Example: planning from a weekly sheet

The situation

A supplier keeps the week's orders in one Excel file:

  • The file name has the week number in it, for example WEEK 39.xlsx.
  • There's a tab for each day: Monday, Tuesday and so on.
  • Each row is one order: the customer, its weight, and when the customer can receive it.

The words used here are explained in Day plan concepts.

The day in short

  • Upload the day's tab.
  • Optimise to turn it into routes.
  • Upload again whenever the sheet changes.

Upload the day's orders

  1. In Excel, open the tab for the day you're planning, and save the file. The day plan reads whichever tab was open when you saved.

  2. Open the day plan for that day.

  3. Under Workload, click New list, then Upload a sheet, and pick the file.

  4. Check the preview before you confirm. It tells you:

    • how many orders it found
    • which customers aren't in your address book
    • which weights or times it couldn't read

    If the tab is for a different day than the page you're on, it warns you.

  5. If a customer wasn't found, add them to your address book with their customer code, and upload again.

  6. Click Add list. If a customer has several rows, they become one job, with the weights added up.

Turn it into routes

  1. With nothing ticked, click Optimise. The planner fills each truck up to what it can carry and keeps to each customer's delivery times. Save the routes in the planner.
  2. Look over the routes. To change one, use Optimise ▾ on its card, drag a stop to another route, or tick stops and use Move to.
  3. Print trip sheets from the ⋮ menu next to Planned routes.

When the sheet changes

  1. Update the sheet in Excel and save it, with the same tab open.
  2. On the day plan, click the upload icon next to the list's name, and pick the file again. The preview shows what changed. Click Replace.
  3. Check what's different:
    • New customers show up as jobs that aren't on a route yet.
    • Customers whose order changed, for example a new weight, show under Needs attention.
  4. Click Optimise again, or move the new jobs onto routes yourself with Move to.

Loading and leaving

  1. Set a route to Loading when its truck is being packed. If you optimise again after that, its stops stay on its truck, and only new orders can use the space that's left. A stop added later shows as not loaded until you turn on its Loaded switch.
  2. Set it to Dispatched when the truck leaves.

What you get

  • You keep working in your sheet. Nothing is typed in twice.
  • Each upload shows exactly what changed, so a late change isn't missed.