Is there any way to connect Planner tasks to OKRs or company goals?
We use Planner for task management, and there's no native way to tie a Planner task to a higher-level goal. I looked into Power Automate but the Planner connector doesnt have a field for "parent objective" or anything like that. Are other orgs just using spreadsheets for this? Feels like there should be a better way.Planner - Plan 1 - Welcome message
Hi, we're using Teams for managing our projects. We have Team "Projects" and there are many channels inside this Team. Each channel represent our project (we are HVAC company). With the basic Planner, I used to create channel "Mr. Newman" - inside that channel we have all files related to that project, we have discussions about that project and we also have Planner assigned to that project. Which works well. Since we are growing, I wanted to test the Planner Plan 1 (I like the Goals, timelines etc), however, there is a huge problem that when I create the Planner now (the premium one), it sends an E-mail to everyone. I don't want that. All of the employees are getting emails that they have been added to the planner "Mr. Newman" etc. and they are asking what should they do with that? How do I turn that off? Thanks, JakubTimeline zoom
Hello, Is there a way to lower the zoom level in the Timeline view to less than 1 week? I have a couple projects with multiple dependent task per day but if I use the maximum zoom level in the Timeline view I don’t get a good overview of the different task in for example a 4 day period. I was expecting a Gantt chart like view, like what you have in Microsoft Project, in where you can zoom to a minute level granularity even.
New planner doesn't show a "schedule" view of tasks assigned to me from different plans
The new version of web-based Planner was enabled for me a few days ago, on November 17th. Apparently, I realized that one of the features I used is missing. At the "My Tasks" view, in the old version of Planner, one could choose to have different views, apart from the grid view. The most useful one for me was the "schedule" view, since I could see in one calendar, all assigned tasks from different plans/teams/projects. This functionality now seems to have been removed, and one can only see one separate schedule per plan.
Planner keeps loggin out?
Hi there, Planner is asking me to login every 5 minutes or so. I'm using it on Firefox (latest update) with my Enterprise subscription. After the message pops-up I cannot add attachments from Sharepoint (need to login again). My Office session is logged on all the time. Does anyone knows how to solve this? Thanks in advance.
Easily assign person(s) to subtasks
Hi all, I'm wondering if there's an option to easily assign person(s) to all subtasks of a summary task at one go. In our situation, we would like to assign all these subtasks of a summary task to the same person(s). However, at the moment is seems you have to assign the subtasks individually, which is quite labour intensive. Does anyone of you know a good workaround? Thanks in advance for your response, Jasper
Auto mark done for planner task when flagged email has been marked complete
Current Behavior: When an email in Outlook is flagged for follow-up, a corresponding task is created in Planner under the “Flagged Email” section. However, if the user marks the email as Complete in Outlook, the related Planner task remains in the Not Started status. Impact: This creates inefficiency and confusion in task management. Users must manually mark the Planner task as completed even though the email was already marked complete, resulting in duplicate effort. Proposed Solution: Automatically update the Planner task status to Completed when the associated flagged email in Outlook is marked as complete.
My Tasks in Planner - Assigned to Me. Not Showing in Outlook ToDo Sidebar
Within the new Outlook, I leverage the functionality to drag a task from the ToDo sidebar and place it in my Calendar as a way to block time for completing that task. However, not all tasks show up in the Outlook ToDo sidebar. The category "Assigned to Me" does not show up meaning any task that was assigned to me in a plan I cannot place in my calendar. Struggling to find a uniform way to manage my tasks when there isn't complete visibility and uniformity in Microsoft's tools. And when will there be an updated mobile solution to Planner? The current outdated (and not supported) app does not include any premium plans, just basic.
Strategic Missing Capabilities in the new Microsoft Planner (Enterprise Perspective)
The Present State of Microsoft Planner’s Vision Enterprises want one coherent work-management layer in Microsoft 365 Microsoft’s ambition is to merge To Do, Planner, and Project for the Web into a single platform with Copilot, Goals, unified List/Board/Timeline views, and templates The direction is sound: reduce fragmentation and tool sprawl, standardize data, and give leaders a clean and solid portfolio picture while teams execute in familiar interfaces. In an environment where all employees have access to the same tool, are already included in the resource pool and integration options are basically unlimited, this is a step, that everyone was looking forward to. Nonetheless, the quip that “Microsoft abandoned MS Project 20 years ago” is a joke, but it reflects a real anxiety: if the new Planner displaces familiar scheduling experiences without enterprise-grade controls, PMOs will feel left alone again and disengage, in presence of abundant alternatives. Planner will not replace Microsoft Project, Primavera, or other detailled scheduling tools; those remain essential for deep dependencies, resource leveling, and baselining. Planner’s highest-value role is the management and aggregation layer above them: align goals, normalize metadata, and expose cross-program status. Simplicity matters, but simplicity cannot mean missing capability. If essential functions are absent, governance, traceability, and portfolio visibility suffer, and organizations turn to external tools. Following is a list of core functionality that is currently missing and was needed about a month ago. Current Structural Gaps Date logic too rigid for management use No independent target/due date field; planning often hinges on Start/Finish + Duration, which limits top-down milestone control Custom fields capped at 10 per plan Insufficient for enterprise metadata models and standardized portfolio reporting Maximum task duration of 1,250 days Constricts representation of multi-year initiatives and capital programs No enterprise-grade audit trail Lacks comprehensive, exportable change logs with retention controls for compliance Flat responsibility model Multiple assignees exist, but no roles such as Owner, Reviewer, Approver; no RACI support Insufficient hierarchy and dependencies for roll-ups Summary/sub-tasks exist, but cross-plan links and robust multi-plan aggregation are weak Group-based permissions only Sharing tied to M365 Groups/Teams; no fine-grained task- or field-level permissions; no simple view-only for externals Custom fields lack hyperlink behavior No URL field type; links in text fields are often not clickable for seamless navigation Inconsistent text capture and formatting Notes lack reliable rich-text structure; long entries are hard to read No page breaks or robust formatting for long descriptions Executive-level narratives and governance documentation become unwieldy Limited standardization across plans No global library for reusable custom fields, bucket structures, or templates at tenant/portfolio level Required Enhancements for Enterprise Readiness Flexible date logic Allow target/due dates independent of Start/Finish; add constraints, buffers, alerts, and escalation rules Expanded metadata framework Raise the custom-field limit; add field types (URL, Person, Multi-select), required fields, validation rules, and global field templates Enterprise auditability Provide full change history with export, retention policies, filters by field/user, and API access Role-aware assignments (RACI) Support roles (Owner, Doer, Reviewer, Approver), secondary ownership, and role-based views in people and reports Portfolio-grade structure Enable cross-plan dependencies, milestone roll-ups, program-level summaries, consolidated capacity and risk views Granular access control Introduce view-only sharing, external access without group membership, and task/field-level ACLs to protect sensitive data Hyperlink-enabled fields Add a URL type and clickable rendering in text fields, with previews and allow-lists for approved domains Robust editor for management communication Paragraphs, lists, headings, tables, code/quote blocks, and clean print/PDF output for formal documentation Reusable enterprise templates Tenant-wide libraries for custom fields, buckets, and workflows; versioning and approval flows for governed rollout Reliable data layer A standardized Power BI dataset, webhooks/events, incremental exports, and stable keys for multi-plan, multi-tenant analytics Scaling for long-horizon work Lift or mitigate the 1,250-day limit for leaf tasks and provide guidance or rules for multi-year programs Bottom line Planner can succeed as the enterprise management layer if it remains simple but gains the capabilities listed above. One does not work without the other. If Microsoft does not deliver these functions, enterprises will continue using Project, Primavera, or other scheduling tools — while adopting third-party platforms for governance and portfolio visibility. This would directly undermine Planner’s goal of becoming the unified standard within Microsoft 365. Please, do us a favor and spare organizations from having to implement yet another third-party tool. (And yes: I am aware of multiple enterprises that are in the process of testing and implementating different tools, presicely because of this missing capability)
