Planning Your Month with the Strategy Calendar
Overview
The Strategy Calendar is a month-at-a-glance view that helps your team plan a full month of content one day at a time. Each day on the calendar shows a status badge so you can see at a glance what's Planned, Scheduled, Posted, Skipped, or still needs attention. A progress bar at the top of the page shows how far along you are for the month.
Strategy is available on paid plans. If your team is on the Base plan, the Calendar opens in the standard day-view instead.
Before You Start
- Make sure at least one social account is connected in Team Settings > Social Accounts. Strategy uses your connected accounts to pre-fill the right platform when you plan a day.
- Set your post frequency in Team Settings > Post Frequency. Days that have a posting frequency set will be picked up by Strategy as candidate days for the month.
- Only team members with Editor, Admin, or Owner roles can plan, schedule, or skip days. Viewers can browse the month but cannot make changes.
How to Open the Strategy Calendar
- Click Calendar in the left sidebar.
- If your team is on a paid plan, the page opens directly in the Strategy view. The grid shows the current month, with a small status badge under each day.
- Use the arrows at the top to move to the previous or next month.
Day Status Badges
Each day shows one of the following statuses so you always know what's left to do:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Empty | Nothing planned yet. The day is open and waiting for a decision. |
| Planned | You've picked content for the day, but it hasn't been scheduled to a social account yet. |
| Scheduled | A post is queued and will publish at the scheduled time. Platform icons show where it will go. |
| Posted | The post has already been published. |
| Skipped | You chose to skip this day. Nothing will publish. |
| Locked | The day is too close to publish time to change. Edits are limited. |
| Failed | A scheduled post failed to publish. See Troubleshooting below. |
Topic Planner
Below the calendar grid, an expandable Topic Planner panel helps you decide what to post about each day. It shows topic suggestions tailored to your practice focus and posting history.
How the Topic Planner works
- Click the Topic Planner accordion below the calendar to expand it.
- Browse Recommended Topics — cards suggested based on your practice focus and streams.
- Use the search bar to find specific topics, or click Browse Streams to add topics from partner content streams.
- Each topic card shows the topic name and source. Click a card to assign that topic to a day or view its heatmap.
Topic Heatmap
Click the heatmap icon on any topic card to open the Topic Heatmap Drawer. This shows when similar topics have performed best historically — helping you pick the ideal day and time to post about that subject.
Topic Strips on the Calendar
When topics are assigned to days, small colored pills appear on the calendar grid showing which topic is planned for each day. This gives you a visual overview of your content variety across the month.
Suppressing Topics
If a suggested topic isn't relevant, click the dismiss icon on the topic card to suppress it. Suppressed topics won't appear in your recommendations again for this month. Suppressions reset each month.
Planning a Day
- Click any day on the calendar. The right-hand panel opens with planning options for that day.
- Choose one of the four options:
- Partner Library — Three curated recommendations from partner streams your team subscribes to. Pick one to mark the day as Planned.
- Record a Video — Three topic ideas designed to be recorded in the Social Cascade Teleprompter app. The day is marked Planned with a script ready to record.
- MyStream — Pick from your team's branded content library (videos, images, and posts you've previously saved or imported).
- Skip This Day — Mark the day as Skipped so it doesn't show up as missing in your progress bar.
- After picking an option, fill in the post details (caption, platform, time) and click Schedule to move the day from Planned to Scheduled.
- To go back without saving, click the back arrow at the top of the right panel.
Editing or Replacing a Planned Day
- Click a day that's already Planned or Scheduled. The right panel opens with a summary of what's scheduled.
- Use Edit to change the caption, platform, or time, or Replace to swap in different content.
- To clear the day and start over, click Reset day. This is only available on Planned days that haven't been scheduled yet.
Tracking Progress
- The progress bar at the top of the calendar shows the percentage of your monthly posting days that are Scheduled, Posted, Locked, or Skipped.
- Days outside your post frequency (for example, weekends, if you've set frequency to weekdays only) are not counted toward the total.
- The progress bar updates immediately when you plan, schedule, or skip a day.
Auto-Plan (Automatic Monthly Plans)
If your team has Auto-plan turned on (Pro and Premier plans), Social Cascade automatically generates a monthly post plan for you. Here is how the cycle works:
- Automatic generation: On the 10th of each month, the system creates a draft plan for the upcoming month. It fills candidate days with content from your partner streams, My Stream library, and video topic suggestions based on your posting cadence and practice focus.
- Review the draft: Open the Strategy Calendar to see the generated plan. A progress bar at the top shows how many days are planned (e.g., "12 / 20 days planned"). Browse each day to review content selections.
- Confirm the plan: When you are satisfied, click Confirm plan in the toolbar. Confirmed plans are locked in and posts begin scheduling at their assigned times.
You can also click Generate plan at any time if you do not want to wait until the 10th.
Draft Plan Ready Email
When a new monthly plan is generated (automatically on the 10th or when you click Generate plan), Social Cascade sends a "Your [Month] plan is ready for review" email to all team Admins.
The email includes:
- A summary of the month's plan with the number of days filled
- Your selected topics (personalized or default for your specialty)
- Teleprompter scripts due this week that are ready to record
- A "Review your plan" button linking directly to your Strategy Calendar
This email is sent to Pro and Premier teams with Auto-plan and auto-scheduling enabled. To stop receiving it, turn off Auto-plan or auto-scheduling in Team Settings > Post Frequency.
Replanning
Changed your topic plan or posting cadence? Click Replan in the toolbar to regenerate the month. A confirmation dialog explains what will happen:
- If you have already confirmed the plan, it returns to draft status and must be re-confirmed after replanning.
- Days you have locked or manually edited are preserved — only auto-filled days are regenerated.
While replanning is in progress, a banner reads "Plan is being replanned. Manual changes during this time may be overwritten."
Turning Auto-Plan On or Off
Go to Team Settings > Post Frequency and toggle Auto-plan. When you turn it off, a confirmation dialog lets you know that upcoming auto-planned posts remain scheduled but your calendar will no longer be auto-filled. You can still use the topic plan and content recommendations to manually build each day.
Posting Cadence
When Auto-plan is on, a Posting Cadence editor appears in Post Frequency settings. Set how often auto-plan fills each content type per week or month:
- Partner content — posts per week (0–7)
- My Stream — posts per week (0–3)
- Video — recordings per month (0–12)
After saving your cadence, use Replan on the calendar to apply the new settings to the current month.
Locking and Unlocking Days
Use the Lock menu in the toolbar to freeze specific days, a full week, or the entire month. Locked days cannot be edited and are skipped by auto-plan. To make changes again, use Unlock. A locked day shows who locked it and when.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The Calendar opens in day-view instead of Strategy | Your team is on the Base plan, which doesn't include the Strategy Calendar. | Upgrade your plan in Team Settings > Subscription. Strategy is included on all paid plans. |
| I can't click any of the planning options | Your role on the team is Viewer, which has read-only access. | Ask a team Admin or Owner to upgrade your role in Team Settings > Team Members. |
| A day shows Failed | The scheduled post couldn't publish — usually because the social account became disconnected, the platform rejected the content, or there was a temporary outage. | Click the day to see the error detail. Reconnect the social account if needed (see Reconnecting an Unlinked Account), then re-schedule the post from the day panel. |
| A day is Locked and I can't edit it | The scheduled publish time is too close — we lock changes shortly before publish to avoid race conditions. | Wait until after the post publishes, then delete or replace it from the day summary if needed. |
| Partner Library shows no recommendations | Your team isn't subscribed to any partner streams, or all recommendations have been used recently. | Go to Streams in the sidebar and subscribe to a few partner topics, then come back to Strategy. Recommendations refresh as new partner content is published. |
| Record a Video shows no topic ideas | Your team hasn't completed setup in the Teleprompter app, or your Practice Focus isn't set. | Open Team Settings > Practice Focus and pick the focus that best matches your work. See Choosing Your Practice Focus for details. |
| Topic Planner shows no suggestions | Practice Focus is not configured, or no streams are subscribed. | Set your practice focus in Team Settings > Practice Focus and subscribe to at least one content stream. |
| The banner says "Your plan hasn't been created yet" | Auto-plan is on but no draft exists for the current month. Plans generate automatically on the 10th. | Click Generate plan to create one now, or wait for the automatic generation on the 10th. |
| Replan button is disabled | A replan is already in progress, or auto-plan is turned off. | Wait for the current replan to finish (watch for the spinner), or turn auto-plan on in Team Settings > Post Frequency. |
| I didn't receive the "plan is ready" email | You are not a team Admin, or Auto-plan / auto-scheduling is turned off. | Check your role in Team Settings. The email goes to Admins on Pro/Premier plans with both Auto-plan and auto-scheduling enabled. |
FAQ
Q: Can I plan content for past days?
A: No. Strategy only lets you plan days in the current month going forward. Past days are read-only and show their final status (Posted, Skipped, or Failed).
Q: What's the difference between Planned and Scheduled?
A: Planned means you've chosen content for the day but haven't picked a publish time yet. Scheduled means the post is queued and will publish automatically at the time you set.
Q: Does Strategy work on mobile?
A: The Strategy Calendar is designed for desktop. On smaller screens you can still see the month grid, but the day-planning panel works best on a tablet or laptop. The Social Cascade Teleprompter mobile app is the right place to record videos for days marked Record a Video.
Q: Can I have more than one post on a single day?
A: Yes — once a day has been scheduled, click the day again and use Add another post from the day summary. The day status reflects the most advanced post on that day.
Q: Do suppressed topics come back next month?
A: Yes. Topic suppressions are per-month. When a new month starts, all topic suggestions reset and suppressed topics may reappear if they're still relevant.
Q: What is the difference between Auto-plan and manual planning?
A: With Auto-plan on, the system generates a draft plan each month and fills your calendar with content based on your posting cadence. With Auto-plan off, every day starts empty and you build the plan manually using content recommendations. Both modes support topic planning and the Topic Planner.
Q: Will Replan overwrite days I have edited manually?
A: No. Locked days and days you have manually modified are preserved during a replan. Only auto-filled days are regenerated.
Q: What is the "Your plan is ready for review" email?
A: This email is sent to team Admins when a new monthly post plan is generated. It notifies you that a draft plan is ready to review on your Strategy Calendar. The email includes your selected topics and any Teleprompter scripts due for recording. Click the link in the email to go directly to your calendar.
Q: How is the plan-ready email different from the weekly digest?
A: The weekly digest is a recurring email previewing your upcoming scheduled posts. The plan-ready email is a one-time notification that a new monthly draft plan has been created and is waiting for your review and confirmation.