How WhenWorks works

Section 1 — Getting started

Signing in

WhenWorks uses magic links — there are no passwords to remember. Enter your email address, check your inbox, and click the link. You'll be signed in on the device you open it on. The link expires after 10 minutes, so use it straight away.

Setting up your profile

When you sign in for the first time, you'll be asked to pick a dog avatar. Choose from the 12-tile grid, shuffle for new suggestions, or filter by breed. Your avatar shows up next to your name everywhere in the app — it's the brand, not decoration.

Your display name is set from your email address by default. You can update it in your profile settings at any time.

Section 2 — Your personal calendar

Your personal calendar lives at Mein the top navigation. It's your private record of when you're available — and crucially, it belongs to you. Nobody else can see it unless you choose to share a specific date range with a specific group.

Think of it as the honest answer to “what does my life actually look like over the next year?” — school holidays, work trips, family commitments, the fortnight you know you can't move. You enter these once, and they're available as a memory-jog whenever you're filling in availability for a plan.

Adding an entry

Click any day on the calendar to open the entry dialog. Set a start date and end date, choose one of the six availability options (see below), and optionally add a note for your own reference. Save and the days are coloured accordingly.

To select a range quickly, click and drag across the days you want — the dialog will open with the range pre-filled.

Sharing entries with a group

By default, every personal entry is private. At the bottom of the entry dialog you'll see a visibility selector. You can share a specific entry with one or more of your groups — this means those dates will show as a dashed-border hint when group members view a plan that overlaps those dates.

Section 3 — The six availability options

Every time you record availability — on your personal calendar or for a plan — you're answering the same question: “Can you do this date range?” There are six possible answers:

The “Don't know” option is deliberate. It's an honest answer. It contributes zero to the heat-map score — it doesn't hurt a date, but it doesn't help it either.

Section 4 — Groups

A group is a named set of people who plan things together. Groups are persistent — once you've set one up and invited everyone, it's there for every future plan. You don't re-invite people each time.

Creating a group

1. Go to Groups in the navigation.
2. Click New groupand give it a name (e.g. “The Italy crew”, “Golf Sundays”, “Book club”).
3. You'll be taken to the group dashboard, where you can invite members.

Inviting members

From the group dashboard, click Invite link. You'll get a shareable invite link. The fastest way to send it is the Share via WhatsApp button — one tap sends the link as a message. You can also copy the link and send it however you like.

Anyone who opens the invite link and signs in (or creates an account) is added to the group automatically.

Group roles

• Group Owner — the person who created the group. Can manage members and transfer ownership.
• Group Member — can create plans, submit availability, and participate in plan chat.

Section 5 — Plans

A plan is a specific thing your group is trying to schedule. It has a name (“Italy 10-day holiday”), a candidate date window (“any time between August and October”), and a target duration (“10 days”). Any group member can create a plan and becomes its Convenor.

Plan lifecycle

Plans move through four states:

• Discovery — the group is figuring out when everyone can go. Members submit their availability; the heat-map builds up.
• Locked — the Convenor has chosen a specific date range based on the heat-map. Members can no longer change their availability; the commitment ladder opens.
• Confirmed — the plan is happening. A calendar invite (ICS file) is available to download.
• Past — the event has happened and the plan is archived.

Plans can also be Cancelled at any state.

The Convenor

The Convenor is the person who created the plan. They're the only one who can:

• Change the candidate window or target duration
• Lock the date range
• Reopen a locked plan (if circumstances change)
• Mark a plan as Confirmed or Cancelled

Convenor status can be transferred to another group member.

Section 6 — Submitting availability for a plan

When a plan is in Discovery, go to the plan page to submit your availability. You'll see a calendar scoped to the plan's candidate window.

Dashed hints

If you've already recorded personal-calendar entries that overlap the candidate window — and you've shared those entries with this group — they'll appear as dashed-border cells on the plan calendar. They're a memory-jog, not a submission. You still need to click each day (or drag a range) to formally record your availability for this plan.

Making a submission

1. Click a day (or drag across a range) on the plan calendar.
2. Set the date range, choose your availability option, and add an optional note.
3. Click Save. The cell(s) will colour up on the calendar.

You can submit multiple entries — for example, “Hard No” for a fortnight you're away, then “Yes, definitely” for the weeks either side.

Your submissions list

Below the calendar, Your submissionslists every entry you've made for this plan. Click any entry to reopen the dialog and edit it — the dialog opens with the full original range pre-filled.

Section 7 — Reading the heat-map

The heat-map is the group's consolidated view of availability across the candidate window. Each day is scored by adding up everyone's responses using these weights: Yes definitely (+5), Most likely yes (+3), Prefer not (+1), Most likely no (−1), Hard no (−5), Don't know (0).

Higher scores — shown in deeper colour — mean more of the group can do that period. Members who haven't responded yet contribute zero to every day's score.

Top windows

Below the heat-map, Top windowsshows the three highest-scoring date ranges that match the plan's target duration. These are the Convenor's best candidates for locking. Each window shows the combined score and a summary of how many members are in each availability category.

What “not responded” means

If a member hasn't submitted anything for the plan, they show as grey on the heat-map. Their silence doesn't mean they're available — it means the group doesn't know yet. The Convenor should chase them before locking.

Section 8 — Locking a date range

Only the Convenor can lock a plan. Locking converts Discovery into a firm proposal — it moves the plan from “figuring it out” to “this is when we're going.”

How to lock

On the plan page, review the heat-map and the Top windows panel. Click Lock this window on the suggestion you want, or use the Lock a date range button to pick dates manually. Confirm the range in the dialog and click Lock plan.

Reopening a locked plan

If circumstances change, the Convenor can reopen the plan (moving it back to Discovery). Members' availability submissions are preserved. A system message is posted to the plan chat to record that the plan was reopened.

Section 9 — The commitment ladder

Once a plan is Locked, the soft-commit ladder becomes active. Each member moves themselves through four stages:

The commitment ladder is separate from availability. Availability was about finding the best dates; the ladder is about confirming whether you're actually attending once the dates are set.

The Convenor can see the commitment status of all members on the plan page. Members can change their own status at any time while the plan is Locked.

Section 10 — Notifications

WhenWorks sends two types of email notification:

Plan created— sent to all group members when a new plan is created. The Convenor can turn this off for a specific plan using the notification toggle when creating the plan. If you're creating a surprise plan, turn it off.

Plan locked — sent to all group members when the Convenor locks a date range. This notification is always on and cannot be disabled — the group needs to know.

Magic-link sign-in emails come from a different address managed by our authentication provider. These are triggered only when you request a sign-in link.

Section 11 — Capturing ideas (Sallies)

What is a Sally?

A Sally (plural: Sallies) is a raw, unstructured idea capture — the first step before anything gets scheduled. The name comes from “sally forth”: a quick foray. Sallies are personal only; nobody else in your groups can see them.

Every authenticated page has a gold ⚡ button in the bottom-right corner. One tap opens the capture sheet. You can capture:

• Text — a note, a sentence, anything that comes to mind.
• URL — paste a link and WhenWorks auto-fetches the page title and preview image.
• Image — upload a photo, or drag and drop an image anywhere onto the capture sheet.

The Sally Inbox

All your Sallies land at /sallies (the Sallies link in the top nav), newest first. Each card shows a content-type icon, the title or first line of text, when it was captured, and — for URL captures — the domain and preview image.

Every card has a ⋯ menu with three actions:

• Promote to WishList — turn this Sally into a structured idea (see Section 12).
• Save for later — soft-archives the Sally. It hides from the default Inbox view; turn on “Show saved for later” to see it again.
• Delete — permanently removes the Sally after confirmation.

The ⋯ menu also has an Edit option that opens a side sheet where you can update the text, title, or note attached to a capture. The content type (text / URL / image) is fixed after capture.

Status badges

Sallies that have been actioned carry a colour badge so you can see at a glance what happened to them:

• Saved — saved for later (hidden from default view; toggle “Show saved for later” to see).
• → WishList — promoted to a WishList item. Click the badge to jump to the Kanban view.

Section 12 — Your WishList

What is a WishList item?

When you promote a Sally, you turn it into a structured WishList item: a named idea with a category, a duration type, optional target date range, and a status. WishList items are personal — only you can see them.

The promote form pre-fills the title from the Sally's content (OG title for URLs, first line for text). You need to confirm or edit the title, select at least one tag, and choose a duration type before saving.

Duration types

Every WishList item has a duration type that describes how long the activity typically takes:

• Slot — a few hours (a meal out, a concert).
• Day — a full day out.
• Overnight — one night away.
• Weekend — a two or three night trip.
• Short trip — four to six nights.
• Holiday — one to two weeks.
• Extended — more than two weeks.
• Flexible — duration depends on the group.

Tags

Tags are personal labels you apply to WishList items to help you organise them. WhenWorks pre-seeds your tag list with common activity categories (Travel, Outdoors, Food & Drink, Culture & Entertainment, Sport & Events, Gatherings, Learning, Wellness, Other) and geographic scope tags (Local, State, Domestic, International). You can add, rename, or delete any tag at any time.

To create a tag on the fly while editing a WishList item, tap ＋ Add tag next to the tag chips. Type the name and press Enter (or click away) to create it immediately and apply it.

WishList status lifecycle

Each WishList item moves through a status as your planning progresses:

• Someday — a raw idea, not yet linked to any plan.
• In Planning — promoted to a Plan; the group is now looking at dates.
• Dates Set — the Plan has been locked to a specific date range.
• Confirmed — the Plan is confirmed. This is happening.
• Done — it happened. The plan is in the past.
• Archived — manually archived; no longer active.

Kanban view

The default WishList view is a Kanban board. Use the Group by control to organise your cards by Status, Category, or Geography. Your choice is remembered between sessions. Drag the overflow menu on any card to promote, edit, or archive.

Timeline / Gantt view

Switch to Timeline view to see your WishList items plotted as horizontal bars across time. Items with a target date range appear as coloured bars — the colour corresponds to their category. Items without a date range appear in an “Undated” group at the top.

Use the Day / Week / Month zoom control to adjust the column density. A colour key above the chart shows which categories are represented in your current list. On mobile the key collapses behind a toggle to save space.

Calendar view

Calendar view shows your entire year as a 4×3 month grid. Days covered by a WishList item display a coloured bar inside the cell. If two items overlap on the same day the cell turns orange; three or more turns red with a ⚠ icon. Click a clashing day to see the list of overlapping items in the banner below the grid.

Click any month title to zoom into a full month view of that month.

Section 13 — From idea to plan

Promoting a WishList item to a Plan

When you're ready to take an idea to your group, tap Promote to Planfrom the ⋯ menu on any WishList card. You'll be asked to pick a Group, then taken to the plan-creation form — pre-filled with:

• The WishList item's title and description.
• The target date range as the candidate window (editable).
• The duration type translated into a target number of days (editable).

Review and edit the pre-filled fields, then create the Plan. WhenWorks notifies the group, and the Plan opens for availability submissions. The WishList item status updates to In Planning automatically.

How Plan progress updates your WishList

Once a WishList item is linked to a Plan, the two stay in sync automatically:

• Plan locked → WishList item moves to Dates Set.
• Plan confirmed → WishList item moves to Confirmed and its target date range narrows to the confirmed dates.
• Plan completed (past) → WishList item moves to Done.
• Plan cancelled → WishList item returns to Someday and is unlinked, ready to be proposed to a different group.

One item, one group at a time

A WishList item can only be linked to one Plan (and therefore one Group) at a time. If you want to propose the same idea to a different group — for example, a Patagonia trip you offered to two different friend groups — create a second WishList item for the second group. Both items can exist independently in your WishList.