> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.planmyrounds.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Running a planning cycle

> Follow a Planning Cycle through Notify, Availability & Leave, Generate, and Roster Review to a published Duty Plan — and see what to do if generation fails.

Once an [Auto Duty is set up](https://www.planmyrounds.com/docs/auto-duty-planning/setting-up-an-auto-duty.md), it plans one **Planning Cycle** per period. Open the Auto Duty's detail page to see its next scheduled cycle, or select an in-progress one to follow its stages.

## Starting a cycle

Cycles normally start on their own, on the cadence you set. If you need one sooner, open the Auto Duty and select **Start Manual Cycle**, then pick the period from the list. A period that leaves less than the configured planning window is flagged, and a period that already has a cycle in progress is disabled.

## The 5 stages

**1. Notify**

Select **Notify Team & Open Collection**. This sends every doctor in the pool a heads-up and opens the availability window — there's nothing to review yet.

**2. Availability & Leave**

Staff update their availability at any time, and admins can approve or reject leave in parallel — these aren't sequential steps. The panel shows two live counts:

* **Staff availability** — how many doctors have responded, and how many are still pending.
* **Leave requests** — how many are waiting on admin approval, with a shortcut to **Review Requests**.

If anyone hasn't responded, select **Send Reminder** to nudge them. This is a one-off, admin-triggered send, not an automatic recurring reminder.

When you're ready, select **Generate Duty Plan** — you don't need every response in first.

**3. Generate**

The engine solves the roster against the current doctor pool, the Auto Duty's Shift Schedule, and its rules. This runs in the background and usually finishes within a minute.

**4. Roster Review**

Check the generated Duty Plan — team size, coverage, and any soft violations — then select **Publish Roster** when you're happy with it.

**5. Published**

The Duty Plan is live and visible to the team, the same as any published roster. See [Publishing a roster](https://www.planmyrounds.com/docs/rosters/publishing-a-roster.md) for what staff see next.

> [!TIP]
>
> If **Generate duty plan automatically** is on for this Auto Duty, the cycle jumps from Availability & Leave straight to Generate on its own once the review window closes — you don't need to click **Generate Duty Plan** yourself. If **Publish automatically** is also on, Roster Review is skipped too and the cycle goes straight to Published.

## If generation fails

A cycle that can't produce a valid schedule lands in **Failed**, with the reason shown alongside:

* A **structural configuration problem** — for example, a duplicate shift name or unresolved staffing role — is flagged with a warning that retrying won't help until the Auto Duty's Shift Schedule or rules are fixed.
* A **roster capacity** summary shows the doctor count, role breakdown, and how many slots the period needs, so you can see at a glance whether the pool is simply too small.
* **Suggested next steps** lists what to try.

Select **Retry Generation** once you've made a fix — the cycle re-solves against the same period without you having to start a new one.

## Cancelling a cycle

At any point before Published, select **Cancel Planning Cycle** to stop it. A cancelled cycle doesn't send further notifications and won't generate or publish — start a new manual cycle for the same period if you need to.

## Next steps

> **[How Auto Duty Planning works](https://www.planmyrounds.com/docs/auto-duty-planning/overview.md)**
>
> A refresher on Auto Duty, Planning Cycle, and Duty Plan.

> **[Roster and shift statuses](https://www.planmyrounds.com/docs/rosters/statuses.md)**
>
> Where planning cycle stages fit alongside roster statuses.


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