Business Calendars

A business calendar is a set of rules that define working days and hours, as well as holidays, that are applicable for the business. Business calendars can be used in iWD rules to perform date and time calculations, taking into account the working schedule of the business. Business calendars are defined on a solution level and can be used in rules only for that particular solution.  Business calendars are managed in iWD Manager. Attributes and rules can be specified for each business calendar, and business calendars can be used in iWD rules.

Managing Business Calendars

To create new (or to manage existing) business calendars, open the Departments and Processes panel, and select the Business Calendars entry in the navigation tree.

The right-hand side of iWD Manager is split horizontally into two panes. The upper panel displays a list of the solution's business calendars. The New Business Calendar button that is underneath this list is used to create a new business calendar. You can delete business calendars by clicking the Delete Business Calendar button button that is on the right-hand of the business calendar in the business calendar list. When a calendar in the business calendar list is selected, the lower pane displays the attributes of the selected business calendar.

Attributes of a Business Calendar

Business calendars consist of a set of standard mandatory attributes, as well as optional business calendar rules. The following table describes the standard attributes of a business calendar.

ID

The business calendar identifier. This attribute is generated automatically by iWD Manager, when the calendar is created.

Name

The name of the business calendar, as it will appear throughout iWD Manager.

Timezone

The time zone of the business calendar.

Week starts on

The first day of a working week.

Week ends on

The last day of a working week.

Start time

The start time of a working day. This attribute is a representation of time in 24-hour format (hh:mm, where hh are hours and mm are minutes).

End time

The end time of a working day. This attribute is a representation of time in 24-hour format (hh:mm, where hh are hours and mm are minutes).

Business Calendar Rules

Business calendar rules describe exceptions to the regular working schedule that is defined by business calendar standard attributes. Click the button to add a business calendar rule, and click the Delete Business Calendar button button to delete a business calendar rule. Depending on calendar placement and entry type, the definition of a business calendar rule can have different attributes. The following table describes the attributes of a business calendar rule:

Name

The name of the business calendar rule.

Entry type

The type of business calendar rule. This can be one of the following:

Holiday: The business calendar rule describes a holiday.

Time Change: The business calendar rule describes working hours that differ from the working hours of the business calendar.

Note:  A business calendar's holidays precede time changes; therefore, if any rule sets a day as a holiday, and there is a time change for that specific day, the time change will have no effect. This applies only to holidays that are specified by the rules of the business calendar.

Calendar placement

The calendar placement of the business calendar rule. This can be one of the following:

Fixed: The business calendar rule is tied to a specific date.

Relative: The business calendar rule is described in a relative way and is not tied to a specific date. For example, the first Monday of September would be a relative description.

Annual: The business calendar rule that happens every year on a specific date.

Definition

The contents of this attribute depend on the selected calendar placement and entry type:

Date input control: This parameter applies only to business calendar rules that have a fixed calendar placement. The year portion of this date is not taken into account, when performing calculations—thus, making this date recurrent on a yearly basis.

Relative calendar placement controls: This set of controls applies only to business calendar rules that have a relative calendar placement. There are three drop-down list controls that allow specification of Place in month, Day of week, and Month of year.

Place in month is defined by a value of Every, First, Second, Third, or Fourth, and is used in conjunction with Day of week (Monday, Tuesday, and so on) to describe relatively the day of month.

Month of year defines to what month a business calendar applies; besides month names, it allows also specification of “any month,” if the business calendar rule must be recurrent on a monthly basis.

The following are examples of definitions of a relative calendar placement:  

[Second] [Tuesday] of [September]

[Every][Saturday] of [May]

[First][Monday] of [any month]

Annual calendar placement controls: This set of controls applies only to business calendar rules that have an annual calendar placement. There are two drop-down list controls that allow specification of month and date.  

Working hours definition controls: This set of controls applies only to business calendar rules that have a time-change type. Two input controls allow the entering of a start time and end time of the working day. Each value is a representation of time in 24-hour format (hh:mm, where hh are hours and mm are minutes).

To configure a simple business calendar:

Perform the following steps to configure a business calendar in which Monday—Friday are standard working days 09:00 to 18:00, and Saturday is 10:00 to 16:00.

  1. Create a new calendar, select Timezone, and set Week starts on Monday and Week ends on Friday. Then, set Start time and End time.

  2. Add a time-change rule for Saturdays (it will mark it as working day).

  3. Some holidays can be specified by using rules, such as Christmas or New Year's Day.

Using Business Calendars in iWD Rules

After business calendars are defined, it is possible to use them in iWD rules. Business calendars should be assigned to a task, before any business calendar-related calculations can be performed on task values.

Action name

Parameters

Description

Select business calendar

{businessCalendar}

Assigns a business calendar to a task. A business calendar must be assigned to a task, before any business calendar-related calculations can be performed on task values. A drop-down list displays a list of business calendars that are defined for the solution.

Reprioritize after

{period} in working {periodType}

Sets a task's reprioritization date/time to value that is calculated, based on current date/time, the task's business calendar, and specified parameters. {period} is a numeric value, and {periodType} specifies "working" minutes, hours, or days.

Task Due in

{period} in working {periodType}

Sets a task's due date/time to a value that is calculated, based on the task's creation date/time, the task's business calendar, and specified parameters. {period} is a numeric value, and {periodType} specifies "working" minutes, hours, or days.

Activate task in

{period} in working {periodType}

Sets a task's reprioritization date/time to a value that is calculated, based on the task's creation date/time, the task's business calendar, and specified parameters. {period} is a numeric value, and {periodType} specifies "working" minutes, hours, or days.