Synergist can colour-code bookings in the resource bookings calendar, making it easy to spot which client, project, campaign or team member a booking belongs to at a glance. Colours can be set at several different levels, from an individual booking right up to a resource's own colour, and Synergist follows a fixed order of priority when more than one applies.
This article explains that priority order and how to set a colour at each level.
How Synergist decides which colour to use
If colours are set at more than one level for the same booking, Synergist works through the following order and uses the first one it finds, starting from the top:
- Booking colour – set manually on the booking itself.
- Campaign colour
- Project colour
- Organisation colour
- Current Stage colour – based on the stage the job or phase is in when the booking is made.
- Handler colour – the colour assigned to the job or phase handler.
- Resource colour – the colour assigned to the resource the booking is made against.
In practice, this means a manually set booking colour always wins, and a resource's own colour is only used as a fallback if nothing else has been set.
Setting a booking colour manually
- Open the booking.
- Select a colour from the colour drop-down.
- Select Save.
Setting a colour on a Campaign or Project
- Open the Campaign or Project record.
- Use the colour picker to choose a colour.
Once set, every booking linked to that campaign or project picks up the colour automatically. The colour also shows in the Colour column on Campaign and Project lists, so you can check what's set without opening each record individually.
Setting a colour on an Organisation
Organisation colours are set in the record details on the Organisation itself. Any booking made against that client's jobs will use this colour, provided nothing higher up the priority order overrides it.
Setting a colour on a Stage
- Go to Settings > File Maintenance > Stage Types.
- Open the stage you want to colour.
- Select a colour from the drop-down.
If a job or phase is sitting in that stage when a booking is made against it, the booking uses the stage's colour, as long as no booking, campaign, project or client colour takes priority first.
Setting a colour on a Handler
- Go to Settings > File Maintenance > Users.
- Open the user record for the handler.
- On the Details tab, select a colour from the drop-down.
This colour is used when the job or phase has a handler assigned, and no colour has been set further up the priority list. If the phase itself has no handler, Synergist falls back to the job handler's colour instead.
Setting a colour on a Resource
- Go to Settings > File Maintenance > Resource.
- Open the resource record.
- Select a colour from the drop-down.
This is the last colour Synergist checks. If nothing else is set anywhere in the priority list, the booking takes on the resource's own colour.
Capacity colours in the Loading view
The Loading view uses a separate, unrelated colour system: red, amber, green and grey to show whether a resource is overbooked, fully booked, has spare capacity, or is out of office. This isn't part of the priority hierarchy above. Find out more about Loading view in resource bookings.
Tips
- Set colours at Organisation or Project level for anything you want colour-coded consistently across the whole team, rather than relying on staff to set booking colours by hand.
- Use a manually set booking colour sparingly. Because it always wins, overusing it makes the rest of your colour coding pointless.
- If a booking isn't showing the colour you expect, work down the priority list from the top. Nine times out of ten, something higher up is already set.
- Stage colours are useful for spotting where a job is in its lifecycle at a glance, without needing to open it.