What is linking?
Linking allows you to display a single plan item in multiple plans. When you update the plan item, it will automatically update in all locations.
Think of linking as a window into another plan. For example, if you have a departmental plan, and an overall corporate strategy plan, you might want a metric card from the departmental plan to show up in the overall corporate strategy plan. Rather than entering the same information twice, you can link the departmental plan item to the correct item in the overall corporate strategy plan, where it will be visible to members of the strategy plan.
How do I link an item?
- To link an item, navigate to the item in the Tree or List View. You will notice the item displays the ‘link’ icon. This item will be the “parent” of the link.
- Clicking the link icon will allow you to select first the Plan, then the Plan Item, you’d like to link.
In this example, we have an item, Increase Leads 10%, that will support the revenue goal, so we’d like to link it under the Revenue goal, so we can track its progress both in our Corporate Plan and the Sales Plan.
- After clicking Save, you’ll see the linked item appear in the view, with the ‘link’ icon.
- To remove the link, click the ‘break link’ icon in the List View.
How are linked item metrics treated in rollups?
Linked item metrics are included in metric rollup value calculations. Even if the user does not have access to the linked item (the child item), the user can create a metric rollup in the parent item (to which the child item is linked).
How are linked items treated in reports?
Linked items are included in reports.
In List View PDF reports, linked items are denoted with the link icon. In List View RTF and Excel reports, linked items are included, but without an icon.
Please note that if the item is linked in multiple places, it can show up multiple times in certain reports, such as in a Multi-Plan View report.
How does linking items from another plan affect visibility to items in each plan?
A user's ability to see a plan is determined by whether he is assigned to an item in the plan as an owner, member, or admin. Linking items between plans doesn't circumvent this restriction in any way.
The assigned-to user on a plan item can see only the plan to which that item natively belongs (the source plan). The assigned-to user will be able to see the names of the other plans the items has been linked into, but he will not automatically be given access to view the full details of any of those plans.
Similarly, a user who can see the plan that an item has been linked into will not automatically be able to see the plan that item comes from. She will be able to see key data about the linked plan item such as current metric value and last comment, but she will not be able to view the full details of the linked item or navigate into the plan the item came from unless she has been assigned to both plans.