Your roadmap changes every week, and every change quietly writes over the one before it. Dates move, scope grows, items are added and dropped, and each of those changes is reasonable on its own.
But keeping a roadmap current means overwriting it, so the version you agreed to is no longer there to compare against. When someone asks what you committed to back in July, or whether this quarter is still on track, there is nothing left to compare against.
Actual vs Planned solves that. You lock a snapshot of the roadmap you agreed to, carry on working as normal, and Craft.io shows you exactly what changed against it: what slipped, what was added, what was dropped, and what has not moved at all.
This article walks you through:
Before you begin
You will need to:
Admin access: Only admins can create and manage saved plans.
Choose a roadmap: Plans can be created from Table, Kanban, Swimlanes, or Timeline views.
Set your filters: Make sure the view contains only the items your plan should cover - for example, everything scheduled for Q3.
Create your first saved plan
A saved plan captures the state of your roadmap at a specific point in time, so you can continue working while keeping the original plan intact for comparison.
You can create a plan from any supported roadmap view. The items currently included in the view become the scope of the plan, so before saving it, use filters to make sure the view contains exactly what you want to track.
To create a saved plan:
Open the roadmap view you want to use and filter it to the items your plan should include.
Open the Actions menu and select Save as a locked plan.
Enter a name, choose the plan’s start and end dates, and optionally add a description.
Save the plan. Craft.io automatically creates a personal plan view, where you can immediately see how the roadmap has changed against the plan.
Once created, the plan itself is locked, but the resulting plan view behaves like other Craft.io views: you can duplicate it or save it as a personal or workspace view.
💡 Pro tips:
View the same plan in different ways. A plan isn’t tied to the view you created it from. For example, if you saved your plan from a Swimlanes roadmap, you can load that same plan into a Timeline, Kanban, or Table view. Open Actions → Load existing plan and select your plan.
Share a personal plan view with your team. Select Actions → Save as workspace view. Saving workspace views requires admin permissions.
How changes are tracked and surfaced
A plan view compares the saved plan with what happened afterward and surfaces the differences directly on the items. Instead of opening two versions of a roadmap and comparing them by eye, you can see where the plan changed in the view itself.
On a plan view, you may see:
Added - items that were not part of the original plan.
Descoped - items that were part of the plan but have since been removed.
Changed fields - values that changed from the plan are highlighted directly on the item.
Change badges - changed items show a yellow badge with the number of fields that changed. Select the badge to see the full list.
Focus on the changes that matter to you
A roadmap can change in dozens of ways, but not every change matters to every person. A sprint change might be important to a delivery team, for example, while an executive reviewing the quarter may care more about changes to dates, scope, or status.
Use Tracked fields to choose which field changes you want the plan view to surface. Only changes to those fields count as changes in the comparison, helping you focus the view on the questions you are trying to answer.
To narrow the view even further, enable Show only modified items. This hides items that have not changed, leaving you with just the items that changed.
You can configure both under Actual vs Planned → Plan view settings.
💡 Pro tip: See how a field changed over time
Hover over any highlighted field in a plan view and click the stats icon to see its history throughout the plan. Use Activity log to see each change in chronological order, or Line chart to see how the field changed over time.
You can also open this history from an item’s changed-fields list by selecting the field you want to explore.
Three ways to look at the same plan
Different moments call for different comparisons. Use the Actual vs Planned dropdown to switch between three modes, depending on the question you want to answer:
Actual vs planned - Where are we now?
Starts with today’s roadmap and highlights where it has changed from the original plan. Use it while work is in progress to see what has moved and where you may need to act.
Planned vs actual - What happened to what we agreed?
Starts with the original plan and shows what happened to it. Use it when you want to review a commitment from the perspective of what was originally planned - for example, what moved, was added, or was descoped.
Accomplished vs planned - How did we do?
Looks back at the completed period, comparing what you originally planned with what you actually delivered. Use it after a sprint or quarter ends to review the outcome and learn from it before planning the next one.
Find and manage your plans
Every plan you create is saved in your workspace, so you can return to past and current plans whenever you need them.
To see all plans, go to Workspace settings → Saved Plans. Plans are grouped by year and ordered by end date, with the current period at the top. For each plan, you can see its name, start and end dates, description, and who created it and when.
All workspace members can view the list. Workspace admins can also rename or delete plans.
☝️ Plan deletion:
Be mindful that deleting a plan is permanent. It removes the plan and both of its snapshots. Any plan views built on that plan will no longer work.
What comes next
Actual vs Planned - the full feature release notes, including the health and change badges and the field history line chart.
Introduction to roadmaps in Craft.io - the views your plans are built from.
How to build an executive roadmap - turn a plan comparison into a leadership-ready update.
Need more guidance? 🙋 Our LIVE support team (at the bottom right corner of your screen) replies to ANY question!