# Days in PAI: The Core Building Block #core-concepts #days #scheduling In PAI, "days" are much more than just a unit of measurement - they're logical entities that form the backbone of scheduling, resource allocation, and document generation throughout the project lifecycle. Understanding how days function in PAI is essential for effective project planning and execution. ## Logical Day Concept Days in PAI are structured data objects with specific attributes and behaviors: - Each day represents a discrete unit of production activity - Days have properties including name, type, date, and location - Days serve as containers for resources and expenses - Days connect the budget to production logistics - Days generate appropriate documentation based on their type ![[line-item-and-days.png]] ## Logical Day Creation When you add line items with the unit type "day" to an estimate, PAI treats these differently than hourly or flat-rate items: - When you first add a day-based line item, PAI establishes a logical "Day 1" in the system - If you then change the Unit Quantity from 1 to 2, PAI will prompt you asking if you want to change the project's total days from 1 to 2 - This confirmation prompt exists primarily to prevent accidental changes - since changing day amounts creates additional logical days in the system, PAI wants to ensure users don't make this significant change due to a typo or unintentional action > [!important] > Adding or removing days impacts your production timeline, resource allocation, and budget structure. PAI's confirmation prompt helps prevent unintended changes to these critical project elements. ## Day Attributes Each logical day in PAI can have its own: - **Name**: Custom identifier (e.g., "Shoot Day 1" or "Tech Scout") - **Day Type**: Category of day (Shoot, Prep, Post, etc.) - **Location**: Physical location for the production day - **Calendar date**: Specific date when scheduled - **Notes**: Additional information about the day These attributes not only help organize your production schedule but also determine what kind of documents are generated when the project is activated. For example: - "Shoot" days generate call sheets - "Post" days appear in the post-production module - "Prep, Travel, & Wrap" days do not generate any externalized documents ## How Estimate Views Work Together in PAI The three estimate views in PAI (Sheet View, Days View, and Timeline View) provide different perspectives on the same data, each optimized for specific tasks in the production planning process: ### Sheet View - **Primary Purpose**: Traditional budgeting and line item management - **How Days Appear**: As numerical Unit Quantity values for each line item - **Best For**: Adding and organizing line items by category and department - **Day Interaction**: When you change the Unit Quantity for a day-based line item, you're effectively changing how many days that resource is needed ### Days View - **Primary Purpose**: Resource allocation across project days - **How Days Appear**: As selectable day entries on the left with corresponding line items displayed on the right when a day is selected - **Best For**: Seeing what resources are assigned to each specific day - **Day Interaction**: You can add or remove items assigned to the specific day you're viewing ### Timeline View - **Primary Purpose**: Visual scheduling and calendar planning - **How Days Appear**: As calendar-like columns with toggle options for each line item - **Best For**: Visual scheduling of resources - **Day Interaction**: Clicking on a cell toggles a resource on/off for that day ## How Changes Sync Across Views The power of PAI's design comes from how these views maintain data consistency: 1. **Adding Days**: - When you add a day in any view, it appears in all views - New days created in Sheet View (by increasing Unit Quantity) appear as additional columns in Timeline View and as additional selectable days in Days View 2. **Resource Assignment**: - Toggling a resource on for a day in Timeline View adds it to that day in Days View and increments its Unit Quantity in Sheet View - Removing a resource from a day decrements its Unit Quantity accordingly 3. **Day Attributes**: - Setting day names, types, dates, or locations in Days View or Timeline View applies those attributes to the logical day across all views - Sheet View does not display these day attributes as it focuses on line items rather than days ## Example: Multi-View Day Management Here's how the same changes appear across different views: 1. In **Sheet View**, increase a Camera Operator's Unit QTY from 1 to 3 days - The system will prompt to confirm increasing project days from 1 to 3 - After confirmation, the project now has 3 logical days 2. Switch to **Timeline View** - You'll now see 3 day columns - The Camera Operator is automatically assigned to all 3 days - You can click to toggle resources on/off specific days 3. Switch to **Days View** - You'll see 3 day entries on the left - Select each day to see which resources are assigned - The Camera Operator appears on all 3 days 4. Back in **Timeline View**, rename Day 1 to "Tech Scout" - Change its day type to "Prep" - Assign it a calendar date of June 1st 5. In **Days View**, select the first day - You'll see it's now labeled "Tech Scout" - Its type shows as "Prep" - Its date shows as June 1st This synchronized behavior ensures that all views are working with the same underlying data, just presented differently for different purposes. ## How Flat and Hourly Items Are Treated Unlike day-based line items, flat and hourly items have a different relationship with PAI's day structure: - **Project-Wide Association**: These items are considered "project-wide" resources rather than day-specific - **Scheduling Limitation**: PAI doesn't know how to distribute these items across the project timeline (e.g., when 8 hours of editing will occur within a multi-day project) - **Display Treatment**: In Timeline and Days views, these items appear in separate sections and cannot be assigned to specific days > [!note] > This limitation exists because these unit types imply a "project-wide" association rather than a day-specific one. If you need to schedule resources on specific days, use the "Day" unit type. ## Why Days Matter in Budget Generation When an estimate is converted to a budget, these logical days become critical: ### Budget Day Assignment - Each expense line in the budget gets assigned to the specific logical day it was planned for - This creates a direct connection between the estimate planning and budget execution - The "Day Assignment" column appears in the budget for expense lines to show this connection - This day assignment determines where expenses appear in production documents ### Document Generation PAI automatically generates production documents based on the day structures: - **Call Sheets**: For days marked as "Shoot" or "Prep" type - **Post Sheets**: For days marked as "Post" type - **Other document types**: Based on the day categorization ### Resource Allocation - The day assignments determine where expenses appear in production documents - For example, a Camera Operator assigned to Day 2 will automatically appear in the call sheet for Day 2 - This eliminates the need to manually transfer information from budgets to call sheets ### Bidirectional Connection - There's a two-way link between budget expense lines and call sheets - Assigning someone (like "Bob") to a camera operator position in a call sheet will update the associated expense line in the budget, and vice versa - Rate changes in either location update throughout the system ## Day Types and Their Impact The type assigned to each day determines how it behaves in the system: - **Shoot Day**: Generates a full call sheet with crew assignments and detailed logistics - **Prep Day**: Creates a prep sheet focused on pre-production activities - **Post Day**: Appears in the post-production module with deliverable tracking - **Travel Day**: Generates a travel itinerary format - **Wrap Day**: Creates a wrap sheet for final production tasks > [!abstract] Day Abstraction in PAI > Consider using "Days" in PAI to represent "Units". Different Days can have the same Date. Thus, some users assign different units to different days even if they are working on the same Date. This allows for quick updates to components of your scope per day, allowing you to swap services easily. © 2025 PAI Tech, Inc. [paihq.com](https://www.paihq.com/)