> ## Knowledge Base Index > Fetch the complete knowledge base index at: https://help.netnet.app/sitemap.xml > Use this file to discover available pages before exploring further. > Pure-Markdown content can be obtained by appending a '.md' suffix to the content URLs listed in the sitemap (without the trailing slash). # Activating a Job: What Happens When the Plan Locks **In brief:** Activating a Job freezes the plan as the Original Plan, opens time logging and the execution tabs, starts billing, and cannot be undone. **Applies to:** Roles that can edit Jobs, in a workspace on an active trial or a paid plan. **See also:** Plan Stepper: How to Build a Job Plan Step by Step covers building the plan first, and Change Orders: How to Add Scope to a Locked Job Plan covers changing it afterwards. **Activating a Job is the moment it stops being a plan and becomes real work. It opens time logging and the execution tabs, it starts billing, and it freezes your current plan as the Original Plan, the baseline every later number is measured against. That freeze is a one-way door: there is no Active to Pending transition anywhere in Net Net. When you need to work from a different plan, you duplicate the Job.** You'll find it at the end of the **Net Net** step in [the Plan Stepper](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/plan-stepper-how-to-build-a-job-plan-step-by-step-95jz87/), or on **Jobs → your Job → Settings**. # The Activation Review Activating is not a toggle. Choosing **Activate Job** opens an Activation Review so you can look at what you are committing to before you commit to it. The review shows you: * **The Job Number and name**, with a plain reminder that billing begins when this Job is activated * **The start date**, which you can confirm or change right there * **A plan summary**: total hours, duration, and how many Deliverables the plan contains Then two buttons: Cancel, or Activate Job. ## Every Deliverable needs a due date This is the one requirement that will actually stop you. Net Net will not activate a Job while any Deliverable is missing a due date, either set directly or derived from its start date and duration. If something is missing, activation is refused and Net Net names the specific Deliverables so you know exactly where to go. Due dates, and the rest of what a Deliverable carries, are covered in [Deliverables: Status, Due Dates, and Confidence Explained](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/deliverables-status-due-dates-and-confidence-explained-x7yi7t/). || This check runs on the server, not just in the browser, so it holds no matter how the Job is being activated. It is there because a Deliverable with no due date can never be late, can never drift, and can never tell you anything useful. ## About the start date The Activation Review pre-fills the start date from your plan. If your plan has no start date, it offers today. You can accept it or pick a different date before confirming. Net Net records whatever you confirm and, for Projects, works the Deliverable schedule from it. | A stale start date is the quiet way to get confusing performance data from day one. If you planned this Job three weeks ago and the work is starting Monday, set the start date to Monday during the review rather than leaving the old one in place. It takes two seconds and it saves you arguing with your own reports later. # What activating a Job actually does Confirming the review changes four things at once. **1. The plan freezes as the Original Plan.** The effort you budgeted per Deliverable and service type is captured as a snapshot. That snapshot never changes again, ever. **2. Time logging opens.** Your team can start logging against tasks in this Job, subject to the usual task-level rules. **3. The execution tabs unlock.** Tasks, Timeline, and Performance become available. Until now they were visible but disabled. That is where [Job Tasks: Assignees, Allocations, and Statuses](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/job-tasks-assignees-allocations-and-statuses-1fy1ov5/) and [Reading the Job Performance Tab: Plan, Actual, Drift](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/reading-the-job-performance-tab-plan-actual-drift-1hi6cta/) pick up. **4. Billing begins.** From this day forward the Job counts toward your monthly usage. Billing is per active Job, never per person. If you have not started your trial yet, this is the point where [Activating Your Free 60-Day Trial: When the Clock Starts](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/activating-your-free-60-day-trial-when-the-clock-starts-aj2hwa/) comes into it. For Retainers, activation also opens the first monthly cycle, described in [Running Retainers: Monthly Cycles, Tasks, and Actuals](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/running-retainers-monthly-cycles-tasks-and-actuals-sme359/). For Projects with a start date in the plan, the Deliverable schedule is worked out from it. # Why the plan locks This is the part worth understanding rather than just accepting, because it is the whole reason Net Net can tell you anything true later. Drift is only meaningful against something that does not move. If the plan could be edited whenever reality disagreed with it, then every Job would finish perfectly on plan, because the plan would have quietly followed the work. You would never learn anything. The estimate that was 40% light would look exactly like the one that was right. The same logic sits behind [the difference between cost variance and schedule variance](https://hellonetnet.com/knowing-the-difference-between-cost-and-schedule-variance/), which is worth reading if you want the vocabulary for what you are about to measure. So Net Net keeps three separate plan states, and never mixes them, which is the idea explained at length in [Baselines: Why Net Net Never Rewrites the Plan](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/baselines-why-net-net-never-rewrites-the-plan-1ep4h4s/): * **Working Plan** exists only while a Job is Pending. This is your editable canvas. * **Original Plan** is the frozen snapshot taken at activation. It is never modified. * **Current Plan** is the Original Plan plus every applied [Change Order](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/change-orders-how-to-add-scope-to-a-locked-job-plan-1gplwsw/), recomputed from scratch each time rather than patched. Because those three come from clean, separate sources, the comparison between what you committed to, what the scope became, and what actually happened is always trustworthy. ## What the lock covers, and what it does not **Locked after activation.** The estimated effort: the per Deliverable, per service type pools. These cannot be edited in the app or through the API. The only way to change them is a Change Order. **Still editable, freely, no Change Order needed:** * Job Name and Job Number * Job Lead and the team roster, on the Settings tab, using the same people you manage in [Managing Team Members, Invites, and Join Requests](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/managing-team-members-invites-and-join-requests-dstmjr/) * Dates, including the timeline * [Deliverable status, due dates, and Confidence](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/deliverables-status-due-dates-and-confidence-explained-x7yi7t/) * Deliverable Type and Hybrid Delivery Who is working on a Job was never part of the plan, so people can come and go all engagement long without touching the baseline. ||| There is no Active to Pending transition in Net Net, not on screen and not through the API. Activation is a one-way door, so before you confirm, make sure the plan is the one you want to be measured against. # Changing a plan after activation Two paths, and they solve different problems. ## Change Orders, for scope that grew When the client asks for more and you are still on the same Job, a Change Order adds to the current plan without touching the Original Plan. You end up with two truths at once: what you committed to, and what the scope is now. Change Orders exist to separate execution performance from scope expansion, which is the difference between "we were slow" and "they asked for more." Full detail lives in [Change Orders: How to Add Scope to a Locked Job Plan](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/change-orders-how-to-add-scope-to-a-locked-job-plan-1gplwsw/). ## Duplication, for a plan that needs to start over When the plan itself is wrong, or when you are running the same shape of work again for the next client, duplicate the Job. Duplication is the re-plan path. **What comes across into the new Pending Job:** * The Deliverables, with their estimated effort per service type * The service types * The Job Kind, [Project or Retainer](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/projects-vs-retainers-choosing-the-right-job-type-4i23qm/) * The client company and person * The Job Lead * The Client or Internal designation * The name, with "copy" on the end * The next available Job Number **What does not come across:** * **The team roster**, aside from the Job Lead * **Tasks**, because tasks belong to execution, not to the plan * **Time entries, actual hours, and task progress** * **Activation and completion dates** **The start date is set a week out**, giving you room to adjust before it goes live. For Projects the whole timeline slides forward to match. ### The part that makes duplication worth doing **Approved Change Orders are folded into the duplicated plan.** The copy starts from the Current Plan, not the Original Plan. Change Order history resets to none, because on the new Job those additions are simply part of the plan now. That is the loop paying off. Every time you re-plan a kind of work you have run before, you start from where the last one actually ended up rather than from where you optimistically thought it would. Plan, deliver, track, learn, and then plan again from what you learned. | If you deliver the same kind of engagement repeatedly, duplicate your best-run version of it rather than starting fresh. The Change Orders you had to write last time are exactly the hours your original estimate was missing, and they are already in the copy. # Frequently Asked Questions ###### What happens when I activate a Job? **Four things at once: the plan freezes as your Original Plan, time logging opens, the execution tabs unlock, and billing begins.** Activation is the transition from planning to delivery, and the frozen plan becomes the baseline every performance number is measured against. ###### Why can't I edit the plan after activating a Job? **Because a plan that moves cannot measure anything.** If you could edit estimated effort whenever reality disagreed with it, every Job would finish perfectly on plan and you would never learn which estimates were wrong. Net Net freezes the Original Plan so the comparison between what you committed to and what actually happened stays honest. Scope changes go through Change Orders. ###### Can I move a Job back to Pending to fix the plan? **No. There is no Active to Pending transition in Net Net.** The re-plan path is duplication: copy the Job, edit the copy while it is still Pending, and activate that one instead. Any approved Change Orders on the original are folded into the copy automatically. ###### What copies over when I duplicate a Job? **The plan copies, execution does not.** Deliverables and their estimated effort, service types, Job Kind, client, Job Lead, and the Client or Internal designation all come across, with approved Change Orders already folded in. The team roster, tasks, logged time, and progress do not. The new Job starts as Pending with a start date one week out. ###### Why won't Net Net let me activate my Job? **Most often, a Deliverable is missing a due date.** Net Net refuses activation until every Deliverable has one, and it names the specific Deliverables in the error so you know where to look. You will also need an active trial or paid plan, since activating a Job is what takes a workspace into premium territory. ###### Can I change who is on the Job after activating it? **Yes, any time, and it never needs a Change Order.** The team roster is not part of the plan. Add or remove people on the Settings tab throughout the engagement. Removing someone takes them off the assignee picker going forward and leaves everything already assigned to them exactly as it is. # Related articles Activation is the hand-off from planning to delivery, so [Job Tasks: Assignees, Allocations, and Statuses](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/job-tasks-assignees-allocations-and-statuses-1fy1ov5/) is the natural next stop once the execution tabs open. [Job Lifecycle: Pending, Active, Completed, Archived](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/job-lifecycle-pending-active-completed-archived-1jvg51y/) puts activation in context with everything that comes after it. When the numbers start moving away from the baseline you just froze, [How Performance Works: Effort, Timeline, and Drift](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/how-performance-works-effort-timeline-and-drift-ikzayn/) explains what you are looking at, and [Responding to Drift: What You Can Actually Do](https://help.netnet.app/en-us/article/responding-to-drift-what-you-can-actually-do-11ksmrx/) covers your options.