> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.menaia.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Job plan lifecycle > The three job-plan statuses (Draft, Complete, Approved), how a plan is built, submitted, and approved, who can do each, and how the job's status follows along. This reference explains the job plan: the crew-facing breakdown of a job into days, employees, subcontractors, vehicles, equipment, and work-item allocations. It covers the three statuses a plan moves through, who can build, submit, and approve it, what must be true before each step, and how the parent job's status follows along. The user-facing roles referenced below are: **Admin**, **Ops Manager**, **Sales Admin**, **Sales Member**, **Client Coordinator**, **Crew Leader**, and **Crew Member**. ## The plan statuses A job has at most one plan, and that plan is always in one of exactly three statuses: * **Draft** — the plan is being built and is editable. This is the status every new plan starts in. * **Complete** — the plan has been submitted. ("Submit" is the action that moves a plan here.) * **Approved** — a manager has signed off on the submitted plan. A plan always starts as **Draft** when it is first created. ### Statuses move forward, not back In normal use a plan moves Draft to Complete to Approved, one step at a time. The submission checks and the "submitted" timestamp only apply when a plan first becomes Complete; the approval stamp only applies when a plan first becomes Approved. Re-running these steps is safe and won't overwrite the original record. ## Who builds, submits, and approves Building, saving a draft, submitting, and approving a plan are all the same level of access. The roles that can do all of them are: * **Admin** * **Ops Manager** * **Crew Leader** These roles can create a plan, save drafts, submit, and approve. Everyone else with access to the job can **view** the plan but not change it: * **Sales Admin** — view only * **Sales Member** — view only * **Client Coordinator** — view only * **Crew Member** — view only ### Approving needs no special permission There is no separate "approver" role or approve permission. Approving a plan requires the same access as editing it. The person who approves is recorded automatically from who is signed in — it is not chosen from a list. Note, though, that there is currently no approve action in the app itself — see [Approving](#approving-complete-to-approved) below. For the full role-by-area breakdown, see [/reference/platform/permissions-roles-matrix](/reference/platform/permissions-roles-matrix). For how jobs and plans are limited to your organization and branch, see [/reference/platform/org-branch-scoping](/reference/platform/org-branch-scoping). ### Who is recorded for each step * **Created by** — recorded when the plan is first created. * **Submitted** — a timestamp recorded when the plan becomes Complete. The plan card shows the plan's creator as the submitter. * **Approved by / approved on** — the approver and a timestamp, recorded when the plan becomes Approved. ## Building and saving a draft The plan is built from the **Job Plan** tab on the job's project page. The job must already exist and have a work order. ### Save Draft Saving a draft creates the plan as a Draft if one doesn't exist yet, then stores the plan's day-by-day breakdown. One nuance protects your work: an empty form does not clear a saved plan. Autosaving an empty form leaves an existing saved breakdown untouched. Clearing the plan is a deliberate action, not something that happens by accident. The **Save Draft** button is disabled when there are no unsaved changes, or while a save or submit is already in progress. ### Each save replaces the whole breakdown When you save, the plan's day-by-day breakdown is fully replaced with what's currently on the page, all at once. It is not merged with the previous version. ### "Work order has changed" (you need to reload) Before saving, the system compares what the plan allocates against the live work-order quantities. If a work item is missing or the plan now allocates more than the work order has, the save is refused and you'll see one of these messages: > "Work order items have changed since this page was loaded. Please reload the page and re-plan." > "Work order quantities have changed since this page was loaded. Please reload the page and re-plan." If the saved plan already exceeds the updated quantities, a banner appears on the builder with a **Clear Plan** button: > "The work order quantities have changed since this plan was saved. The current plan days exceed the updated quantities. Clear the plan and re-plan with the correct amounts." ## Submitting (Draft to Complete) Submitting runs a set of checks, acknowledges any work-order changes, and then moves the plan to **Complete**. ### When the Submit button is available The **Submit** button is only enabled when the plan is fully ready, there are unsaved changes to commit, and no save or submit is already running. "Fully ready" means all of: * crew notes have been acknowledged (if the work order has any), * every plan day is marked complete, * there is at least one plan day, * any important notices are completed, * every work-order item is fully allocated, with no remaining shortfall. You can only add days once the important notices are completed. ### What makes a single day valid Each day needs at least one employee or subcontractor, every employee with valid hours, and at least one work item with a quantity greater than zero. Hours are validated strictly on save and submit: each employee's hours must be between 0.5 and 24, in half-hour steps — any other value is rejected. (The hour stepper in the planner offers 1 through 12.) The matching messages are: > "At least one employee or subcontractor must be requested" > "All employees must have valid hours assigned" > "At least one work item must be selected with quantity greater than 0" ### "Allocate the remaining amount" (shortfall) Before submitting, any incomplete allocation blocks submission with a message naming the item and the amount still to allocate: > "Cannot submit plan. Allocate the remaining `{amount}{unit}` for `{itemName}`." ### Server-side submission checks When the plan is submitted, three final checks run. If any fails, submission is refused with the matching message: 1. Crew notes not acknowledged (when the work order has crew notes) — "Crew notes must be acknowledged before submission" 2. No employees or subcontractors requested — "At least one employee or subcontractor must be requested before submission" 3. No items assigned — "At least one work order item must be assigned before submission" If submission is refused for another reason, you'll see: > "The plan is not ready to submit. Please review it and try again." ### Acknowledging work-order changes On submit, any pending work-order changes are acknowledged before the plan flips to Complete; if that acknowledgement fails, the plan is not submitted. On a draft save, the acknowledgement happens only after the breakdown saves successfully, so a "work order has changed" reload prompt won't hide the notices banner. ### After a successful submit * A successful submit can contribute to the **Plan Captain** badge, which unlocks after a user has ten distinct submitted-or-approved plans they created. * You're returned to the jobs list. * If submit fails, you'll see "Failed to submit plan". ## Approving (Complete to Approved) Approving moves a submitted plan to **Approved**. When this happens, the approver and the approval date are recorded automatically from who is signed in. The stamps are recorded only the first time a plan is approved — approving again won't overwrite the original approver or date. **There is currently no approve action in the app.** Nothing on the plan or the job moves a plan from **Complete** to **Approved**. In practice a reviewer signs off by advancing the job's status from **Pending Review** to **Requires Scheduling** on the jobs list — that advances the job, but the plan itself stays **Complete**. The **Approved** status and its stamps remain part of the lifecycle and behave as described here whenever a plan does reach it. ## How the job's status follows the plan When the plan's status actually changes, the parent job's status updates in lockstep, as part of the same action, so the plan and the job can never disagree: * Plan becomes **Complete** — job moves to **Pending Review**. * Plan becomes **Approved** — job moves to **Requires Scheduling**. * Any other change — the job status is left alone. The link runs one way. Changing the job's status directly — for example, a reviewer setting a **Pending Review** job to **Requires Scheduling** — does not change the plan; it stays **Complete**. ## What locks editing There is no hard freeze on a Complete or Approved plan — a manager can always re-open and edit it. Instead, "done" plans are shown read-only by default, and you step back into edit mode deliberately. ### Read-only view On the project's **Job Plan** tab: * no plan — an empty state with **Create Plan**, * **Draft** — a "Plan saved as draft" state with a draft action, * **Complete** or **Approved** — the plan renders read-only. The read-only view shows the submitter's name and the submitted date, and only an **Edit Plan** link — no Submit or Save Draft buttons. The **Edit Plan** link returns you to the editable builder, so a manager can always re-enter edit mode. The lock is presentational, not a permanent freeze. ### Other safeguards on the builder * **Save Draft** is disabled when there are no changes or while a save is running. * **Submit** is disabled unless the plan is ready, has changes, and isn't already processing. * Navigating away with unsaved edits warns you first. * A plan can only point at a job in your own organization; trying otherwise reports the job as not found. ## The plan card on the Job Plan tab The plan card, on the **Job Plan** tab of the job's project page, shows status-specific copy and a call to action: * no plan — "No Plan Found" / **Create Plan** * **Draft** — "Draft in Progress" / **Continue Planning** (shows creator and created date) * **Complete** — "Plan Complete" / **View Plan** (shows creator and submitted date) * **Approved** — "Plan Approved" / **View Plan** (shows approver and approved date; since there's currently no in-app approve action, plans normally stop at "Plan Complete") ## Quick reference * **Statuses:** Draft to Complete (submit) to Approved, moving forward one step at a time. * **Build / submit / approve:** Admin, Ops Manager, Crew Leader. Everyone else is view-only. * **Approving** records the approver automatically and needs no special permission — but there is currently no in-app approve action; reviewers advance the job's status and the plan stays Complete. * **Submission requires** acknowledged crew notes, at least one employee or subcontractor, at least one assigned item, every day complete, and no allocation shortfall. * **Employee hours** must be between 0.5 and 24 per day, in half-hour steps. * **Job status follows the plan:** Complete to Pending Review, Approved to Requires Scheduling. * **Editing isn't frozen** — non-Draft plans show read-only, and **Edit Plan** re-opens the builder.