Link Planner plans into a portfolio

Your teams keep running their work in Microsoft Planner. Onplana links their plans into one portfolio and adds the view across plans that Planner does not have: a status for every plan, dependencies between tasks in different plans, the late milestones, and the open issues and risks, on one page. Each linked plan stays in step with Planner on its own.

Linking plans into a portfolio needs portfolios and integrations, both on Business and above. To link, you need permission to create projects and to manage portfolios, which by default means Portfolio Manager and above (both are configurable in the permissions matrix).

Before you start

Connect your Microsoft account to Onplana with the Tasks and Groups permissions, in Settings, Accounts. If your connection is missing them, choose Update Permissions there. Your organization may require a Microsoft 365 administrator to approve the permissions once. See Connect Google and Microsoft accounts.

Link plans into a portfolio

1. Open Import from the sidebar and choose Microsoft Planner. Onplana lists the plans in the Microsoft 365 groups you belong to.

2. Tick the plans to link. You can link up to ten at a time; to bring in more, run the link again.

3. Select Link to a portfolio, then type a portfolio name. If a portfolio with that name exists, the plans join it; otherwise it is created.

4. Select the Link button, which counts the plans you ticked. Each plan is imported in turn, so this can take a few minutes. The summary lists each plan as Linked, Already linked or Not linked, and whether it is kept in sync with Planner. Select Open the portfolio to go straight to it.

Each plan becomes a project in the portfolio. Buckets become epics, tasks keep their title, start and due dates, percent complete, priority and description, checklist items become subtasks, labels become tags, and assignees are matched to your members by their Microsoft account. A plan that is already linked is added to the portfolio and not imported again.

Tip

Choosing one plan and selecting Preview instead imports that single plan as a project without a portfolio. Use Link to a portfolio when you want the view across plans.

How a linked plan stays in step

Each linked plan keeps a Microsoft Graph subscription. When the plan changes in Planner, Planner notifies Onplana and Onplana reads the plan again. Every sync then recomputes the project’s progress and dates from its Planner tasks.

Planner owns the task fields. Change a task’s title, dates, percent complete or assignee in Planner: the same change made in Onplana is replaced at the next sync, and the project page says so in its Mirrored from Microsoft Planner banner. What you add in Onplana is kept, because each sync updates the same task in place: dependencies, risks, issues and comments stay where you put them.

See and manage the linked plans

• Integrations, on the Accounts tab, lists the linked Planner plans with when each last synced. Sync now reads a plan again straight away and Unlink stops the mirror. Integrations is open to Owners and Admins; the buttons show on a plan only when you can edit that project.
• On the project itself, the Mirrored from Microsoft Planner banner shows when the plan last synced, with Unlink.

Unlinking keeps the project and its current data, and changes in Planner stop arriving. To mirror the plan again, link it again from Import.

Add dependencies between plans

A task in one plan can wait on a task in another plan of the same portfolio. Open the task, go to its Dependencies section and pick the predecessor: the list offers the tasks of the other plans in the portfolio. See Link task dependencies for the link types and lag.

A dependency between plans never moves the plan it waits on. The waiting plan picks up the new dates on its next recalculation. The portfolio’s Timeline tab draws each plan on its own line, with the dependencies between plans across them.

Read the portfolio

Open Portfolios and select the portfolio. Above the list of plans, three lists show what needs attention, and every row opens the item it names:

• Dependencies at risk: a dependency between plans whose predecessor is past its finish, or behind schedule and forecast to finish late.
• Late milestones: each plan’s next milestone past its date, with a count of any others.
• Open issues and risks: the open issues and risks of every plan in the portfolio, in one list.

Each plan then shows its status. For a linked plan the status is judged on its Planner tasks: their percent complete and the span of their dates. A plan whose tasks have no dates shows No dates and counts as Not rated in the portfolio’s health bar, never as on track. Add dates to its tasks in Planner and the next sync rates it.

FAQs

Do our teams have to stop using Planner? No. Teams keep working in Planner. Onplana reads each linked plan and adds the portfolio above it.

Does Onplana write changes back to Planner? No. Onplana reads the plan; Planner stays the place to change a task’s fields. To send a whole Onplana project to Planner as a new plan, use Export to Microsoft.

Are comments and files from Planner brought across? No. Microsoft stores a task’s comments and attached files outside the plan, so they stay in Planner.

Why does a plan show No dates? None of its tasks in Planner has a start or due date, so Onplana cannot judge whether it is on track. Add dates in Planner and the next sync rates it.

Which plan includes this? Linking plans into a portfolio, the portfolio page and dependencies between plans are on Business and above. On a lower plan the Link button is turned off, and hovering it says why.

Can an AI agent link plans? Yes. The Onplana MCP server has a link_planner_plans tool that does the same link, with the same plan and permission checks.