Patent ID: 8606611

Claim:
A method for managing projects for a small business using a graphical user interface (GUI), comprising: receiving, at a current time and using a time selector displayed in a single GUI window, a first user selection from a user to select a first future time; receiving, at a current time, a request to schedule a new project at a location and the first future time selected by the user; identifying a plurality of available workers of the small business available to work on the new project at the first future time; displaying, within the single GUI window, a new project avatar of the new project at the location on a map and a plurality of available worker avatars corresponding to the plurality of available workers; assigning a ranking to the plurality of available workers comprising a first available worker and a second available worker; sending, before assigning the first available worker, a new project message to the second available worker having a first rank; receiving a decline project message from the second available worker; sending, in response to receiving the decline project message, the new project message to the first available worker having a second rank, wherein the first rank exceeds the second rank; receiving, from the first available worker, an accept project message; assigning, in response to the accept project message and a drag-and-drop operation performed in the single GUI window, the first available worker, wherein the drag-and-drop operation comprises dragging an available worker avatar of the plurality of available worker avatars corresponding to the first worker to the new project avatar; receiving, using the time selector displayed in the single GUI window and subsequent to the assigning, a second user selection from the user to select a second future time, wherein the second future time is during a project duration of the new project; and modifying, in response to receiving the second user selection of the second future time, the available worker avatar into a occupied worker avatar.