Date Filters in Plans – Cascade

You can apply date filters at the Planner page to focus on those goals that're relevant to the planning cycle. To plan your strategy better and execute the goals that're more relevant to the planning cycle, its important to have

Commencement and retirement dates in focus areas so that you know which focus areas are Retired (retirement date is in the past), Current (either the commencement or retirement date is in the present or both the dates are in present) and Upcoming (commencement date is in the future).
Time horizons added to the workspace and applied to the goals as well.

Now, when you apply date filters at the plan level, it'll act as a lens to the plans by filtering goals outside of the date range and lets you to focus on the priorities.

Either choose a relevant horizon from the Horizons tab or a specific date range from the Custom tab and click Apply to apply date filters at the plan level. Click Clear filters to remove date filters.

Date filter applied.png

Consider that the date filter is set to the horizon Q1 2024 or Jan 01, 2024 - Mar 31, 2024 is chosen from the Custom tab. In this case,

Only those focus areas that fall on or within this date range will be displayed, i.e., it'll display those focus areas
Even when you try adding a new focus area to this plan, it'll display only those focus areas whose dates fit in this applied date range. However, you can click Show all to display all the focus areas in the workspace and add a relevant one.
If you're adding a new objective, then its dates will default to the date filter - Q1 2024 (Jan 01, 2024 - Mar 31, 2024) applied.

Remember that, when you add a new focus area, its dates will not default to the date filter.
Only those goals that fall on or within that date or horizon range would be displayed.
- All the objectives, measures, projects and actions that have their start or end date on or within or even partially overlapping this time period Q1 2024 (Jan 01, 2024 - Mar 31, 2024) will be displayed.
- If the action's due date is outside the date range but the parent objective falls within the range, then the planner will display only the objective and not the action.
- If the goal has the start date as Dec 17, 2023 but the end date as Mar 15, 2024, it'll be displayed since the end date is within the Q1 2024 (Jan 01, 2024 - Mar 31, 2024) range.
- If the goal's start date is Mar 31, 2024, even that'll be displayed since it still falls on the horizon's range.

Date filters in plans.gif

If the filter is set to specific dates from the Custom tab, for example Sep 15, 2023 - Oct 31, 2023, then all the goals falling in that range, irrespective of time horizon or custom date set up, will be displayed. In this case, any goals whose standard date picker falls within this range or any goals set to horizons that overlap with this period like, Q3 2023 (Jul 01, 2023 - Sep 30, 2023), Q4 2023 (Oct 01, 2023 - Dec 31, 2023), 2023 Calendar year (Jan 01, 2023 - Dec 31, 2023), H2 2023 (Jun 01, 2023 - Dec 31, 2023), FY 23-24 (Apr 01, 2023 - Mar 31, 2023) will all be displayed.

You'll see the filtered goals even when you move away from the page or log out and re-login. You'll need to clear the filters to see all the goals in that plan. Also, if you share the plan URL with the filters applied, then they'll see the same filtered view of the plan.

You can use the date filters along with the progress filter (Hide completed) to focus on the goals that're yet to be achieved as the Hide completed option filters all the goals whose health is Achieved or Exceeded.

For easy understanding, attaching an image with the filtering logic. In this case, the filter applied is FY 23-24 (July 01, 2023 - June 30, 2024).

When you try to edit an objective's contribution from its sidebar, depending on the due dates set on the objective, you'll now see that the focus areas are filtered based on the date range of the objective in its Contributes to section. However, you can click Show all to see all the focus areas and move the objective accordingly.

Date filters and Unaligned objectives:

Sometimes, you would have noticed an objective showing up under Unaligned objectives banner in the Planner page. This happens mostly when you try removing a shared objective and its contribution is reset. Now, you can move this objective to the relevant focus area or objective and this banner will go off.

In case, its contribution is not fixed and there is a date filter applied which is outside the range of this unaligned objective, then you'll just see the banner but not the objective itself. Now,

Clear the date filter to show all the objectives in that plan.
Click the objective showing up under Unaligned objectives, and click Move from the three dots across it. Alternatively, you can edit the objective from its sidebar, and go to the Contributes to section.
Choose the relevant plan and focus area or an objective to move it under, and click Save.

You'll now notice the Unaligned objectives banner gone.

FAQs

What happens if there're no date filters applied?

You'll see all the focus areas and the goals in the plan. When you add a new objective, its dates will default to the soonest ending horizon. For example, if you're adding a new objective on 25 Feb, 2024, then the soonest ending horizon will be Q1 2024 (Jan 01, 2024 - Mar 31, 2024) and these dates will be assigned to it.

But, we recommend you to use date filters to focus only on those goals that're relevant and re-prioritize the goals for the upcoming period.

How does the date filtering impact health?

There is no impact of date filters on the health of goals. The date filters simply control the visibility of goals in a plan. However, the health of focus area and objectives on the plan always reflects all the nested or associated goals (regardless of whether they are shown in the UI).

Retired Focus Area is still showing up when plan is filtered for a current horizon.

This might happen when the focus area is shared across plans and an objective under that focus area in some other plan is in this chosen horizon. Since the objective is in some other plan, you'll only see the focus area that is retired in the current plan with no objectives, and if you apply date filters in the plan where that objective is originally housed, then it'll show the retired focus area as well as the objective.

I'm seeing different dates in the entities where time horizons are applied while my team member who created it is seeing the correct horizon.

This might be because of the different time zones that you and your team member are in. Sometimes you might also see a warning "Dates must fall within the date range of the parent" if the user that created the goal is in a different time zone to the user viewing them. It is all relative to the time zone of the user logging in, and will reflect differently if they travel to the other side of the world.

To be more clear, here is an example - When a user creates a new time horizon, the start time is set to 00:00 in their local time and the end time is set to 23:59 in their local time.
This means that when you create the 2024 time horizon, it'll take a start date of 1/1/24 at 00:00 EST and an end date of 12/31/24 at 23:59 EST. And when this time horizon is applied to a goal, you'll see the correct dates.
Any user that logs in will see this date/time converted into their local time zone. If a user logging in that is on Pacific Time (PST) will see a start date of 12/31/23 on that goal. This is because 1/1/24 at 00:00 EST is 12/31/23 at 21:00 PST. The PST user will actually see the date as one day off because you created it in your timezone, which they fall a few hours behind.
However, this same user in PST would see the same end date. This is because 12/31/24 EST at 23:59 is 12/31/24 PST at 20:59. They will see the same day, because it still converts to the same day in their local time. Any user in EST will however see the same dates as you.

Please note that this is an intended behavior and we're looking to implement a global workspace setting for the user to set the timezone to solve this issue.

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