Settings & Configuration

Access settings through the gear icon in the sidebar or through the user menu. Most settings require Admin role.

Instance Settings

• Application Title — Name displayed in the header and browser tab (e.g., "ACME R&D Planner")

Branding & Themes

• Choose from available theme families (color schemes)
• Toggle light/dark mode using the sun/moon icon in the header
• Upload custom logos for dark and light themes (drag-and-drop or click to browse)
• Click Remove to revert to the default Milestone logo

Display Settings

Setting	Description
Default View	Initial timeline granularity: Week, Month, Quarter, or Year
Week Starts On	Monday or Sunday
Show Weekends	Toggle weekend columns on/off
Auto-expand Projects	Automatically expand all projects on load

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Site Management

Sites represent your organization's physical locations. Projects, staff, equipment, and holidays are all scoped to sites. Click Manage Sites in the admin section of the sidebar to open site management.

Creating a Site

1. Open the Manage Sites modal from the sidebar
2. Enter a site name in the text field (e.g., "Winterthur HQ")
3. Click Add — the site is created with minimal fields
4. Click the edit icon (pencil) on the new site to open the full edit modal

Editing a Site

The site edit modal has these fields:

Field	Description	Example
Site Name	Display name (required, must be unique)	Winterthur HQ
City	City location	Winterthur
Country	Country from grouped dropdown (Europe, Americas, Asia & Pacific, Africa & Middle East)	Switzerland (CH)
Region/State Code	Sub-region for holiday filtering — varies by country	ZH (Zurich), HE (Hesse), BY (Bavaria)
Active	Checkbox — inactive sites are hidden from the site selector	Checked

Tip

Setting the Country enables automatic bank holiday fetching. Adding a Region/State Code filters holidays to your specific region (e.g., canton-specific holidays in Switzerland).

Site Selector

The site selector dropdown in the header filters everything to the selected site:

• Projects visible on the Gantt chart
• Staff in the Staff Overview
• Equipment in the Equipment View
• Bank holidays and company events on the timeline
• Custom columns

Admins see all sites. Regular users only see sites they are assigned to.

Deleting a Site

Delete a site from the Manage Sites modal. This cascades to remove all associated projects, equipment, holidays, and company events.

Danger

Deleting a site is irreversible and removes all data associated with it.

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Bank Holidays

Bank holidays are configured per site and affect staff availability calculations. They appear as highlighted columns on the Gantt and Staff timelines.

Automatic Fetching

If a site has a country set, Milestone can auto-fetch public holidays from the Nager.Date API:

1. Edit a site and set its Country (and optionally Region/State Code)
2. Click Save Changes
3. Open the Bank Holidays modal (accessible from the Staff View or site edit)
4. Click Refresh — Milestone fetches public holidays for the current and next year
5. If a region code is set, only region-specific holidays are included

The last refresh timestamp is shown in the site edit modal: "Last updated: April 2026".

Viewing and Managing Holidays

Open the Bank Holidays modal to see all holidays for the current site:

• Use the year dropdown to switch between years (current -1 to current +2)
• Holidays are split into two sections:
  • Public Holidays — auto-fetched from Nager.Date (read-only, cannot be deleted individually)
  • Custom Holidays — manually added (can be deleted with the × button)

Adding a Custom Holiday

1. Click Add Custom in the Bank Holidays modal
2. Enter the holiday name (e.g., "Company Anniversary")
3. Set the start date (required)
4. Optionally set an end date for multi-day holidays
5. Click Add

Custom holidays are site-specific and appear alongside auto-fetched public holidays.

Exporting Holidays to Calendar

Click Export ICS to download an .ics calendar file containing all holidays for the selected year. Import this into Outlook, Google Calendar, or any calendar app to sync holidays to your personal calendar.

How Holidays Affect the Timeline

• Holiday dates appear as shaded columns on the Gantt timeline
• Staff availability is reduced on holiday dates — they are not counted as working days
• The Staff View shows holiday labels in the timeline header

Note

Only Superusers and Admins can add/delete custom holidays and refresh from the API. Regular users can view holidays but not modify them.

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Company Events

Company events are organization-wide dates shown as labeled markers on the Staff View timeline (e.g., "ISO Audit", "All-Hands Meeting", "Annual Retreat").

Adding a Company Event

1. Open the Company Event modal (from the Staff View or settings)
2. Enter the event name (e.g., "ISO Audit")
3. Set the start date (required)
4. Optionally set an end date for multi-day events
5. Click Add Event

How Events Appear

• Company events display as red markers on the Staff Overview timeline
• They are informational only — unlike bank holidays, they do not affect working day calculations or staff availability
• Events are visible to all users on the selected site

Deleting a Company Event

In the Staff View, click the delete button on a company event to remove it (requires Superuser role).

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User Management

Administrators can create, edit, and deactivate user accounts. Open User Management from the sidebar admin section.

User Fields

Field	Description
Email	Login email address (unique)
First Name / Last Name	Display name
Job Title	Role description shown in staff lists. Free-text with autocomplete suggestions — see Job Title Suggestions
Role	Admin, Superuser, or User (see below)
Sites	One or more sites the user can access
Skills	Tags for resource planning (see Skills Management below)
Active	Deactivate to prevent login without deleting

User Roles

Permission	Admin	Superuser	User
View projects & timeline	Yes	Yes	Yes
Create/edit/delete projects	Yes	Yes	No
Manage staff assignments	Yes	Yes	No
Manage equipment assignments	Yes	Yes	No
Enter What-If mode	Yes	Yes	No
Add custom holidays / events	Yes	Yes	No
Manage users & settings	Yes	No	No
Manage sites	Yes	No	No

Filtering Users

The user management table supports filtering by:

• Status: Active / Disabled
• Role: Admin / Superuser / User
• Job Title: Dynamic list from existing users
• Site: Filter by site assignment
• Skills: Filter by assigned skill

The results count updates as filters are applied (e.g., "12 users (filtered from 20)").

Job Title Suggestions

The Job Title field is a free-text input backed by an autocomplete dropdown. It does not have a separately managed list — instead, it suggests every distinct job title already used by another user on this instance. This keeps titles consistent across the team without an admin needing to curate them.

How it behaves:

• Click or focus the field to see all existing titles, sorted alphabetically.
• Start typing to narrow suggestions to those containing what you've typed (case-insensitive substring match).
• Pick a suggestion with the mouse or ↑ / ↓ arrow keys + Enter.
• Type a brand-new value and just save — the entry doesn't have to match a suggestion. Once saved, that new title becomes a suggestion for the next user added.
• Press Escape to close the dropdown without picking anything.
• The dropdown is scrollable when the list is long and stays anchored to the input even on small screens.

Notes:

• SSO-provisioned users (Microsoft Entra ID) receive their job title directly from the jobTitle claim returned by the identity provider — these are written to the user record as-is and become available as suggestions for the next user you create manually.
• Renaming a title on one user does not propagate to other users; you must edit each user individually if you want to retire an old title. An old title only stops appearing in suggestions once no remaining user has it set.

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Skills Management

Skills are colored tags assigned to staff members for resource planning and filtering. Open the Skills Management modal from the sidebar admin section.

Creating a Skill

1. Click Add Skill in the Skills Management modal
2. Fill in:
3. Name (required, max 100 characters, must be unique)
4. Description (optional)
5. Color — choose from 10 preset colors or use the custom color picker:
   • Presets: Blue, Purple, Green, Amber, Red, Cyan, Pink, Lime, Orange, Indigo
   • Custom: Click the color picker to choose any hex color
6. A live preview shows the skill name with its color dot
7. Click Save

Editing a Skill

Click the edit icon on any skill in the list to modify its name, description, or color. Changes apply immediately to all users who have the skill assigned.

Deleting a Skill

Click the trash icon on a skill. A confirmation dialog warns: "This will remove the skill from all users who have it assigned." Deletion cascades to remove the skill from every user.

Assigning Skills to Users

1. Open User Management and edit (or create) a user
2. In the Skills section, click skill buttons to toggle them on/off
3. Selected skills show a blue-tinted background with a color dot
4. Unselected skills show a gray border
5. To create a new skill inline, click + New skill, type a name, and press Enter
6. Save the user — skills are updated immediately

Filtering Staff by Skills

In the Staff Overview, open the Filter panel:

1. Under the Skills section, check one or more skills
2. Each skill shows its assigned color dot next to the name
3. Staff members matching any of the selected skills are shown (OR logic)
4. The header updates to show the filtered count: "8/20 staff"
5. Click Clear All to reset all filters

Skills are also visible as colored badges in the User Management table (first 3 shown, "+N" for additional).

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Equipment Types

Equipment types categorize your inventory for filtering in the Equipment View. Types are managed through the Manage Types button in the Equipment Management modal.

Creating Types

Types are created in two ways:

• During equipment creation: Click + New type, enter a name, and confirm. The type is saved when the equipment item is created.
• From the type manager: Click Add Type in the Equipment Types modal, enter a name, and save.

Renaming Types

1. Open Equipment Management > Manage Types
2. Click the edit icon on a type
3. Enter the new name
4. Click Rename Type

Note

Renaming a type updates all equipment items that use it. A warning shows how many items will be affected.

Deleting Types

Click the delete icon on a type. Types can only be deleted if no equipment items are currently using them. The delete button is disabled for types that are in use.

Type Filtering

In the Equipment View, use the type filter dropdown to show/hide equipment by type:

• Click the filter button to open the dropdown
• Use Select All / Clear for quick selection
• Check individual types to filter
• The filter button shows the active count (e.g., "3 types")

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Predefined Phases

Phase templates that appear as pre-selected options when creating a new project.

Managing Templates

1. Navigate to Settings > Predefined Phases
2. Each template has:
3. Name — The phase name (e.g., "Planning", "Execution", "Review")
4. Color — Color used for the phase bar on the timeline
5. Active/Inactive — Only active templates appear in the project creation modal
6. Display Order — Drag to reorder how templates are listed

How Templates Work

When creating a new project, all active predefined phases are pre-selected as checkboxes. Uncheck any you don't need for that project. The selected phases are created with default durations matching the project's start and end dates.

Adding a Template

1. Click + Add Phase
2. Enter the name and pick a color
3. The new template is active by default and appears at the end of the list
4. Drag to reorder as needed

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Custom Columns

Add custom data fields to the project panel in the Gantt chart. See Gantt Charts — Custom Columns for full details on creating, editing, and using custom columns.