Timelines

Timelines help teams plan, track, and manage key steps throughout the real estate and sales process. Whether you’re overseeing development millstones or managing a sales pipeline, timelines provide a clear structured view of progress from start to finish.

On the timeline template page, all timelines are listed in grid format with the name of the timeline, the type of timeline, and the version of the timeline or the draft indicator. You can filter the type by selecting either the ‘Development’ or ‘Sales’ tab at the top.

Development Timelines

Development timelines are designed to track progress through the real estate development lifecycle—from initial planning to location opening. They are organized into three layers: phases, milestones, and tasks.

• Phases: Represent major sections of the development process, such as Site Selection, Design, or Construction.
• Milestones: Serve as checkpoints within each phase to mark key achievements or decision points.
• Tasks: Define the individual actions required to complete each milestone.

When adding tasks, you’ll need to provide a task name, duration, and assignment. There must be an opening and closing task for each milestone and an opening milestone for each timeline. All task details can be edited by clicking directly on the corresponding field.

Renovation and ReOpen

These are development timelines that can be added to a location after it as opened. Renovation are projects that occur while a location remains open for business. ReOpen projects occur while a location is closed to business. These timeline are created and work just the same as development timeline would.

Sales Timelines

Sales timelines are used to manage the sales pipeline process, tracking deals from initial contact through completion. These timelines consist of two layers: stages and tasks.

• Stages: Represent key steps in the sales cycle, such as Prospecting, Negotiation, or Agreement.
• Tasks: Capture specific actions needed to move through each stage.

Each stage can be customized and configured for automation:

• Each stage must have an opening and a closing
• Set a task as ‘Send Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD)’ to easily send the FDD with the ‘Send FDD’ button with will show on that task.
• Mark a stage as a Win Stage to identify when a deal is successfully closed. Once the lead enters the Win Stage, a company creation or association will be required to close the lead. This company can then be attached to Sites in the Build module.

Creating a Timeline Template

Once you understand the structure of each timeline type, you can create new templates directly from the grid view.

1. Click the plus (+) tile in the top-left corner of the grid.
2. Enter a timeline name and select a timeline type (Development or Sales).
3. Click the plus icon to begin building your timeline.
4. Start building your timeline with Phases, Milestones, or Stages and add tasks within.

Each section and task can be customized by color with the artist palette and reordered on the left-hand side.

If you’d like to build from an existing setup, you can copy a timeline from its options menu and make adjustments as needed. From the same menu, you can also test the timeline and publish a timeline.

Testing

Testing a timeline allows you to validate that waterfall dates are calculating accurately based on task durations and dependencies. You can select a task and assign either a start date or completion date to see how downstream tasks are affected.

If adjustments are needed, you can quickly return to edit mode using the pencil icon in the bottom-right corner of the timeline. This makes it easy to fine-tune durations, dependencies, or task order before publishing.

Publishing

Once a timeline is published, it becomes available for use across Sites (excluding Seeds) or Leads.

• Development timelines can be associated to Opportunities, Projects, or Locations from the Timeline tab on the site page.

• Renovation and ReOpen timelines can only be associated to Locations.

• Sales timelines be available when creating or editing Leads.

Only published timelines appear in the Timeline Template select list—timelines in draft mode will not be available for assignment.

Updating a Timeline

When a timeline is first associated to a site, you’ll be prompted to select a starting task and assign either its start date or completion date. From there, the platform will automatically waterfall the remaining dates using durations and dependencies.

As a site progresses, you can manage the timeline by:

• Completing tasks

• Freezing tasks

• Adding new tasks

• Adjusting task durations or dates

Additional task actions are available through the three-dot menu to the left of each task. You can also edit most fields directly by clicking into them, making updates fast and intuitive.

Need Help?

If you have questions or feedback about any of these features, please contact support using the in-app chat. Thanks for reading!