A beat plan, also called a PJP (permanent journey plan), is a fixed schedule that says which outlets a sales rep visits on which day. The format below lists the plan and the result in the same row, planned outlet on one side and visited or not on the other, so a manager can see coverage at a glance.
What a beat plan is for
Without a plan, reps naturally drift towards outlets that are easy, friendly or close. A beat plan fixes the cycle: every outlet is seen at a known interval, every rep has a route, and a missed visit shows up as a gap rather than a surprise three months later. For distributors it also makes delivery planning simpler because the order days are predictable.
The columns a beat plan needs
| Column | Why it matters | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Date and day | Beats are usually tied to a weekday, such as "Beat 2 is Wednesday". | 30-09-2026, Wednesday |
| Sales rep | Who owns the beat. | Ganesh Pawar |
| Beat / route | The named group of outlets. Keep the names short and permanent. | Beat 2 |
| Visit no. | The order of visits, which keeps the route logical and shows if it was followed. | 1, 2, 3 |
| Outlet and type | Which shop, and whether it is wholesale, retail or a supermarket, since each needs a different call. | Shiv Traders, Wholesale |
| Planned | Yes for a scheduled visit; No for an extra outlet the rep added. | Yes |
| Visited | Yes, No or Rescheduled. This is the planned-versus-visited column. | No |
| Reason if not visited | Separates "shop was closed" from "ran out of time". | Shop closed |
| Order value | Tells you which visits earn their place on the route. | ₹12,500 |
A filled-in example
One rep's Wednesday on Beat 2: three planned outlets, two visited, one closed.
| # | Outlet | Type | Planned | Visited | Order | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shiv Traders | Wholesale | Yes | Yes | ₹12,500 | |
| 2 | Om Distributors | Wholesale | Yes | Yes | ₹0 | Order next visit |
| 3 | Bharat Agencies | Retail | Yes | No | - | Shop closed, revisit Friday |
Coverage for the day is 2 of 3 planned outlets. The useful part is the reason in row 3: a closed shop that gets a revisit date is a normal day; a missed outlet with no reason is the one to ask about.
A week on one page
The plan itself is a small table: one beat per day, a named area and a visit cycle. This sample is for one rep; the outlet counts are illustrative, so set yours from real timings.
| Day | Beat | Area | Outlets planned | Cycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Beat 1 | Market Road | 18 | Weekly |
| Tuesday | Beat 4 | Station side | 15 | Fortnightly |
| Wednesday | Beat 2 | Old city | 16 | Weekly |
| Thursday | Beat 5 | Highway outlets | 10 | Fortnightly |
| Friday | Beat 3 | New colony | 14 | Weekly |
| Saturday | Revisits | Missed outlets and collections | As needed | Weekly |
Keeping one day free for revisits is what stops missed outlets from piling up. Every closed shop and every "come back Friday" lands there instead of being dropped.
How to work out planned versus visited
- Count the planned outlets for the day, week or month.
- Count those marked Visited = Yes.
- Divide visited by planned. In the example, 2 divided by 3 is about 67 per cent for the day.
Do the same by rep and by beat over a month. A rep who regularly covers 90 per cent of a beat and one who covers 50 per cent are doing different jobs, and the reasons column tells you whether the problem is the rep or the beat.
Rules for a beat plan that survives contact with the road
- Build from real timings. Watch a week of actual visits, including travel and waiting, before deciding how many outlets fit in a day.
- Keep beats geographically tight. Group nearby outlets so time goes on selling, not on the road.
- Decide the visit cycle by outlet importance. A large wholesaler might be visited weekly, a small kirana fortnightly. Note it in the plan.
- Allow extra outlets. Mark them Planned = No so you can see what reps add on their own initiative.
- Review the plan every quarter. Shops close, new ones open and a beat that worked in March may be wrong by September.
Common mistakes
- Making the plan once and never reading the results. A plan only works when someone looks at the misses.
- Marking every visit "Yes" from memory at the end of the week.
- Overloading a day so the last outlets are always skipped.
- Using different outlet names in the plan and in the daily reports, so the two cannot be matched.
Recording the visits as they happen
The plan itself can stay in a spreadsheet. The weak point is the "Visited" column, which gets filled in at night or the following Monday. vBol captures it as it happens: after each outlet the rep sends a WhatsApp voice note to vBol's number, in their own language:
vBol transcribes it, extracts the fields, reads the record back on WhatsApp in the same language with buttons to confirm or fix a field, and writes nothing until it is confirmed. The row goes into your Google Sheet, an Excel workbook on OneDrive or SharePoint, or Ekatm ERP, with a photo and GPS location attached, so each visit you compare against the plan comes with its own record. The built-in sales visit record has customer, outcome, next action and date, notes, photo and location; a beat and visit-number layout like the one above is set up by Vritti with you. vBol does not plan routes, so the beat plan stays yours.
Each evening at 7 PM managers get one WhatsApp message listing who filed what and which reps sent nothing. There is nothing for reps to install and no login. It is free for 30 days (up to 5 confirmed reports per person per day), then ₹199 per user per month for teams of up to 100 users; see pricing.
Download the free template on this page to start today. It has dropdowns for day, outlet type, planned and visited. For what to record inside each visit, see the sales visit report format.
Frequently asked questions
What is a beat plan?
A beat plan is a fixed schedule of which outlets a sales rep visits on which day, grouped into routes called beats. It makes sure every outlet is covered on a regular cycle instead of only the ones the rep finds convenient.
What does PJP mean in sales?
PJP stands for permanent journey plan. It is the same idea as a beat plan: a recurring route with a set list of outlets for each day of the week or fortnight.
What should a beat plan format include?
The day, beat or route name, the list of outlets in visit order, outlet type, whether each visit was planned and whether it was completed, a reason for any missed visit, and the order value.
How many outlets should be in one beat?
It depends on outlet density and how long each visit takes. Build the beat from real visit times and travel, then adjust after a few weeks of actual data instead of setting a fixed number.