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 with Sign in with your Clarity account - your Clarity email, password and two-step code - or open Clarity Resource from your Clarity account's My products. (Not on a Clarity account yet? Use your Resource email, password and code underneath.) Five wrong tries in a row locks you out 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.

Part days. Every painted square is a full day unless you say otherwise. Beside the key, Full day / Half day / Other sets how much of the day the colour books - pick Half day and drag, and every square you paint is a half day. A part day keeps its colour and letter and shows its share in the corner: ½, or 25%. To change one square that is already painted, click it with no colour picked and choose.

Days add up across sites. Someone can be on three sites on one day at a third each. The red dot now means more than a full day is booked - two full days, or a full day and a half - not simply two sites.

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.
• Paint half days: press Half day beside the key, pick a colour and paint as usual. Press Full day to go back to whole days.
• Split a day three ways: press Other, type 33, and paint that person on each of the three sites.
• Change one square to a part day: put the colour down (click it a second time), click the square, and choose Full day, Half day or Other.

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

Reports has its own tab on the bar (and a button on the ribbon under Plan). Pick a date range - the next twelve weeks unless you choose - and a chart and three tables are worked out from the plan as it stands.

Utilisation, week by week is the chart at the top: one column a week, dates along the bottom, percent up the side. It is the days booked across every project as a share of the days people have available, so 100% is everybody fully used and 50% is everybody half used. A dashed line marks 100%; a red column means more is booked than there are people, an amber one under 60%.

People: for each person, the days available (weekdays less bank holidays, holiday and other off days), the days booked, the share used and the share spare. Under 60% is marked amber; over 100%, or any day booked for more than a full day, red. The lettered columns split the booked days by colour - project work against bids and internal time, say - so chargeable and non-chargeable time read apart.

Sites: each site, who is booked on it and for how many days, and the days booked week by week. Give a site a people needed a day figure (Edit, on the plan) and each week shows booked against needed - short in red, over in blue.

Week by week: the whole company. Needed and booked across every site, how short, how many people-days are available, and what is spare. A red Spare means more is booked than there are people to do it.

A booked day is a day painted with a working colour. A half day counts as half, and a day split across sites counts once in total. Days off come out of what is available.

Every table has a Download that opens in Excel, and Print prints the three together.

By role groups everyone by the role on their record - whatever it says, so *Auditor* and *Site Manager*, or *Structural Engineer* and *Architect*, each get a row with their people, available and booked days, used, and spare days. Nothing to set up: change someone's role on Resources and they move. Roles come in the order of the Roles list on Resources - use its arrows to put, say, auditors first. A role typed on someone but not on the list comes after those, and people with no role last.

The one-page report puts it on one A4 sheet: four headline figures (utilisation, the busiest week, the spare days, and how short the sites are of what they need), the chart, the most used and most spare people, and the sites. Open One-page report to see it; Download PDF and Download picture give you the same page as a file - the picture is for pasting into an email or a slide. By role in the preview switches to the other sheet - utilisation for each role, with the people in it - and the downloads follow.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Press Reports on the bar.
2. Choose the dates, or one of the quick ranges.
3. Read People for who is under-used or over-booked.
4. Read Sites and Week by week for where the plan is short, and fill it from the plan with Who's free.

How to

• See the next quarter: press Reports, then Next 3 months.
• See how busy the company is over a year: set From and To a year apart. The chart shows every week, with a date every fourth.
• Find spare capacity: Week by week, the Spare column, or each person's Spare in People. Then Who's free on the plan shows who, and books just the part of a day they have.
• See chargeable against non-chargeable: People, the lettered columns - one for each colour anyone has been painted with.
• Spot a shortfall before it happens: give each site its people needed a day; the Sites table turns a week red when fewer days are booked than it needs.
• Take a table into a spreadsheet: press its Download.
• Send someone the picture: set the dates, press Download picture, and paste it into the email.
• Put a role first in the reports: on Resources, under Roles, press its up arrow until it is at the top.
• See how each discipline or grade is used: the By role table, or open One-page report and choose By role for the same on one sheet.

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 a whole team at once: on Resources press Import people, then Download the template. Fill it in - one person to a row with their name, role, mobile, email and hours; only the name is needed, and the Role column offers your roles or takes a new one. Drag the saved sheet onto the box. The next page shows who will be added, who updated and what changes, and anything skipped with the reason. Nothing changes until you press Import.
• Update details in bulk: put the same people in the template with what has changed. Someone is matched by their email, or by their name if the row has no email; their details are filled in or changed from the row, and an empty cell never wipes anything.
• 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.
• One colour is built in - On Shift on site, Project work in an office: it can be renamed and recoloured but not deleted, because Who's free books people as it.
• Two starting sets. When a company's plan is first made it asks what kind of work: On site (day and night shifts, Boots on the Ground, handovers, inductions, site set-up) or Office and projects (project work, client meetings, site visits, bids, internal time, training). That decides the starting key and whether the plan says *sites* or *projects*. Kind of work at the top of Settings changes it later: the words change at once and the other set's colours are added to the key where missing. Nothing is ever removed.

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.

One Clarity login. Clarity Resource is part of your company's Clarity account: you sign in once there - email, password and two-step code - and open Resource from My products, or press Sign in with your Clarity account on Resource's sign-in page. Your company's people are added, and given a licence, on the account's People tab; they appear in Resource the first time they open it.

The first time someone opens Resource from a Clarity account it has never seen, it asks one question: start Clarity Resource for the company - a new, empty plan with them as its owner - or link a Resource sign-in they already have. An existing sign-in is only ever linked after its own password and a confirmation; a matching email address never links anybody on its own.

Once linked, the Clarity sign-in is the only way in - your old Resource password stops working. The owner of the original Resource keeps theirs as an emergency way in.

Each company's plan is kept in a database of its own, so nobody ever sees another company's people, sites or branding.

If a subscription ends, the plan becomes read-only: it still opens, prints and exports, and site teams' links still work, but nothing can be changed until it is renewed in the Clarity account.

Price bands. The subscription is priced by how many people are on the plan - each person added to a site counts once, however many sites they're on, and people only on archived sites don't count. Bands go up to 10, 30 or 75 people; above that is by quote. Any number of people can build the plan - planners are never counted. If the plan grows past your band, owners and admins see a note at the top of the page with a Clarity account button to move up a band. Nothing ever stops working: it is a reminder, not a block, and it goes as soon as the plan is back within the band.

Nobody types a password for anybody else. An admin invites someone by email; the invitation is a link to choose their own password, and it works once, for 7 days.

Two-step sign-in is required for everyone. After your password you type a six-digit code from an authenticator app on your phone (Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator or similar). You set it up the first time you sign in, and get eight recovery codes to keep in case you lose your phone.

There are three roles. The owner - one per company - and admins can invite people, change their roles, send them a password reset link, reset their two-step sign-in, and manage branding and the whole-plan link. Members can change the plan. The owner can never be disabled or demoted, and can hand ownership to an admin.

Forgotten your password? Forgotten your password? on the sign-in page emails you a link that works once, for an hour. It says the same thing whatever address is typed, so it can't be used to find out who has an account.

Five wrong passwords or codes in a row locks that address for fifteen minutes - and so do twenty failures from one place, whatever addresses it tries.

The very first time Clarity Resource is set up there are no users at all. The first account - the owner - is made from a one-time setup link that Clarity support gives you, so nobody else who finds a new, empty copy can make themselves its admin.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. An admin invites you from Users & sharing.
2. You open the email, choose your password, and sign in.
3. You scan the QR code with your authenticator app, type its code, and save your recovery codes.
4. From then on: password, then the code from your phone.

How to

• Sign in with Clarity: Sign in with your Clarity account, on the sign-in page - or Open beside Clarity Resource in your Clarity account.
• Add someone: on your Clarity account's People tab, with a licence for Clarity Resource. (A Resource not yet on a Clarity account still invites by email: Users & sharing, Invite someone.)
• Link the Resource sign-in you already have: open Resource from your Clarity account, choose Link my existing Clarity Resource, sign in with your Resource password, then Yes, link them. To undo it: Users & sharing, Your sign-in, Unlink my Clarity account.
• Invite someone (admin, not on a Clarity account): Users & sharing, Invite someone - their name, email, and Member or Admin. If the invitation runs out, Manage beside their name, then Send the invitation again.
• Forgotten your password: Forgotten your password? on the sign-in page, then the link in the email. Or ask an admin: Manage, then Email them a password reset link - it goes to your own inbox.
• Lost your phone: at the code step, open Lost your phone? and type one of your recovery codes instead. Then Users & sharing, Your sign-in, New phone? Set it up again - that also gives you fresh recovery codes. No codes left? An admin can reset your two-step sign-in (Manage, then Reset their two-step sign-in), and you set it up again next time you sign in.
• Set up two-step before it's required: the yellow strip at the top of the page, or Users & sharing, Your sign-in, Set it up now.
• Change your password: Users & sharing, then Change your password at the bottom - at least 10 characters. Every other device signed in as you is signed out.
• Change someone's role, or stop their access (admin): Manage beside their name. Disable signs them out at once; everything they did on the plan stays.
• Hand over ownership (owner): Manage beside an admin, then Make them the owner. You become an admin.
• Locked out: wait fifteen minutes, then try again.

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

With Clarity TF (Time & Fees), every project on the plan can carry its client from your clients list, a status (Live, Bid, On hold or Closed), its start and end dates, its fee and its stages.

A fee is usually split by stage. Use RIBA stages 0-7 lays out the eight stages of the RIBA Plan of Work, each with a plain line saying what's involved; remove the ones you're not doing, change any line, or add your own stages. Stages are one level deep - there are no tasks inside them.

Give each stage its own fee and the project's fee is their total; or leave the stages unpriced and type one fee for the whole project. Fees are ex VAT.

Now marks the stage the project is at. It shows on the plan under the project's name, and from timesheets onwards it is where hours land by default.

Fees are money, so only owners and admins see them - on the plan, a member sees the stage but never the fee.

Start to finish

1. On the plan, press Fee & stages beside a project.
2. Pick the client, the status and the dates.
3. Press Use RIBA stages 0-7, or add your own stages.
4. Type each stage's fee and tick the stage it is at now.
5. Press Save.

How to

• Open it: on the plan, Fee & stages beside the project's name (owners and admins only). On Clarity TF's own address, tf.clarity-oo.com, it opens on Projects - every project with its client, status, stage now and fee - and Fee & stages is on each line.
• A client that isn't on the list: type it in "or type a new client" - it is added to your clients list as you save.
• Lay out the RIBA stages: Use RIBA stages 0-7. It is only offered while the project has no stages.
• Move or remove a stage: the arrows and the cross beside it. Whatever you had typed is saved first.
• Add a stage: type it in the empty last row and press Save.
• Change the stage it is at: tick Now beside it and press Save.
• Manage your clients: Settings, then Clients - change their details, or archive one you no longer work for. Nothing about them is deleted.

What this is

A proposal is priced stage by stage: the stages down the side, your roles across the top, and the days each role spends on each stage. The fee builds itself from your rate card, which is copied onto the proposal when you start it - so a special rate for this job is one change, and a later change to your rate card never moves a job you have priced.

Each stage has a Charge as box for the rounded or agreed figure; both are kept. Other costs passed on - surveys, sub-consultants, fees you pay for the client - get a line each. The totals are worked out by the server as you type, the same way as on the PDF, so the two always agree.

Every proposal has its number from the start, like P-0012. One that doesn't go ahead is Withdrawn, never deleted, so no number ever goes missing.

Issue freezes the price and the words as rev 1 and makes the PDF on your headed paper - the Clarity name is nowhere on it. You download it and send it from your own mailbox. A change after that is a revision with one line saying why; every revision the client was sent is kept exactly as sent.

When the client says yes, Won records who accepted, when and how - with the signed page if you have it - and makes the project with its stages, fee, hours and agreed fee 1 in one press.

Proposals are money, so only owners and admins see them.

Start to finish

1. Proposals, then + New proposal.
2. Pick the client and name the project.
3. Use RIBA stages 0-7, remove the ones you aren't doing, and say what's involved in each.
4. Type the days each role spends on each stage.
5. Press Draft PDF to read the whole letter.
6. Press Issue, check the one sentence, and Issue.
7. When they say yes: Won - make the project.

How to

• Start one: Proposals, + New proposal. Or open a past one and press Copy to a new proposal - the client, stages, days and words come across at today's rates.
• Round a stage: type the figure in its Charge as box. The build-up stays beside it.
• A stage charged by time: open More beside it and tick Time charge. It prints as an estimate.
• Show the days by role on the PDF: under The letter, choose Also show the days by role. The fee by stage is always shown, and every stage says what's involved.
• Read it before it goes: Draft PDF opens the whole letter with DRAFT across every page.
• Issue: it stays shut until your headed paper has an address, the client is chosen and every stage says what's involved - the page says what's missing.
• Change it after issue: type what is changing beside Revise, press Revise, change it, and Issue rev 2. Rev 1 stays downloadable for ever.
• They said no: Lost, with a reason. You're not going ahead: Withdraw. Either can be reopened.
• The numbers behind it: Build-up spreadsheet beside each issued revision - every day, rate, charge, cost and margin, from the frozen record.
• Your numbering, offer period and standard words: Settings, Proposals.

What this is

The rate card sits under Roles on the Resources page. Each role has a charge - what a client pays for an hour - and a cost - what the hour costs your firm. The day rate beside them uses your working day from Settings (7.5 hours unless you change it).

Rates are dated. Changing a rate adds a new one from the date you pick; the one before is kept for the days it covered. So what a role cost last March can always be found, and a rate set for next April shows as "Changes on" until then.

Only owners and admins see the rate card.

Start to finish

1. Open Resources and scroll to the Rate card.
2. Press Set a rate (or Change) beside a role.
3. Pick the date it starts, type the charge and the cost an hour.
4. Press Save rate.

How to

• Set a rate: Resources, Rate card, Set a rate beside the role.
• A pay rise or a new price list: Change, pick the date it starts, type the new rates. The old ones stay for the days before.
• A rate typed by mistake: open Change and press the cross beside it in the list. Keep a rate that really changed - it is the record.
• Change the working day: Settings, Headed paper, Working day.

What this is

Fee proposals go out on your own headed paper. The Clarity name is nowhere on it.

Your company name, logo and the colour of the line under the heading come from Company branding. The address, company number, VAT number, phone, website, email, who signs and the small print at the foot come from Headed paper, in Settings.

Say whether you are VAT registered and at what rate, and how many hours make your working day - that turns days into hours on rates, proposals and timesheets.

See the headed paper opens page one as a client will see it, so you can check it before anyone else does.

Start to finish

1. Open Settings, then Headed paper.
2. Fill in the address and the lines you want on the paper.
3. Set VAT and the working day.
4. Press Save headed paper, then See the headed paper.

How to

• Fill it in: Settings, Headed paper. Only the address is really needed; leave any line you don't want blank.
• Check it: See the headed paper opens it as a PDF.
• The logo: use a PNG or JPG in Company branding - a PDF cannot carry an SVG, so with an SVG logo the name stands alone.
• The line under the heading: it takes your brand colour, unless the colour is too pale to read on white - then it is dark.

What this is

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

Not answered here? Press Raise a ticket - beside Help at the top, or at the foot of any Help page. It opens your Clarity account's Help & tickets page with Clarity Resource already chosen: report a problem, ask for a change or ask a question, mark it urgent, and attach a screenshot.

The answers

• I can't sign in. Five wrong passwords or codes locks you out for fifteen minutes - wait, then try again. Forgotten your password? Use Forgotten your password? on the sign-in page. Code not accepted? Check your phone's clock is set automatically, and type the newest code. Lost your phone? Use a recovery code, or ask an admin to reset your two-step sign-in.
• 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.