Scheduling referees as an administrator

You schedule referees under Manage matches. At the top, Without referee shows how many matches still have none; the filter Only without referee narrows the list down to exactly those. In the table the referee is a column of its own, with their phone number underneath.

Step 1: decide who is a referee

Click Manage referees and add members. Only members with that role appear as candidates. If nobody is listed here, the app can't assign or propose anything either.

Click a name in that same list and you get their profile: Availability (the weekly grid and one-off exceptions), Team preferences and a Note for yourself. Handy when someone messages you that they can't referee in May — you record it straight away without leaving the page. Whatever you fill in shows up on that member's own page marked filled in by the planner, and they can overwrite it. You cannot change their notification settings: that is their own choice and it lives under My account.

You can also switch the role on per member via the member list → member → Permissions.

Step 2: assign a single match

1. Click the match — the worksheet opens.
2. Expand Referee. The candidate list loads and takes into account a fair spread (whoever has refereed a lot recently ranks lower), team preferences, availability and conflicts.
3. Choose whether it's the head referee or an assistant and click a name.
4. Click Save at the bottom.

That last step is not a formality. Clicking a name only stages the choice — it says This choice only takes effect after Save right there. That way you can still change your mind without anyone having been notified. An assistant is the exception: they are added the moment you click them.

If you want the referee to hear about the assignment, open the Notify members block before saving and switch it on. Underneath you see who gets the message; click the row of names to expand the full list. That list is the real send list, not an estimate: anyone who turned the notification off is not in it, and for a match that has already been played or cancelled nothing goes out at all. If you change a pitch or dressing room in the same screen, the whole team is notified about that — so those names appear as well.

If someone is greyed out, you'll see why — for example never available on Sunday morning or away until 21 Sep. Click the name that is currently assigned once more and you take them off again — the same as the Remove assignment button at the bottom of the panel. That too only takes effect on Save, and the person taken off is not notified. Is the association arranging the referee for this match? Then switch on Federation assigns referee; that match no longer counts as open work.

Step 3: have a schedule proposed in one go

Above the table sits the collapsed card Generate schedule, with the state in its header: how many matches there are, how many you filled in yourself and how many are open. Open it with the arrow or the button next to it. Pick a period at the top and only matches inside it take part.

What should I fill in?

At the top of the panel are three switches: Assign referees, Assign pitches and Assign changing rooms. Everything your club has set up is on by default — you open this panel to get a Saturday sorted, not to do one of the three. If something isn't possible, the switch is off with the reason next to it (for example You have not set up any pitches yet.) and what you can do about it.

Turn on pitches or changing rooms and you get extra columns and a longer list: matches that already have a referee appear too, because they still need a pitch and a changing room.

The value is the button

There is no separate action column. If a slot is empty you see a Choose button; if something is in it, that name or pitch name is the button — you click it to change it, and pointing at it shows a swap icon. Clicking opens a picker, with a search field as soon as there are more than ten options.

For referees, every name carries the reason why someone can or cannot: 3 matches this season, already refereeing at that time, is playing that day, or the reason they are unavailable. Someone who is already refereeing at that time is still listed, but cannot be clicked — otherwise you're left with exactly the question "why isn't Peter in the list?".

To undo your own choice, pick Let Planny choose in that same list. That option only appears if there is something of yours to remove.

What the colours mean

• Green with a padlock — this is really in the match already. In the referee column you then read already assigned or arranged by the federation.
• Cyan — a proposal from the generator, not yet saved.
• Grey with a padlock — your own choice; the generator leaves it alone.
• Yellow with a dashed border — something still has to happen here.
• Red — it calculated, but nobody could be found.

Generating and steering

Click Generate. The names land one by one, and the counters at the top show how many are assigned, how many you pinned yourself and how many couldn't be filled. Those counters are clickable: that's how you filter the list down to exactly those rows.

Next to each name you see who the runner-up was and why this person won, for example otherwise it would have been Sanne — she has three more this season. If a match can't be filled, the reason is shown (for example out of 11: 4 unavailable, 3 already refereeing at that time). Not happy? Adjust something and click Regenerate — only what changes moves.

What you pin yourself survives a reload. Those choices are kept in your own browser, not on the server: press F5 by accident and they're back. After two weeks they expire — by then they're about matches that were played long ago. If you'd rather start from a clean sheet, use Clear next to Generate — that button appears as soon as there is something in the panel and removes both the proposal and your own choices. It changes nothing in the matches themselves.

Underneath the list Planny adds, in plain language, how this schedule turned out — and if something didn't work out, that's where it starts, together with what would help. It knows the stated availability and the team preferences, so it can genuinely say why it became this person and not that one. If it couldn't write that note, the block simply stays away; the proposal itself is still correct.

That note appears automatically the first time. Press Regenerate afterwards and it doesn't come along automatically — instead there's a button Ask Planny for a note. That's deliberate: recalculating should cost nothing, so you can freely try out what happens when you pin someone.

Saving — and who gets a message

Nothing is saved or sent up to this point. Only after Save is the schedule real — you first get a confirmation question telling you how many people will be notified. If you don't like it, click Discard.

That message is only about the referees. Pitches and changing rooms are filled in without notifying the teams; the screen says so too, and it is a deliberate choice — otherwise half a squad gets a notification about a changing room allocation they need do nothing with.

Anything else Planny should know?

Availability arrives however it arrives: a message, an email, a remark along the sideline. You don't have to retype all of that one by one. Above the list sits the field Anything else Planny should know? — paste in what you've heard or read, for example "Anouk and Peter are away the whole holiday. Youri prefers not to referee JO13. Pitch 3 is out of use until 20 October."

The field is optional and has no button of its own: you simply press Generate, and Planny takes it straight into this schedule. Leave it empty and it just works with what's already in the app.

Below the proposal you then see This is what I took from your notes, with a tick box per line. Those lines applied to this proposal and are not yet stored with the referees. To keep them — so the next schedule knows about them too and the referee sees them themselves — tick what is right and click Save the ticked lines.

A pitch or changing room that is temporarily out of use belongs here too. "Pitch 3 is out of use until 20 October" takes that pitch out of the allocation for those days. Such a line applies to this proposal only and is stored nowhere — which is why it is the one line without a tick box. If your text names no date ("is going to be painted soon"), the sentence ends up under I couldn't convert this, with a request for the period: an invented date would put a pitch out of action on a day nobody asked for.

Whatever else Planny couldn't convert appears in that same block. That's deliberate: it tells you what is still left for you to do, instead of leaving you to assume everything was processed. Names that aren't members of your club are never proposed as a line.

Converting that text uses a little of your club's Planny credit. Recalculating is free: leave the field empty and no Planny is needed. The note, too, no longer appears automatically after the first time — there's a button for it.

Who is allowed to do this?

Besides administrators, you can give one or more members the Referee coordinator role (member list → member → Permissions, under Referee). A coordinator may assign, maintain availability and generate the schedule, but can't change the match itself: date, time, opponent, status and result remain administrator work. They do see those fields, but locked.

Frequently asked questions

• Why don't I see away matches? Only home matches are scheduled here; for an away match the opponent arranges the referee.
• Can I also set a referee on a match from Sportlink? Yes, on every home match. Date, time and opponent come from Sportlink and keep coming from there, but the referee you arrange in 4planning — even on a match you can't otherwise edit.
• I assigned myself and I see my own name in the recipient list. That's right: you really do get that assignment notification, just like every other referee. If you'd rather not, switch it off under My account → Notifications.
• I click Generate and get a message that nobody has been designated. Then no member is ticked as a referee yet — do that first under Manage referees.
• Can I fill in a few matches myself and have the rest completed? Yes. Whatever you assigned yourself is left alone by the generator; it only fills the open slots. You can do that before the first generation, too.
• Do the teams get a message about a pitch or changing room the generator fills in? No. Only the referees are notified on Save.
• Can I export the schedule? Yes, with Export. You get a CSV without phone numbers.
• Does Planny ever make someone up? No. It can only pick from the members you have ticked as referees; a name that isn't among them ends up under I couldn't convert this and never as a proposed line.
• Does Planny read what members write down about their absence? The reason someone gives for an absence is never sent to Planny. It only sees when someone can or cannot.
• My Planny credit has run out — can I still schedule? Yes. The spreading itself is plain calculation and always works; only converting your notes and writing the summary need Planny. You then get the schedule plus a message that your notes weren't processed.
• Does the old link to "Schedule referees" still work? Yes, it takes you straight to this view.