8 characters. Every other device signed in as you is signed out.
• Add a user (admin): Add a user, straight under the list - name, email and a starting password.
• Stop someone's access (admin): Disable against their name - it asks first. Everything they did on the plan stays.
• Locked out: wait fifteen minutes. If you have forgotten the password, contact Clarity support - Clarity Resource cannot yet reset a password itself.

What this is

If you were sent a link, it is yours alone. It opens the live plan for the sites you have days on, for the dates on screen - not every site you have ever been listed against.

It is read-only and needs no password. Nothing you click can change the plan.

Because it is live there is nothing to save, print or re-download. Open it whenever you need it and it is already up to date.

You see the whole team on each of your sites, so you know who you are working with.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Open the link from the email.
2. Move through the dates with the buttons along the top.
3. Install it on your phone or desktop so it is one tap away next time.

How to

• See this week: Dates, then This week. Today and Next week work the same way.
• See further ahead: Dates, then Later, or 1 to 12 months.
• Nothing showing: you are not booked on any site in those dates - move to a different period.
• Install it: see Installing it like an app. Installed from your link, it opens straight onto your own plan.
• Keep it to yourself: the link is personal. If it stops working, ask for a new one - links are switched off when someone leaves.

What this is

Clarity Resource installs from the browser onto Windows, macOS, iPhone, iPad and Android. There is nothing to download and no installer - it is the same planner in its own window, with its own icon.

It offers itself. When your browser can install it and it isn't installed yet, a green banner under the bar says Install Clarity Resource as an app, with a big Install the app button - press it, then press Install in the box your browser shows. On a PC that is two clicks. Not ready? Not now hides it for 30 days. It is the same way of installing as every other Clarity app.

Then pin it. Windows doesn't let any website put itself on the taskbar, so Clarity Resource tells you the one step left: right-click its icon and choose Pin to taskbar (Edge offers a tick box for it as it installs).

Install it from a personal link and the app opens straight onto that person's plan, not the sign-in page. Personal links offer the install on phones too, because that is where site teams open them.

When a new version is released the app tells you: a dark bar across the top says A new version is ready, with a Reload button. It never swaps versions underneath you in the middle of a change.

An installed planner opens without signal, showing the last plan it loaded. When you are looking at a saved copy rather than the live plan, a yellow bar says so and gives the time it was saved, so an old roster is never mistaken for today's.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Open Clarity Resource, or your personal link, in Chrome or Edge (Safari on an iPhone, iPad or Mac).
2. Press Install the app on the green banner, then Install in the box the browser shows.
3. On a PC, pin it to the taskbar: right-click its icon, Pin to taskbar.
4. Open it from the taskbar, desktop or home screen from then on.
5. Press Reload when a new version is announced.

How to

• Windows or Mac - Chrome or Edge: press Install the app on the green banner. No banner? Click the install icon at the right-hand end of the address bar.
• Pin it to the taskbar: right-click the app's icon in the taskbar, then Pin to taskbar. On a Mac: right-click it in the Dock, Options, Keep in Dock.
• Mac - Safari: File, then Add to Dock.
• iPhone or iPad - Safari: the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.
• Android - Chrome: Install the app on the green banner, or the menu, then Install app.
• Firefox: it can't install web apps - open Clarity Resource in Chrome or Edge.
• Update it: press Reload on the dark bar. Nothing is lost - every change is saved as you make it.
• Without signal: it opens anyway, with the yellow bar. Changes need a connection.

What this is

Most surprises have a simple reason. The answers below cover the ones people ask about most.

The answers

• I can't sign in. Five wrong passwords locks the account for fifteen minutes. Wait, then try again; if you have forgotten it, contact Clarity support - Clarity Resource cannot yet reset a password itself.
• Someone isn't in the Who's free list. They are booked somewhere else on one of the days, or they are on holiday or unavailable during the selection (the panel counts those), or the days are bank holidays.
• There's a red dot on a square. That person is booked on another project the same day. Use Show, then the Person drop-down, to find the other booking.
• My change disappeared. Changes need a connection. If Clarity Resource could not reach the server it reloaded to show what was really saved - paint it again once you are back online.
• There's a yellow bar across the top. You are looking at a saved copy, not the live plan. It goes when the connection comes back.
• There's a dark bar saying a new version is ready. Press Reload. Nothing is lost.
• My installed app still shows the old icon. The browser updates an installed app's icon itself when you open it, at most once a day, and may ask you to confirm. To change it straight away, uninstall and reinstall - nothing is lost, everything is kept on the server: in the app window open the menu at the top right (... in Edge, ⋮ in Chrome), choose Uninstall (leave "clear data" unticked), then open Clarity Resource in the browser and press Install the app. Pin it again afterwards. If the taskbar still shows the old picture, unpin and pin it once more - Windows keeps its own copy of a pinned icon.
• My personal link shows nothing. You are not booked on any site in those dates. Move to a different period.
• A personal link has stopped working. It has been switched off - links are disabled when someone leaves. Ask for a new one.
• Someone is listed on a project but has no days there. People stay on a project's list after their last shift. Active only hides them.
• The PDF is very small. It always fits on one page, so a long period shrinks. Export a shorter period, or one site, for a sheet you can read at a glance.
• The logo isn't on the PDF. It is an SVG. Upload a PNG or JPG instead.