A usage schedule specifies when a device, or Spot, is expected to be in use. It is an input for usability monitoring: the schedule does not record the device's actual operating hours, change the Spot's status, or set a task due date or maintenance interval.
Open usage schedules
Set up the schedule in the browser. In the navigation, open Assets and content → Assets, devices, tools → Usability monitoring and select the Usage schedules tab. To open an existing schedule, click its name in the table.
Managing schedules requires administrator permissions. A manager user can view schedules, but the create, copy and update functions are locked.
Create a schedule and set its validity period
- Select Create new usage schedule.
- Enter a Name. You can describe the schedule's purpose in the Description field.
- Set the Begin date and, if needed, the End date. A new schedule must begin today or in the future. The end date cannot be before the begin date or in the past. An empty end date means the schedule has no predetermined end date.
- Select the Calculation mode. The default is Time-based schedule. Set the operating hours and exceptions as described below.
- Select the assignments and check the planned hours preview.
- Save using the Create new usage schedule button at the bottom of the form.
The validity period includes both the begin and end dates. A schedule affects calculations only on days when it is valid and is selected as the schedule to use for the Spot.
Scheduling
Time-based schedule
In this calculation mode, you set operating periods for each weekday using clock times. In the weekly calendar under Scheduling, the columns run from Monday to Sunday and the rows represent the hours of the day.
To select an operating period, drag the mouse across the hour rows for the desired day. You can select the same period for several adjacent days by dragging across their columns as well. For example, select 08:00–16:00 using rows 8–15. The resulting start and end times appear at the beginning of a continuous selection. You can create separate periods for the same day by leaving unselected hours between them.
Selecting a selected area again removes its hours. To change the times, remove the hour cells you no longer need and select the missing hours. Clear filters clears the operating hours from the visible weekly calendar. Selections are made in whole hours. A period that continues to the end of the day is shown as ending at 23:59, but the calculation treats it as ending at the end of the day.
Weekly goal shows the sum of the operating periods selected in the calendar before exceptions. Every weekly calendar being saved must contain operating time.
The duration of time-based periods is calculated as actual elapsed time in the service time zone. In Finland, for example, 01:00–04:00 lasts 2 hours on the spring clock-change day and 4 hours on the autumn clock-change day. In spring, a nonexistent time is moved forward by the amount of the clock change. In autumn, when a time occurs twice, the first occurrence is used for the start and the second for the end.
Even and odd weeks
Select Break into odd/even weeks above the time-based settings if operating hours alternate between weeks. Set the hours separately on the Odd weeks and Even weeks tabs. The new even-week settings initially use the first week's operating hours and exceptions.
The week is selected by calendar week number, not by the number of weeks since the schedule began. For example, week 2 uses the even-week operating hours. Without the split, the same weekly settings apply to every week. Disable odd/even weeks removes the even-week settings; after saving, the first week's settings apply to all weeks.
Daily hours schedule
In this calculation mode, you enter the target number of hours for each weekday without specifying when the hours occur. Enter the hours under Scheduling → Daily hours settings. The days on a new form initially have zero hours.
The number of hours must be between 0 and 24 per day, and greater than zero on at least one weekday. Zero means no target hours are set for that weekday. This calculation mode does not have a corresponding split between even and odd weeks.
Weekly total is the sum of the weekday hours before exceptions, displayed to two decimal places. For example, 8 hours per day from Monday to Friday and 0 hours for the weekend gives a weekly target of 40 hours.
The calculation modes handle time in use differently: daily hours calculate active time from the status history for the entire day, while the time-based model examines the specified operating periods and any time not in use that falls within them. The mobile status In use on Android or In Use on iOS corresponds to the browser status Active. See the guide to interpreting usability monitoring for the percentage formulas and status history limitations.
Exceptions
Under Scheduling, open Exceptions — public holidays and other exceptions and select Add exception. In a time-based schedule split into weeks, the exception belongs to the selected week's settings.
- Date or date range: select one day or a start and end date. Without an end date, the exception applies only to the start date.
- Timing: enter the start and end times for the exception. Both are required. Check the times again if you change their order.
- Recurrence: leaving the selection empty means the exception applies to the entered dates. The options are Every month for selected date and Every year for selected date. For monthly recurrence, the date range must be within the same month; selecting this option removes the end date if it is in a different month.
- Description: you can record the reason for the exception. The trash icon on the right of the exception row removes the row from the form.
For a multi-day exception, the same time range is applied separately to each day in the date range, including the start and end dates. Monthly recurrence applies to the same numbered days of the month, and annual recurrence applies to the same day and month numbers.
Time-based exceptions
An exception removes, shortens or splits an operating period wherever the times overlap. All exceptions that apply to the day are applied from the selected calendar week's own settings. Overlapping time is not deducted twice. For example, an operating period of 08:00–16:00 with exceptions at 10:00–12:00 and 11:00–14:00 leaves operating time from 08:00–10:00 and 14:00–16:00, for a total of 4 hours.
Exceptions in daily hours
The number of hours between the exception's start and end times is deducted from the day's target, down to a minimum of zero. The clock times do not limit the period over which actual usage is measured. For example, an exception from 12:00–14:00 deducts 2 hours from an 8-hour target, leaving a target of 6 hours.
If several exceptions apply to a day, the first applicable exception in the saved order is used. Exceptions are not added together. An exception ending at 23:59 is treated as extending to the end of the day. The daily hours target and the hours deducted for an exception are fixed numbers of clock hours, even on clock-change days.
When an exception reduces the day's target to zero, zero is also recorded for hours in use and hours not in use in that day's usage data.
Assign the schedule and check the order of precedence
In the form's basic information, select the Select button under Spots used. Select the desired Spots in the Select Spots window and confirm with Select Spots. Select folder assignments in the Folders used field. The folder selector allows folders that have no subfolders.
The daily calculation first uses a schedule directly assigned to the Spot that is valid on the day being calculated. If there is none, it uses a valid schedule assigned to the Spot's own folder. The next option is a valid Service-wide schedule. The search does not continue to schedules assigned to parent folders. Without an applicable schedule, no usage rate is generated for the day.
A Spot or folder has one direct schedule assignment. Selecting it for a new schedule moves the assignment from the previous schedule to the new one; it does not reserve two schedules in parallel for different periods. Also check which schedule will be used before the new schedule's begin date.
Service-wide removes separate Spot and folder assignments from the schedule being saved. Only one schedule can be set as service-wide at a time. When you save another schedule as service-wide, the setting is immediately removed from the previous schedule.
Annual planned hours
Open Annual planned hours at the bottom of the form and select a year in the Filter by year field. The preview shows the selected calendar year's planned hours by month, based on the operating hours and exceptions on the form. Monthly results for daily hours are rounded to two decimal places. The time-based preview uses the same rules for overlaps between daily operating periods and exceptions as the daily calculation.
The preview calculates the entire calendar year and does not restrict the results to the schedule's begin and end dates. It also does not take the Spot's status history or assignment precedence into account. The figures are neither actual usage rates nor results limited to the schedule's validity period.
Edit and copy an existing schedule
When a schedule's begin date is in the past and the schedule is assigned to Spots or folders or set as service-wide, the operating hours, exceptions, calculation mode and most basic information are locked on the edit form. A user with edit permissions can still edit the end date and assignment selections. For a manager user, these selections are also locked. A user with administrator permissions can edit the operating hours of a schedule that begins today or in the future on the form.
Save permitted changes using the Update usage schedule button at the bottom of the form. If saving produces an error, correct the indicated information and try again. Reopen the saved schedule and check the changes.
You can use a locked schedule as the basis for a new one: open the schedule from its name link and select Copy at the bottom of the form. This opens a new schedule form using the last saved information. Give the copy a descriptive name, set the new operating hours, and check the exceptions and assignments.
If the old schedule has an end date, the copy's begin date defaults to the same day. Also check the copied end date and other dates. If you want the new period to begin only after the old one, set its begin date to the day after the old end date. Without an old end date, the copied begin date may be in the past and must be corrected before saving. Save the copy using Create new usage schedule.
Copying does not end the old schedule. Moving a direct Spot or folder assignment to the copy, or changing the service-wide setting, may change which schedule is selected for later calculations. There is no guarantee that the original schedule will still be used when the old period is recalculated.
Saving a schedule does not itself recalculate previous usage results or fill in missing historical days. Changing past status history can trigger recalculation of existing results. A change in calculation mode can then also change results for past days; the limits of recalculation are described in the guide to interpreting usability monitoring.
Verify the result
When creating a schedule, wait for the message New usage schedule created; when updating one, wait for Usage schedule updated. Reopen the saved schedule and check the calculation mode, validity period, operating hours, exceptions and assignments. For a copy, also check the previous schedule's assignments.
The daily calculation generates the previous day's data according to the service time zone. Once data has been generated, open the Statistics tab in the same Usability monitoring view, limit the review to days when the schedule is valid, and check the Spot's Desired in use and the schedule in use. The current schedule shown in the statistics does not by itself show which schedule was used to calculate historical results.
Compare the result with the status changes on the Event logs tab. The event log shows the Spot's status history, not the schedule's save history. For more detailed instructions, see How do I view a Spot's usage rate? and How do I check usability monitoring history and export the data to Excel?