Across construction teams today, many planning workflows are still only somewhat digital. Schedules and lookaheads often live in Excel or other disconnected tools, requiring duplicate entry and manual updates that slow teams down and introduce risk.
Thankfully Autodesk Build has been helping building teams close that gap by connecting long‑term schedule strategy with short‑term field execution, all within Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC).
But we often get asked about the difference between Schedules and Workplans. Let’s explore the critical differences between these capabilities and learn how to leverage them effectively for your projects.
Learn more in our on-demand webinar: Build with Confidence: Smarter Short-Term Planning with Workplan
In Autodesk Build, the Schedule represents the project’s strategic, long‑term plan. This is your CPM‑based master timeline—the backbone of the job. Built in specialist tools such as Primavera P6, Microsoft Project, or Asta Powerproject, the schedule captures project logic, dependencies, milestones, and the critical path. Schedules are often long and prone to change, so sharing them out with project teams and keeping project teams updated on changes can be difficult when they are built in these siloed scheduling tools.
Once published to ACC, the schedule becomes a read‑only single source of truth for the entire team to refer to and comment on. That read‑only posture is intentional. By protecting the baseline, teams can run reliable forecasts, perform change analysis, and make informed, strategic decisions without undermining schedule integrity.
Projects change, and any changes made to the master schedule can be easily shared by reuploading the latest schedule version, with version history documented.
The schedule focuses on the what and when at scale:
What it does not attempt to capture is equally important as what it does. Schedules are deliberately high level when it comes to resources. For instance, you dont use the schedule to assign tasks or track daily commitments. Instead, it provides the authoritative plan that feeds downstream execution.
That downstream execution happens in Workplans. Workplans in Autodesk Build are the tactical layer that converts schedule intent into reliable, short‑term delivery. They’re designed for weekly workplanning and multi‑week lookahead which define what the team will actually commit to in the near term.
Workplans can be directly connected to the master schedule to preserve end‑to‑end traceability, or created standalone when trade‑led coordination is needed. Either way, they’re collaborative, field‑ready, and execution focused.
With Workplans, teams can:
This trade‑level ownership removes ambiguity at handoffs and makes daily execution visible and measurable across the project team.
One of the most powerful aspects of Workplans is formal commitment tracking. When assignees commit to plan dates, those promises are locked for measurement. If a committed task needs to be replanned, a reason must be recorded. This creates an auditable trail that turns planning conversations into actionable data.
Workplans also bring constraints and blockers directly into the workflow. To keep planning proactive versus reactive, teams can capture roadblocks with photos or files, assign accountability, escalate issues to RFIs when needed, and track them through resolution.
All of this feeds a continuous improvement loop. Metrics like Percent Plan Complete (PPC), task status rollups, and root cause analysis help teams understand performance, coach behaviors, reduce rework, and improve predictability each week.
In simple terms:
Together, they connect strategy to execution, digitize planning workflows, and operationalize the master schedule into predictable delivery — all within one tool.
Learn more in our on-demand webinar: Build with Confidence: Smarter Short-Term Planning with Workplan
