The Planning Board is the work surface of the Counseling Desk, and the desk opens on it once a plan is underway. It is where occupations stop being search results and start being a decision the two of you are making together.
It has three columns, left to right.
Suggestions
Ideas not yet on the shortlist.
Occupations arrive here from NexProfile and from the NexPlanner wizards. Nothing in this column is a commitment — it is the pile you have not sorted yet. If the column is empty, add occupations from NexProfile or run a NexPlanner wizard.
Accepting a suggestion moves it to the shortlist. That is the only way the shortlist fills.
The shortlist
What you are narrowing down together.
This is the working column and where most sessions happen. An occupation here is under active discussion: you are checking whether it fits, what it would take, and whether the participant actually wants it.
Cards here can carry the participant's own stance — Interested, Unsure, or Not interested. Ask for it rather than inferring it. An occupation the participant is unsure about is not a weaker match; it is a different conversation.
Opening a card gives you the detail behind it, including the education route, where one exists for the destination country.
Goals
Agreed together in session — not signed yet.
Moving an occupation here with Agree on this goal records that the two of you settled on it. It is a decision, not a document. Nothing has been signed and nothing is binding.
This is the column that becomes the plan. When the goals are right, you send the plan for signing — see Signing a plan.
If a signed version already exists, this column shows the goals of the next draft, and the sub-line tells you which version stays in force meanwhile: "Signed v2 stays in force until you both sign this one." The previously signed plan remains the operative one until the new one is fully signed.
What the board is not
It is not a to-do list and it does not track tasks. It holds occupations under consideration and the agreement you reach about them. Tasks, messages and notes live elsewhere on the participant's profile.
It also does not decide anything for you. Nothing moves between columns on its own — every move is one of you choosing to move it.
Related
- Your Counseling Desk — the whole surface this sits on
- NexPlanner wizards — where most suggestions come from
- The plan document — what the Goals column becomes
- Reading a NexProfile — the other source of suggestions