Microsoft Planner Board FAQ

What is Microsoft Planner?

• MS Planner is a web-based application provided by Office 365 that enables team members to organize work in a collaborative space.

Who can use MS Planner?

• Planner is available to everybody within the Crowe MacKay firm. Unfortunately, it cannot be used by anybody outside of the firm

What is the benefit of using MS Planner?

• Compared to using a shared calendar, Planner provides a much more content-rich solution that also integrates with other Microsoft products. These features make it much easier to visualize which tasks are urgent, which tasks might be behind schedule, which individuals on the team might be overwhelmed, etc. The integration with Office 365 also allows you to do things like convert emails to tasks, collaborate on shared Office documents, and receive various email notifications regarding the status of tasks.

How do I access MS Planner?

• You can access MS Planner by opening a web browser and navigating to https://tasks.office.com. Once you are on the page, you will be directed to log into your Office 365 account using your standard username (first initial last [e-mail]) and your Citrix password.
   You can also download the Planner app on your Android or Apple based phones.

How do I create a new Planner board?

• Due to the technical requirements for a new Planner board, all requests for a new board must be sent to the Help Desk to process.
• When requesting a new board, please include the name of the board, the person who will own the board, and any members you would like to grant access to the board.

How do I Add or Remove members from a Planner board?

• The owner of the Planner board can update the members by logging into the Planner board and clicking the Members dropdown from the top of the page. Here they will see a field to add new members. They will also see a list of current members on the board. By clicking the ellipses at the end of the member’s name, they will see an option to remove that member.
• Additionally, the Help Desk can update the membership group if the Owner is not available to do so.

How do I get started once a new Planner board has been created?

• When you log into Planner, you will see a list of all the boards you are a member of in the left column. Select the new board to open it up. Tasks are organized in a board by buckets. You will first need to create buckets on your new board for tasks to reside in. These buckets can be organized however you like (ex. By urgency, by member, by task type, etc.). Once you have created your buckets, you can start creating and assigning tasks.

Where can I find additional support for using MS Planner?

• Please refer to the official user guide for Planner provided by Microsoft at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/planner