Building the Schedule

Create and manage your competition schedule, including multi-day events and parallel stages.

This comprehensive guide explains how to use the Schedule Builder to create and manage your competition schedule.

Running a Production / Showcase? The builder works the same way, except the Sections panel is replaced by a Performances panel: "Add Performance" creates a performance and places it on the selected day in one step. Breaks, day tabs, and the timeline all behave as described here. See "Running a Production or Showcase" for the full guide.

Accessing the Schedule Builder

Go to your Event Dashboard
Click "Schedule Builder" in the menu
You'll see the schedule workspace

Schedule Structure

An event's schedule is a hierarchy: Event, then Stage, then Day, then items. Most events have one stage and never think about that layer. Events that run two rooms at once use it heavily, and there is a full worked example below.

Days

One tab per day, created from the dates you set on the event.
Each day has its own start time, editable per day. A Saturday that opens at 08:00 and a Sunday that opens at 10:00 is normal and needs no workaround.
A section lives on exactly one day. Placing it on Saturday removes it from the pool for Sunday, which is what stops the same section being run twice.

Sequential ordering within a day

Items run back to back: each item's start time is the previous item's end time.
All times are calculated for you. Change one duration near the top of the day and everything below it shifts automatically.

Worked example: a two day event

Say you have 240 entries across Saturday and Sunday, and you want the small ones early while dancers are fresh.

Set the event dates first. The builder creates one day tab per date. If you add a date later, come back and the new day appears.
Set each day's start time. Saturday 08:00, Sunday 09:00.
Open Saturday and place your solos. Click or drag a section from the pool. The dialog suggests a duration from the entry count and performance type. Accept it or override it.
Add a Start of Day marker, then breaks as you go. A Medium Break (15 min) between blocks, a Lunch Break (60 min) in the middle. Every following item reflows.
Watch the day overflow indicator. If the day runs past its end time the builder shows "Overbooked". That is your signal to move a block to Sunday rather than discovering it at 19:00 on the day.
Switch to Sunday and place groups and productions. The pool now shows Saturday's sections tagged with their day, so you can see at a glance what is left.
Add an Awards Ceremony (60 min) at the end of Sunday.
Save Draft as you go, publish once.

Balancing tip: if Saturday is overbooked and Sunday is light, drag the section back to the pool and place it on the other day. Nothing is lost: entry order inside the section is preserved.

Worked example: two stages running in parallel

Parallel stages mean two rooms running at the same time, each with its own running order, its own judges and its own music. An event can have up to three stages.

When to use this: you have more entries than one room can get through in the available days, and you have a second room plus a second judging panel. If you only have one judging panel, you do not want parallel stages: a judge cannot be in two rooms at once, and the builder will tell you so at publish time.

Setting it up

Build your first stage exactly as a single-stage event. Do this first: the second stage is easier to balance once you can see what is on the first.
Click Add a second stage in the Stage bar above the day tabs. The builder promotes your existing stage to "Stage 1" and creates "Stage 2" with its own copy of the event's days.
Each stage gets a colour (blue, green, orange). The schedule panel is tinted with the colour of the stage you are editing, so you always know which room you are looking at.
Click a stage pill to switch. The day tabs below always belong to the selected stage, and so does everything you place.
Use Manage stages to rename them to something your team will recognise: "Main Hall" and "Studio 2" beat "Stage 1" and "Stage 2" when an MC is reading it at 08:00.

What you can move between stages

A section belongs to one day on one stage. To move it, drag it back to the pool, switch stages, and place it again.

The clash that only happens with parallel stages

On one stage everything is sequential, so a dancer can only ever be scheduled near themselves. With two stages, a dancer can be booked at the same wall clock time in two rooms, which no amount of careful ordering within a stage will catch.

The builder computes each section's real time window from the day's start time and the durations above it, then flags any dancer who appears in two overlapping windows. This is why "Emma is on Main Hall at 10:15 and Studio 2 at 10:20" gets caught before you publish rather than on the day.

Judges and stages

A judge can only be on one stage at a time. A judge can cover two stages on the same day as long as their sections on each stage run at different times: for example Stage 1 all morning and Stage 2 from 13:00. When a judge is added to your event they are placed on every section by default, so on an event with more than one stage every judge starts out on both stages. Scope each judge before publishing, without leaving the builder: press Assign judges at the right end of the Stage row in the Schedule Builder, pick a stage, then tap the judge in the quick-assign bar to add or remove them across that whole stage. The Assign judges button shows a red count while judges are on two stages at the same time and a check once nobody is. When you publish for the first time and every judge is still set to score every section, the publish window asks whether your judges need assigning and waits for your answer. The same grid lives on the Event Dashboard Judges tab under Section assignments. When you publish, the builder blocks publishing if a judge is on two stages at the same time, showing the exact overlapping sections and which stage to remove them from, with a Fix judge assignments button that opens the grid. Judges who move between stages at different times are listed as a notice instead, with the time of each move and a warning when the gap between stages is under 15 minutes. On the day, the judge app shows those judges a stage button in the header to change stage, and offers the next stage when they finish one.

Deleting a stage

You can delete a stage only when it holds no scheduled items, and never the last one. Clear its items first. Its empty days go with it.

Item Types You Can Add

Breaks:

Short Break (5 min), Medium Break (15 min), Long Break (30 min), Lunch Break (60 min), Time Buffer (10 min)

Special Events:

Awards Ceremony (60 min), Showcase (45 min), Opening Ceremony (30 min), Closing Ceremony (30 min), Announcement (10 min), Photo Session (30 min)

Day Markers:

Start of Day (0 min), End of Day (0 min), Custom Item (configurable duration)

Sections:

Competition performance sections (selected from the right panel)

Adding Performance Sections

Sections appear in the Sections panel on the right, filtered to only show sections that have entries. Unscheduled sections appear first; sections already on the schedule are tagged with the day they sit on.

Two ways to add a section: click or drag onto the schedule to add:

Find the section in the panel (use search to filter by name or attributes)
Either click the section, or drag it from the panel onto the schedule
A dialog shows the section name, entry count, and its calculated length
Keep Calculate from entries (recommended), or choose Fixed length and type minutes and seconds
Confirm: the section is added to the current day

Section length:
A calculated section lasts as long as its entries: each entry's music length (or the maximum time for its performance type when there is no music yet), plus the buffer between each pair of entries. It updates by itself when entries are added or withdrawn, music is uploaded, or a buffer changes, and every item after it on the day moves to match. A fixed-length section keeps the length you typed and does not move with buffer changes. Battle sections always use a fixed length.

Duplicate Prevention:

A section cannot be scheduled on more than one day
Battle sections require at least 2 entries to be scheduled

Setting Entry Order Within Sections

Expand a section to see its entries listed in order. You can drag and drop entries to reorder them within a section.

Each entry shows:

Entry number with dancer name(s) displayed alongside
Routine name
Studio
Duration (from music length if provided)
Estimated start time
Conflict warnings: a ⚠ icon when the same dancer is scheduled too close together. Click the ⚠ to see exactly who and why; click away (or click another warning) to close it.

Viewing Entry Details:
Click any entry to open a detail popup showing:

Section, scheduled time, and studio
Music file name, duration, and inline audio playback
Choreographer
Notes and special requirements
Full dancer list (with compact multi-column layout for large groups)

The entry order is saved and used on event day to determine the performance sequence.

Dancer Conflict Detection:
The system automatically flags when the same dancer is scheduled too close together, across all sections on the day, not just within one section. Detection is time-aware: it measures the actual gap in minutes between the two performances, so a break or other items in between count toward the gap.

Back-to-back (red): Effectively no gap; the dancer would have to perform twice in a row.
Too close (yellow): Less than ~15 minutes between performances.
No warning: A dancer who performs either side of a long break (e.g. a 2-hour lunch) is not flagged, because there is plenty of time.

Battles are treated as a single time window: dancers in the same battle are not flagged against each other, but a dancer who also performs just before or after the battle is.

Use drag-and-drop to separate conflicting entries, add a break between them, or move one section.

Adding Breaks and Events

Adding a Break:

Click "Add Item"
Select "Break" (or Awards, Showcase, etc.)
Enter name (e.g., "Lunch Break")
Set duration (minutes)
Add to schedule

Common Break Types:

Quick breaks: 5-15 minutes
Costume change breaks: 10-20 minutes
Lunch/Dinner: 45-90 minutes
Intermission: 15-30 minutes

Time Calculations

Automatic Time Calculation:

Each item starts when the previous item ends
Start time of item N = End time of item N-1
All times cascade automatically when you add, remove, or reorder items

Buffers (minutes and seconds):

Buffer between entries: default 1 minute, the time between one performance and the next inside a section. Change it with Change next to "Buffers" under the day totals.
Gap between sections: default none, extra time added between two sections that follow each other (for example for judges to finish or the stage to reset). A break or any other item between two sections already leaves its own time, so no gap is added there.
One section only: open the section's pencil icon and switch off "Use the event buffer" to give that section its own buffer. Other sections keep the event buffer.
Saving a buffer moves the whole schedule: calculated sections get their new length and every later item shifts. Sections with a fixed length keep theirs; the settings window offers to switch them to calculated.
Clock times on the schedule show the minute; the seconds are still counted, so small buffers add up correctly over a long day.

Day Timing:

Each day has configurable start and end times (default 08:00 to 18:00)
If the schedule exceeds the day's end time, an "Overbooked!" warning appears

Conflict Detection

The system automatically checks for three types of issues:

Schedule conflicts:

Overlap: An item extends past its allocated time and overlaps with the next item (shown in red)
Buffer exceeded: A section has grown beyond its buffer zone (shown in yellow)
Day overflow: The schedule exceeds the day's end time (shown as "Overbooked!")

Dancer conflicts within a day (time-aware):

Back-to-back: The same dancer would perform with effectively no gap (shown in red on entries)
Too close: Less than ~15 minutes between two of the same dancer's performances (shown in yellow)
Gaps are measured in real minutes, so breaks and other items in between count. A dancer either side of a long break is not flagged. Click the ⚠ on an entry for the details.

Dancer conflicts across stages (parallel stages only):

Same time, two rooms: the same dancer is scheduled in two sections whose time windows overlap on different stages.
This is a different check from the one above, and it has to be. Within a single stage everything runs in sequence, so a dancer can only ever land near themselves. Across two stages they can be booked at the same wall clock time in two rooms, which no amount of careful ordering within one stage will reveal.
Each section's window is computed from its day's start time plus the durations above it, so the check reflects when things will actually run, not just their position in a list.

Judge conflicts across stages (checked at publish):

A judge can only be on one stage at a time. New judges are placed on every section by default, so scope each judge to a stage before publishing, using the Assign judges button on the builder's Stage row or the Judges tab. The first publish asks whether your judges need assigning when every judge still scores every section. If a judge is on two stages at the same time, publishing is blocked until you fix it, and the message shows the overlapping sections and which stage to remove them from, with a Fix judge assignments button. A judge on two stages at different times is allowed: publishing lists the move (from which stage to which, at what time, with a warning for a gap under 15 minutes) and the judge app lets them change stage during the day.

If the schedule is published and has conflicts, you may receive an email notification alerting you to fix them.

Moving and Reordering

Move Items:

Use up/down arrow buttons to reposition items
Drag and drop items to reorder them freely
All downstream times automatically recalculate

Protected Items:
Once the schedule goes live, completed and in-progress items are protected: they show a lock icon and cannot be moved or deleted. The next upcoming item is also protected to prevent accidental changes.

Delete Items:

Click the delete button on any unprotected item
Confirm deletion
The item is removed and all times recalculate

Tidying a Long Day:

Use Collapse all sections (next to Clear day) to collapse every section's entry list at once for a quick top-to-bottom overview, then expand just the ones you want to work on.

Publishing the Schedule

Before Publishing:

Review all sections and timing
Fix any critical errors
Verify break placements
Check day start/end times, on every day and every stage

What the builder checks for you when you click Publish:

Timing conflicts across the schedule
Judge clashes across stages: any judge on two stages at the same time. This one blocks publishing until you fix it. Judges who move between stages at different times are listed as a notice with the time of each move
Unassigned sections: sections with no judge assigned yet
Empty sections: sections nobody is entered in any more (entries deleted or moved after the section was added). Publishing lists them and offers Remove these to take them off the schedule. The list is read fresh each time, and if it cannot be read, publishing carries on

Apart from a judge on two stages at once, none of these block you. They are shown so you can decide, because sometimes the answer really is "that is fine, publish it".

Publishing Steps:

Click "Publish Schedule"
The system automatically links entries to their matching schedule items
If you have notification emails enabled, all registered studios and dancers receive an email with a link to view the schedule
Schedule status changes to PUBLISHED
A shareable public link is generated (e.g., /schedule/ABCD1234) that you can copy and share

After Publishing:

The schedule is visible to all registered participants via the public link
You can still make changes and re-publish. A "Schedule Updated" notification is sent to participants
A public schedule code is generated on first publish for easy sharing

Day-of Tracking (Live Schedule)

Once judges start scoring, the live schedule system automatically tracks progress:

Section completion is driven by judge scoring: when all judges score all entries, the section is marked as completed
Protected items prevent accidental changes to completed or in-progress schedule items
The schedule view updates automatically for all viewers

See the "Live Schedule Tracking" article for full details on how live progression works during the event.

Tips for Schedule Building

Start with breaks - Place major breaks first
Group similar styles - Flow between similar sections
Buffer time - Add extra time for unknowns
Consider changeovers - Allow time between very different sections
Test the flow - Review the schedule as a dancer would see it
Communicate changes - Always notify participants of schedule updates