Holiday Calendar Configuration

How to manage holiday periods, project calendars, and resource availability

1. Overview

Epicflow uses calendars to define when work can happen. A calendar tells the system which days and hours are working days, which are weekends, and which are holidays or shutdown periods.

Getting your calendars right is important because Epicflow uses them to calculate how long tasks will take, when they will finish, and how to distribute the workload across your team. If a calendar does not match reality — for example, if it shows your team working through a summer shutdown — the system will show incorrect priorities and delivery dates.

ℹ  Why this matters for priority Epicflow’s priority number is calculated based on how much work remains and how much time is available before the next milestone. If a task has a holiday period in its calendar, that time is excluded from the available window — which can raise the priority. Getting the calendar right ensures your project managers see accurate urgency signals.

2. Calendar Hierarchy — Which Calendar Wins?

Epicflow has four levels of calendar. When multiple calendars apply to the same task, the level closest to the work takes priority. This is called the leading calendar.

The rule is simple: the more specific the calendar, the higher its priority.

Calendar level	What it controls — and when to use it
1 — Assignment calendar	Applies to one specific person on one specific task. Overrides everything below. Use when one team member’s schedule differs from the rest of the team.
2 — Task calendar	Applies to all resources on a specific task. Overrides the project calendar. Use when a whole task runs on a different schedule (e.g. a lead time task that ignores holidays).
3 — Project calendar	Applies to all tasks in a project unless overridden at task or assignment level. This is the most common calendar to change for holiday periods.
4 — Company calendar	The global default for all projects and all resources. Contains public holidays and the standard working week. Set once by your system administrator.

⚠  The most common mistake Changing the project calendar and expecting it to affect a task or person who already has their own calendar set at a lower level. Always check whether a task or assignment already has a calendar assigned before changing the project calendar — otherwise you will see no effect.

3. When to Use Each Calendar Type

3.1  Company calendar — global defaults

The company calendar is set once by your system administrator. It defines your standard working week (e.g. Monday–Friday, 8 hours per day) and company-wide public holidays (Christmas, national holidays, etc.).

• Do not change this for project-specific or individual exceptions.
• Changes here affect every project and every person in the system.
• Examples of what belongs here: public holidays, company-wide shutdown days, standard working hours.

3.2  Project calendar — project-level exceptions

Use the project calendar when a whole project team will be unavailable for a period — for example, during summer holidays or a planned shutdown. This is the most common calendar to adjust for seasonal planning.

How to apply it

1. Go to the project card in Epicflow.
2. Open the calendar settings for the project.
3. Create a copy of your standard calendar (e.g. ‘Standard 22’) and name it clearly (e.g. ‘Summer 2026 — Aug–Sep shutdown’).
4. Add the holiday or shutdown period to the copied calendar.
5. Assign this calendar to the project. Epicflow will apply it to all tasks in the project automatically.

✅  Result The workload for all tasks in the project will be redistributed around the blocked-out period. Tasks that were scheduled during the holiday will automatically shift their completion dates forward.

3.3  Task calendar — exceptions for specific tasks

Use a task calendar when most of the project is on holiday, but one specific task must continue. For example, a monitoring task that runs regardless of team holidays, or an automated process that does not depend on human availability.

How to apply it

• Open the task card.
• Go to the task’s calendar settings.
• Assign the appropriate calendar (e.g. the standard calendar without holidays) directly to the task.
• This overrides the project calendar for this task only.

ℹ  Key rule for lead time tasks Tasks that represent a supplier lead time or an external process (e.g. surface treatment, material delivery wait, external coating) should always use a calendar without holiday blocks. These processes do not stop for your company’s holidays. Assign a no-holidays calendar at the task level to ensure the duration is calculated correctly.

3.4  Assignment calendar — exceptions for specific people

Use an assignment calendar when one person on a task has a different schedule from everyone else on the same task. For example, one team member going on leave while the rest continue working.

How to apply it

1. Open the task card.
2. Find the assignment for the specific person.
3. Assign the appropriate calendar to their assignment (e.g. ‘Holiday calendar’ with their leave blocked out).
4. All other assignments on the same task keep their existing calendars.
   
   
   Note

   Once you set a calendar at the assignment level, it overrides both the task calendar and the project calendar for that person. If you later change the project or task calendar, it will have no effect on this person’s assignment until you remove or update their assignment-level calendar.

4. Step-by-Step: Blocking Out a Holiday Period for a Project

Use this workflow before a planned holiday period (e.g. summer shutdown, Christmas break) to ensure Epicflow shows correct delivery dates and priorities during that period.

Step	What to do
1. Create a new calendar	Go to Calendar settings. Copy your standard calendar (do not edit the original). Name it clearly, e.g. ‘Summer 2026 Shutdown’.
2. Add the holiday period	In the copied calendar, mark the shutdown dates as non-working days. For example: 1 August – 30 September 2026.
3. Assign to the project	Open the project card. In the calendar field, replace the current calendar with your new ‘Summer 2026’ calendar. Confirm you want to apply it to all tasks.
4. Check for overrides	Review whether any tasks or assignments already have their own calendars set. If so, those will not be affected by the project calendar change — update them separately if needed.
5. Check lead time tasks	Any task representing an external process (supplier lead time, coating, shipping) should keep a no-holidays calendar. Assign it at the task level if not already set.
6. Verify the result	Go to the pipeline view. Check that delivery dates and priorities have updated as expected. Tasks should no longer show work scheduled during the blocked period.

5. Common Scenarios

5.1  Whole project team on holiday for two months

Scenario: Your entire project team will be on summer holiday from 1 August to 30 September.

• Create a copy of your standard calendar and add the August–September period as non-working.
• Assign this calendar at the project level.
• Result: all tasks in the project will be rescheduled around the holiday period. Priority and delivery dates update automatically.

5.2  One person on holiday, others continue

Scenario: User B is going on holiday for three weeks. Users A and C on the same task continue working.

• Do not change the project or task calendar.
• Open the task card and find User B’s assignment.
• Assign the holiday calendar to User B’s assignment only.
• Users A and C keep their default calendars and continue working normally.

5.3  Lead time task that should ignore holidays

Scenario: A surface treatment or external supplier process takes 5 weeks regardless of your company’s holidays. You do not want this task to slow down during shutdown periods.

• Open the task card for the lead time task.
• Assign a calendar without any holiday blocks at the task level.
• This ensures the task duration is calculated in continuous calendar days, not working days.
  
  
  Note

  If you do not do this, the system will calculate the lead time as longer than it really is during a holiday period, which will cause incorrect priorities and delivery dates for everything that depends on this task.

5.4  Public holidays that apply to everyone

Scenario: A national public holiday applies to all staff across all projects.

• Add the public holiday to the company calendar.
• Do not add it individually to project, task, or assignment calendars.
• It will automatically apply everywhere unless a lower-level calendar overrides it.

5.5  Training day or team event (non-project)

Scenario: Your team has a full-day training event and cannot work on any project tasks that day.

• If the training applies to everyone: add it to the company calendar as a non-working day.
• If it applies to specific projects only: add it to the relevant project calendars.
• If it applies to specific people only: add it to their assignment calendars for the relevant tasks.

6. How Calendars Affect Priority

Priority in Epicflow is a number from 0 to 100+ that reflects how urgent a task is. It is calculated based on the remaining work, the time available before the next milestone, and the task’s position in the critical chain.

Calendars directly affect priority because they define how much ‘available time’ exists before a deadline. If a holiday period is correctly entered in the calendar, Epicflow excludes that time from the available window — which raises the priority of tasks that must be completed before the holiday ends.

Priority value	What it means
0–50	Task is on track with comfortable buffer.
80	Approximately 20% buffer remaining.
100	No buffer remaining — delivery is still expected on time.
101+	Each point above 100 represents approximately one day of expected delay.

⚠  Start After constraint and priority The ‘Start After’ constraint date (used to block a task until materials arrive or a dependency is met) does NOT affect the priority calculation. The system calculates priority as if the task could start today. This means: if you use a ‘Start After’ date to represent a material delivery that is delayed by 5 weeks, the priority will not reflect that 5-week delay. The task will show a lower priority than the real urgency.   Workaround (short-term): For your most critical material-dependent tasks, remove the holiday from the task calendar and increase the task duration to represent the wait time. This raises the priority manually. Only do this for the most critical tasks — it is not scalable across the whole system. Long-term fix: Epicflow is planning a product improvement to make the ‘Start After’ constraint influence the priority calculation. This is currently in the product backlog.

7. Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
I changed the project calendar but the task dates did not update	The task has its own calendar set at the task or assignment level. This overrides the project calendar. Open the task card and check whether a task-level or assignment-level calendar is set. Remove it or update it separately.
A lead time task is showing as longer than expected during holidays	The lead time task is using the project calendar which includes holiday blocks. Assign a no-holidays calendar at the task level for this task.
One person’s work is not being rescheduled around holidays	That person has their own assignment-level calendar set which does not include the holiday. Update their assignment calendar directly.
Priority did not go up after I added a holiday to the calendar	Check that the holiday was added to the correct calendar level. If the task has a task-level or assignment-level calendar, the project calendar change will have no effect on it.
The system is scheduling work on weekends	The calendar assigned to the project or task includes weekends as working days. Check the calendar definition and ensure weekends are marked as non-working.
FTE shows as 1.2 for a 50-hour worker	This is a known issue for organisations using a 50-hour standard working week. The FTE calculation in Epicflow is based on the calendar definition and the company default. Contact Epicflow support to review your calendar setup and FTE configuration.

8. Quick Reference Card

Use this table to decide which calendar level to change for any given situation:

I want to…	Change this calendar
Block holidays for a whole project	Project calendar
Keep one task running during a project holiday	Task calendar (assign no-holidays calendar to that task)
Mark one person as absent while others continue	Assignment calendar (for that person on that task)
Add a public holiday for the whole company	Company calendar
Handle a lead time / external process that ignores holidays	Task calendar (assign no-holidays calendar)
Change standard working hours for everyone	Company calendar
Change working hours for one project	Project calendar
Change working hours for one person on one task	Assignment calendar