Start and close a cycle

Create a time box across boards, add entries, activate it and close it with a carry-over.

In short

A cycle is a time box - often two weeks - that holds items and cards from any board. Create it, add work, activate it when it begins, and close it with the open work carried into the next one.

Before you start

• Who: In an organization, "See team calendars" lets you see its shared calendars and cycles. "Plan team calendars and cycles" lets you change them; an Organization Admin, Manager or Member holds it, and a Viewer only sees. Your own items in your Personal Workspace need no role.
• Plan: Planner is part of every plan, Free included. Your plan caps the open items, calendars and cycles a workspace holds (Plan & usage shows them). Closing a cycle that carries work over opens the next one, which counts as a cycle.
• First: have items or cards to put in it. One cycle is active at a time per person or organization.

Start a cycle

1. Open Planner › "Plan" and press "New cycle" in the title row.
2. Give it a name, a goal, and start and end dates (two weeks by default). Press "Create cycle".
3. A new cycle reads "Bring cards in from a board - the ones that fit are picked for you." Press "Plan from a board" to bring a board's cards (see /help/planner/cycles-in-points), or "Add one by one" to add items and cards yourself. A card can also join from its own Planner tab, and any row in Today or Week from its … menu, "Add to cycle".
4. Press "Activate" when the cycle begins.

Close a cycle

1. On the active cycle, press "Close cycle".
2. The dialog says how many open entries would carry over. Leave "Carry open entries to a new cycle" on, and check the next cycle's name and dates.
3. Press "Close cycle". The burndown freezes and the next cycle is created as Planned with the same members, capacity and goal.
4. Press "Activate" on the next cycle when it begins.

Good to know

• One cycle is active at a time per person or organization.
• The cycle page shows its status (Planned, Active or Closed), dates, day d of n, goal, and tiles for Entries, Done, Remaining and Load.
• Deleting a cycle only unlinks its entries; the cards and items stay.
• A cycle made in an organization belongs to it. Seeing it needs See team calendars. Changing it needs Plan team calendars and cycles, which Admins, Managers and Members hold; Viewers only see.
• If a not-yet-closed cycle with the next cycle's name exists, open entries join it instead. Done entries stay in the closed cycle.
• To bring many cards from one board at once, use "Plan from a board".

If something goes wrong

• "Close the active cycle before activating another."
• "A closed cycle takes no new work." / "A closed cycle cannot be changed."
• "A cycle ends on or after the day it starts." / "A cycle is at most a year long."
• Your plan's cycles are used up: close or delete an old cycle.

Related

• /help/planner/cycle-capacity
• /help/planner/cycles-in-points
• /help/planner/timeline