Construction programme software for construction and civil project managers
Plan it, drag it,
print it.
Critical path, baselines, lookaheads and a monthly report from one file on your computer. One file, no database, no training course.
Sign up by 31 January 2027: 90 days free, then A$99 for your first year. No card. Free for students and teachers. Forever.
One file, four tools
Everything a programme needs. Nothing a platform bolts on.
Each tool is a view over the same programme file. Open it, work, save. The file stays on your computer and reads like a document, not a database.
Programme
The Gantt. Full critical path method with float, four link types, working-day calendars and constraints. Day, week and month zoom. Prints to A3 or Tabloid with a title block.
Lookahead
A 2 to 12 week window from the data date for the site meeting. Reorder, regroup and stretch work by dragging. Print the week-matrix extract with a notes column.
Update
Set the data date, type actual percent, read the variance in working days. Add days, trim days or push a start, and record the delay reason as you do it.
Report
A monthly progress report and a lookahead extract, generated from the live programme. Summary, progress by section, critical path narrative, milestone variance, delay register.
Real critical path
Float you can read, not a bar someone coloured red.
Floatbar calculates every date both ways along every link: finish to start, start to start, finish to finish, start to finish, each with working-day lag. It respects calendars and holidays, honours start-no-earlier-than constraints, and shows the float of any bar when you point at it. The driving chain draws as one solid line; parallel critical branches draw dashed.
Many Gantt tools in the same price band highlight a path without showing you the float. Floatbar calculates it, shows it, and you can check the arithmetic.
Drag, stretch, link
Move a bar and the cascade follows.
Drag a bar to move it. Stretch either end to change its duration. Draw a link from one bar's end to another's, and the link type follows from which ends you joined. Every edit runs through the engine, so what you see is always the schedule, never a picture of one. Undo is fifty steps deep.
Links are loop-proof: the app refuses a link that would send the logic in a circle, and names the activities caught in the loop if a file arrives with one.
Prints like a programme should
Title block, logo, revision, A3 or Tabloid. One click.
Choose the columns, the date range and the paper: A3 or Tabloid, A4 or Letter. Fit the date range to the page width and the rows to the page height, down to a legibility floor. The title block carries your company logo, the project, client, revision, status and data date. The print is the programme, not a screenshot of it.
Printing is one of the frustrations reviewers name most with the big desktop schedulers. Floatbar was built from the print outward.
The monthly update in one pass
Running behind by four days. Add them, and say why.
Switch on Forecast and each activity shows where it should be at the data date, where it actually is, and the gap in working days. Click the gap and the dialog speaks site language: Running behind, Running ahead, Not started. Accept the days, or a smaller number if that is all that was granted, and type the delay reason. Every entry lands in an append-only delay register that the monthly report reads back.
In the 2026 Wellingtone State of Project Management survey, 72% of project professionals spend half a day or more each month collating reports.
Left out on purpose
You are buying a programme, not a workplace.
Pendo's 2019 Feature Adoption Report found that 80% of features in the average software product are rarely or never used. The platforms bundle them anyway and price accordingly. Floatbar leaves them out, so you pay for what a programme actually needs.
| Not in Floatbar | Why |
|---|---|
| Resource levelling | Your programme is not a staffing model. Levelling is part of what makes the enterprise schedulers "overkill" in their own users' reviews. |
| Cost loading and earned value | Cost lives in your accounting system. Keying it into the schedule as well is where the errors start. |
| Timesheets, chat, boards, documents | These are a platform's job, and you almost certainly already have one. Floatbar does not compete with it. |
| Permissions, publishing workflows, subcontractor portals | Half of a multi-user tool's feature list exists because it is multi-user. One PM, one file, no admin console. |
| A database | Your programme is a file on your computer. Email it, back it up and version it like anything else you own. |
Your file, your computer, your AI
Tell Claude to push the piling. It edits the file, runs the checks, and you see it.
Floatbar's programme file is a plain file any program can read. The free Claude connector lets Claude Desktop or Claude Code open it, make edits under the same rules the app enforces, run the structural checks and save. Floatbar works fully without AI; the connector is there for people who already use Claude.
programme.json saved, backup kept
Pricing
One price. One user. Every feature.
No feature tiers to decode. Create your account by 31 January 2027 and you get 90 days free, then a year at A$99 (or A$12 a month) starting the day the free days end. Accounts created after that date get 14 days free, then A$129 a year (A$15 a month). No card either way. Students and teachers use it free, forever.
| Per user, a year | AUD | USD |
|---|---|---|
| FloatbarA$99 first year for sign-ups by 31-01-27 | A$129 | ~US$92 |
| Smartsheet Prothe cheapest plan with a Gantt | A$156 | US$108 |
| Aphex Prominimum 10 seats = A$10,200 a year | A$1,020 | US$732 |
Bold is the price the vendor publishes; ~ marks an approximate conversion at 1 US dollar = A$1.40, derived from European Central Bank reference rates for 18-09-26.
Each rival's cheapest plan that gives one user a Gantt with dependencies, from their public pricing pages, annual billing, accessed 21-09-26. Neither shows each activity's float.
Solo
or A$12 a month. Create your account by 31 January 2027: 90 days free from the first time you open the app, then A$99 a year (or A$12 a month) for the twelve months after the free days end. Accounts created later: 14 days free, then A$129 a year or A$15 a month.
- Unlimited programmes, all four tools
- Print and report to PDF without limits
- Claude connector included
- Files stay on your computer
- Cancel any time from your account
Free for students and teachers. Forever.
Use your university or TAFE email. Prints carry a small academic-copy mark.
Questions
Straight answers.
Is it a real critical path method engine?
Yes. Every date is calculated both ways along the links, float is worked out for every activity, four relationship types with lag, working-day calendars with holidays, and start-no-earlier-than constraints. The critical path is calculated, not guessed from a colour.
Where is my programme stored?
In a file on your computer that you open and save like any document. Floatbar never uploads it. Your account holds little more than your email address and subscription; the Privacy page lists exactly what.
Can I open a Primavera or MS Project file?
Yes. Import reads a Primavera P6 .xer export or the XML file MS Project saves (activities, headings, relationships with lag, calendars and holidays, constraints, progress) and the engine recomputes every date, listing anything it could not carry over. Export writes the programme back out as MS Project XML (MS Project opens it, Primavera P6 imports it) or as a CSV table of every activity with its dates and float, for a spreadsheet.
Can I open an .mpp file?
Not directly. Save it as XML from MS Project and import that.
Does it work on site, on a phone?
Floatbar is a desktop tool for the PM's laptop. Lookahead extracts and programme prints are the site documents; that is how most sites already work.
Which browsers?
Chrome and Edge save straight back to your file. Firefox and Safari work too, and download a copy when you save.
Do I need a Claude subscription?
No. Floatbar is complete on its own. If you already pay for Claude, the connector is free and lets Claude edit your programme safely.
Can my team use one account?
One user per subscription on Solo. The company plan covers up to ten named users on your company's email domain for A$499 a year on one invoice, then A$49 a seat; choose Company at checkout and add your users from your account page.
Start your free trial.
No card. 90 days if you sign up by 31 January 2027, 14 days after. Open the sample programme, drag something, print it. If it does the job, keep it for A$99 for your first year.