This article delves into the advanced planning features of vPlan. Learn how to work with sub cards, schedule cards to recur in your planning, and establish dependencies between tasks. Discover useful tips to elevate your planning to a higher level with these advanced vPlan features.

Sub cards can be used to break down the work of a card into multiple tasks or distribute the work among several people. In this chapter, you will learn everything about it.
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Sub cards can be created when a card is in the planning; this is not possible in the backlog. To create a sub card, open the card you want to divide. In the menu on the right, choose which information you want to show or hide on a card. At the top, you will see the icon for sub cards, as shown in the image below.

Below the start and end dates, you will now see the Sub cards section, with Create a new card below. Click on it, type the title of the sub card, press enter, and the sub card is added. In the planning, you will now see a clickable arrow next to the main card, indicating that there are sub cards. Click on the arrow to view all sub cards.

Once you've created a sub card, you can add or edit the following information in the main card:

By clicking on the title of the sub card in the main card, you can access the sub card. Here, you can add activities and estimated hours to complete the sub card. In the top right of the sub card, you'll see the main card, indicating it is a sub card and under which main card it falls. You can quickly return to the main card by clicking on the title. The lightning menu, as you know it, is shortened in sub cards. All collection-related options are removed. However, a new option is available: Convert to card. This option allows you to turn a sub card into a main card.

Both main and subcards can be planned to repeat. If you make a main card recurring, the subcards below it will automatically become recurring.

In the calendar and kanban view, you will always see all cards. Sub cards can be identified by this icon:. In the list and timeline view, sub cards are collapsed under the main card. You can expand them by clicking the purple arrow behind the main card. If sub cards use duration, the hours of all sub cards will be added up for estimated, registered, and remaining hours. The main card will then show the total of all sub cards:
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In this example you see sub cards Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 together have an estimated time of 10 hours. When an activity with an estimate of 6 hours is added to the main card, the total estimate will be 16 hours.
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In vPlan, you can set certain cards to automatically recur. This chapter explains how this feature works.
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When you open a planned card, a recurrence icon appears next to the date field. This allows you to set the card to automatically return in your planning. Clicking the recurrence icon opens a screen where you can choose whether the card recurs daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. You can also specify whether the card should return every day, week, month, or year, or if it should automatically recur every x number of days, weeks, months, or years.
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You can specify on which day of the week the cards should return per week. If you choose monthly recurrence, you can decide if it should return every month on the same day or, for example, every first day of the month. The menu also includes a switch for working days. You can turn on this switch if you do not want non-working days, as configured, to be considered. If you turn off the switch, recurring cards can also be scheduled on non-working days. Use the 'Ends on' date field to choose whether this function should end on a specific date or leave it blank to have the cards recur indefinitely.
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When recurring cards are enabled, new cards are created within the collection. These are all linked to the original card. Read the article What is the difference between a collection and a card? to learn more about the difference between cards and collections.
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If you want the recurring card always to be assigned to the same employee or machine, add the resource to a card before making it recurring. This way, the resource is added to all recurring cards. If you add the resource after making the card recurring, it will only apply to that card.
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In vPlan's timeline view, you can establish relationships or dependencies between plan cards within or outside an existing collection. When you establish a relationship between two cards, you can indicate that two cards in your planning are dependent on each other. If a certain task in your process cannot start until the other (preceding) task is completed, vPlan can assist you with this.

Establishing relationships/dependencies between plan cards within your process is step 1. Step 2 is to determine how vPlan assists you when you change the planning of cards that are related to other cards. Do you want only a visual warning from vPlan? Or do you want vPlan to maintain the order of dependent cards and therefore move them in the planning? You make this choice in your board configuration.

Setting dependencies between cards is directly available in the timeline. However, before you start establishing dependencies between cards, it is advisable to determine how vPlan should handle the cards where you have performed this action. There are three options available. Follow these steps to configure the dependencies:

In your board settings, the options Notify, Push, and Maintain are visible.

​Notify
When the end of card A comes after the start of card B, the line turns red. This notifies you that this is likely a problem. By placing card B after card A (or card A before card B), the notification disappears. You can manually resolve this.
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​Push
If the end of card A is before the start of card B, nothing is wrong. However, when the end of card A is on the same day as the start of card B, we push card B aside. This way, card B always stays behind card A. We only push and do not pull, so when card A is moved forward, card B remains in place.
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​Maintain
With this setting, we maintain the period between card A and card B when establishing a dependency. If you move card A in the planning, card B will automatically move with the retention of intervening days.
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When you hover over a card (bar), you will find anchors in the top left and bottom right corners. From here, you can draw a dependency from card A to card B. The starting point is important because it determines which card is dependent on the other. If you start with card A and draw a relationship to card B, then card A is "blocking," and card B is "dependent."
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Move your cursor over one of your planning cards. An anchor appears in the corners of the card. Grab the anchor with your mouse and drag it to a card you want to make dependent on this card. Release your mouse button, and you have created the dependency.
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In the menu bar of the timeline view, you can configure what you want to see in your board. You do this by clicking on the eye icon . When you click on it, the menu with your preferences opens. You will also find the dependencies listed here. Turn on the switch to display the dependencies in your timeline. You can also do this quickly using the keyboard shortcut D.

When you have show dependencies enabled on your board, you will see that all cards with a line connecting them have a relationship. By moving your mouse over the line, a cross will appear in the middle. Clicking on it will delete the dependency between the two cards.
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You can also remove a dependency within a card itself. See the explanation below.

When you open a card that is blocking or dependent on another card, you will see this directly at the top of the card. The example card below is dependent on card Project 10034, but simultaneously blocks card Project 10042.
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You can go to the dependent/blocking card within the card by clicking on the line. You can also remove the dependency by clicking on the cross next to the line.
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Within a card, you can also hide dependencies with the dedicated icon at the top right of the card: .

Usually, you make a future card dependent on the previously planned card in your process. It must be performed in a certain order. This ensures that the future card moves when the previously planned card is delayed (or that you are notified).
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You can also work the other way around by making the previously planned card (also) dependent on the later planned card. This ensures that the first card not only pushes the last card forward in time but also pushes the first card back in your planning when you plan the later card earlier.
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If you establish a dependency between two cards in one direction, you make one card blocking and the other one dependent. The other card is dependent on the first, but not vice versa. This can be best explained with an example:

Design is blocking for Creation. Design is delayed and moved back by a week. Creation is dependent on Design and is also delayed by a week:
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Design is blocking for Creation. If you move Design, Creation moves with it. Even if you bring Design forward by a week again.
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However, if you move Creation, for example, by bringing it forward a week, Design remains in place. Design is not dependent on Creation in the relationship. Result: vPlan warns that you have a problem but leaves Design in place.
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Do you want vPlan always to maintain the order between two related cards, regardless of which one you move forward or backward? Then you establish the dependency in two directions. Two cards are made equal to each other. Regardless of which card you move, vPlan will always move the related card.

Here's another example. Creation is moved back by a week. Because you have created a two-way dependency, Design is pulled along and moved back by a week as well.
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You can add dependencies manually, but if dependencies are standard in your process, you can also automate this. Read more about it in this article: Automatically add dependencies.