This article explains the second tab of the planboard settings, the stages. These allow you to set up your company's process. For example, a step in your production process, or a stage of a project.
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Simply add a stage by clicking the green Add stage button. Name the stage and set up the stage using the General and Activities tabs.

In the General tab, you can give the stage a name. Additionally, this tab allows you to configure specific behaviors for your stage. The available options are:

If you want a fixed margin to be kept between this stage and the next, you can enter delay days. You enter the number of working days that should be between this stage and the next stage.
You can use this if, for example, after a stage 'Spraying' you want to insert a standard drying time of one day before the card is planned for the next stage. The delay is then one day. When planning a card, the stage after spraying is scheduled 1 day later by default. You can undo this in your planboard.

Your resources have capacity that you have defined in their schedule (when adding resources). If you don't want them to be completely full you can give the resources on a stage a plan efficiency of, say, 80%. vPlan will then already indicate at 80% planned capacity that the resource is full.

This setting enables you to see on the planning board how much work is scheduled in a stage and whether it fits within the maximum capacity. This helps you balance your planning and prevent overloading.

In vPlan, stages provide a fixed order of your work process. If you have fixed preparation, production, assembly you cannot plan the assembly stage on a date before production by default. You will get warnings.
If in your work process stages can start simultaneously or there is no fixed order in your process, you can use the option Not dependent of other stages. With this, vPlan no longer takes into account a fixed order and a plan card planned on this stage can start before other stages have started.

In the Activities tab, you can view a clear overview of which activities are available and which are already active within a specific stage. This is important because it helps vPlan determine which activities can be scheduled in that stage.

To link an activity to a stage, simply check it in the left column. Once selected, the activity appears in the right column under the heading Active. This means that a card with this activity can now be scheduled in this stage. An activity can be linked to multiple stages, enabling you to move cards flexibly between stages as long as the activity is active in both stages.

If you no longer want to link an activity to a stage, uncheck it in the left column. Alternatively, you can click the trash icon in the right column to remove the link. This gives you complete control over which activities are used in each stage, ensuring your planning aligns precisely with your workflow.

No matter which tab you’re working in, you always have the option to save your changes. Click the Save button at the bottom to save your changes or a new stage. Existing stages can also be deleted by clicking the Delete button.