What is included in every Foundation Package?

All packages follow four structured phases: Assessment & Planning (reviewing your current environment and identifying gaps), Configuration & Implementation (deploying the relevant security or management controls), Testing & Validation (piloting changes with a small user group and refining configurations), and Knowledge Transfer & Rollout (full documentation, IT staff training, and operational runbooks before company-wide deployment).

What deliverables will I receive at the end?

Every engagement concludes with a full handover package: a detailed assessment report of your current environment, complete configuration documentation with step-by-step guides and screenshots, ready-to-use communication templates for notifying end users, an operational runbook for your IT team, and training materials for ongoing management.

How long does implementation take?

Timelines vary depending on the complexity of your environment, the size of your organization, and the availability of your IT staff and key stakeholders. Every engagement begins with an assessment phase that gives us a clear picture before committing to a delivery schedule.

Do you implement everything, or do you guide our team?

There are two engagement models. In the first, I deliver the full implementation plan, hands-on configuration guidance, and complete knowledge transfer — then hand everything over to your internal IT team to execute and maintain. In the second, we agree on a contracted engagement where I manage the end-to-end implementation. The right model depends on your team's capacity and preference.

What do we need in place before starting?

You will need an active Microsoft 365 subscription at the appropriate licensing tier for the chosen package, Global Administrator or equivalent access to your tenant, availability of key IT staff for workshop sessions, and 3–5 willing users for the pilot testing phase.

What is not covered by a Foundation Package?

Each package has a clearly defined scope. Generally out of scope are: features requiring higher license tiers than specified, third-party integrations, custom scripting beyond standard Microsoft 365 capabilities, formal compliance audits, and ongoing managed support. Post-engagement support and optimization services can be arranged under a separate agreement.

Who from our organization should be involved?

At minimum: an IT Administrator with tenant access, and an IT Manager or decision-maker who can approve configuration changes. Ideally also include security personnel and help desk leads who will manage the environment after handover. A group of 3–5 test users is needed for the validation phase.

Can we get ongoing support after the package is complete?

Foundation Packages are structured, time-bound engagements designed to end with a full handover to your team. Ongoing support, post-deployment optimization, and continuous managed services are available through separate agreements tailored to your organization's specific needs.

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Microsoft Planner: The Task Manager Your Team Is Already Paying For

Microsoft Planner is included in every M365 Business plan, yet most teams never open it. Here's what it does, why it matters, and how to start in 10 minutes.

5 March 2026By Marek Ratassepp

Microsoft Planner: The Task Manager Your Team Is Already Paying For

In my last post I wrote about how many Estonian companies pay for Microsoft 365 Business Standard but end up doing their file sharing in Google. Today, I'd like to cover another feature in your Microsoft subscription called Planner.

I've talked to business owners who use WhatsApp group chats to track who's doing what. Others rely on a shared Excel spreadsheet with a "tasks" tab that nobody fully trusts. Some write action items in email threads and then spend time hunting back through their inbox when something falls through the cracks. Some open Jira, stare at it for a while, and go back to WhatsApp.

Every single one of those companies had Microsoft Planner in their Microsoft 365 subscription. None of them knew it was there.

What Planner actually is

Planner is Microsoft's task and project management tool. It's the kind of thing people pay separately for elsewhere — Trello, Asana, monday.com. With Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, or Business Premium, it's included.

The basic idea: you create a plan (think of it as a project or a category of work), add tasks to it, and assign them to people with due dates. Tasks sit on a visual board organised into columns — To Do, In Progress, Done, or whatever matches your process.

Each task can have a person assigned, a due date with reminders, a checklist of sub-steps, attachments and notes, labels for categorisation, and a priority level.

That's it.

What this looks like in practice

Say you're a 10-person company preparing for a client event. Normally this means a flurry of emails, a shared doc that keeps being updated, and a few WhatsApp messages asking "has anyone booked the venue yet?"

In Planner, you'd create a plan called Client Event – April, add tasks like Book venue, Send invitations, Prepare materials, Confirm catering, assign each one to the right person with a due date. Everyone on the team sees the same board, sees what's assigned to them, and updates their tasks as they go. No chasing. No "who was supposed to do that?"

The board view gives you an instant read on where things stand. Green means done. Orange means approaching the deadline. Red means overdue. Pull it up in your next team meeting and you've replaced the "so where are we with..." round of questions.

The quick win: Planner inside Teams

If your team already uses Microsoft Teams — even just for calls — this is the easiest starting point.

Inside any Teams channel, you can add a Planner board as a tab. Your team's tasks live right next to your conversations, without switching apps. Open Teams, click the tab, and the plan is there.

But there's more than just a channel tab. In the Teams left sidebar, where you have icons for Chat, Teams, Calendar, you can also pin the Planner app directly. This gives you a full Planner hub inside Teams: all your plans, all your assigned tasks, a unified view across everything you're involved in. It's worth pinning on day one.

This alone replaces a lot of the "quick update" messages that currently happen in chat or over email.

Microsoft To Do: Planner's personal companion

Alongside Planner, which is team-focused, Microsoft 365 also includes Microsoft To Do. Same subscription, nothing extra.

To Do is your personal task list — things only you need to track, follow-up items, notes to yourself, tasks that don't belong on a shared team board. It syncs across your phone, desktop, and browser, and it connects directly to Outlook.

The feature that makes it useful day-to-day is My Day. Every morning, My Day starts blank. You look at what you have on your plate, To Do shows tasks with due dates, things you flagged from email, suggestions based on what's overdue, and you pick what you're actually going to focus on today. Those go into My Day. At the end of the day, it resets.

It's a small habit, but it works. Instead of starting your morning scrolling through a backlog of 60 tasks wondering where to begin, you spend two minutes deciding on your focus.

The Outlook connection

This is the piece most people miss. To Do has a sidebar built into the Outlook desktop app and Outlook on the web. Look for the checkmark icon in the right-hand panel — your To Do tasks, right next to your inbox.

When you're reading an email and think I need to follow up on this, instead of starring it and hoping you remember, you flag it. That flag creates a task in To Do, linked back to the original email. When you open the task later, one click takes you back to the full thread.

Combine that with My Day, and your morning routine becomes: open Outlook, check email, flag anything that needs action, open the To Do sidebar, decide which flagged items and Planner tasks make it onto today's list. Everything in one place.

Planner tasks assigned to you also show up in To Do under Assigned to me, so you get a single view of personal and team tasks without opening Planner separately.

What Planner covers, and where it stops

Planner is the right tool when you're managing recurring team tasks or ongoing work, when you need everyone to see who's doing what, when you want out of task-tracking by email or WhatsApp, and when your projects are fairly straightforward in scope.

It's not a replacement for full project management with Gantt charts, complex dependencies, and resource tracking. For that level of work, Microsoft now has Planner premium plans — a separate paid plans that starts at €8 per user per month and scales up from there. But for most small and mid-sized teams, the Planner that's already in your Microsoft 365 subscription handles day-to-day work management just fine, and they never need to go further.

How to get started in about 10 minutes

Step 1: Open Planner Go to planner.cloud.microsoft and sign in with your Microsoft 365 account. You'll land on the Planner home page, which shows your tasks across all plans in one place.

Step 2: Create your first plan Click New plan, give it a name. Start with something concrete — a current project or a recurring team process. Invite your colleagues.

Step 3: Add a few tasks Create 5–10 tasks that reflect real work you're tracking now. Assign each one and add a due date. That's enough to see whether it works for your team.

Step 4: Add Planner to Teams In the relevant Teams channel, click the + tab button, search for Tasks by Planner, and connect the plan you just created. Also pin the Planner app from the Teams left sidebar for a full overview of all your plans.

Step 5: Set up To Do and try My Day Download Microsoft To Do on your phone (iOS or Android, free with your Microsoft 365 account) or go to to-do.microsoft.com. Sign in, open My Day, add 3–5 things you want to focus on today, and do this every morning for a week.

Step 6: Enable the To Do sidebar in Outlook In Outlook on the web or desktop, look for the checkmark icon in the right-hand panel. If it's not visible, enable it in View settings. Start flagging emails that need follow-up — the flags become tasks automatically, linked to the original email.

One thing to watch out for

Planner works best when the whole team uses it, not just one person adding tasks while everyone else stays on WhatsApp. The tool is simple, but the habit takes a few weeks to build. Start with one team or one project, not a company-wide rollout.

To Do is the same story on the personal side. The value kicks in once My Day is a consistent morning habit. Open it once, add some tasks, forget it for two weeks, and it won't feel useful. Give it five working days as a daily habit — that's enough to know if it sticks.

Microsoft Planner is included in Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium at no extra cost

Microsoft To Do is also included — a personal task list that syncs across phone, desktop, and Outlook

Planner tasks assigned to you automatically appear in To Do, giving you one view of all your work

The To Do sidebar in Outlook lets you flag emails as tasks, linked to the original thread

My Day in To Do replaces a 60-item backlog with a clear daily focus

The Planner app in the Teams sidebar gives a full overview of all plans without leaving Teams

Getting everything set up takes about 15 minutes with an existing Microsoft 365 account

This is part of an ongoing series on Microsoft 365 features already included in your subscription.

Questions about setting up Planner for your team, or not sure which Microsoft 365 plan you're on? Get in touch — happy to take a look.