How to manage work schedules
Workflow
Before planning resources with Work schedules, check that you have valid information in the projects you are scheduling:
- Tasks or requests exist and there deadlines are valid.
- Assignments (correct performers assigned to the task).
- All users assigned as performers have valid calendars for the planning period. Otherwise work schedules will show 0 hours for the persons.
Note: You can schedule in day, week or month view. Choose the one best suited for your company needs. Stick to that for the whole company (recommended).
Planned and remaining hours for a task
You can insert planned or remaining values for the assignment from the Project space (Task or Assignment tabs). The table cells will show the remaining value divided to the whole period of the task. See example assigned to Doe, Jack where planned amout of work is 60 and remaining is 60 h. Scheduled 0 h means that no one has yet edited the scheduling manually from the Work schedules.
| Task/Assignment | Start | Finish | Planned | Accepted | Remain |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product demo/Doe, Jack | 01.06.2017 | 22.09.2017 | 60 h | 0 | 60 h |
Note:
- Planned and Remain will show same amounts before any actual hours have been reported.
-
Planned and Remain will also be updated to Project space Task and Assignments tabs, Time sheet and reports.
How to change the scheduled work amounts in Work schedules
In case the project manager decides that the work is not distributed as it should, the scheduled work can be changed manually. After manual editing Work schedules will look like below. Scheduled is changed to 60 hours, because user has manually changed the scheduling. Planned and remaining amounts for the assignment will remain as 60 hours because the amount has not changed and the same amount was scheduled.
| Task/Assignment | June | July | August | September | Scheduled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product demo/ Doe, Jack 01.06.2017-22.09.2017 | 20 h | 10 h | 10 h | 20 h | 60 h |
Scheduling and planning only from Work schedules
In some cases it is more convenient to assign performers with 0 hours planned and remaining in the Project space. That is for example with continuous services with resourcing needs in only a few periods of the year. Scheduling is done directly from Work schedules. Below is example with Brooke, Simon which has initially both planned and remaining hours set as zero.
| Task/Assignment | June | July | August | September | Scheduled | Assignment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R&D/ Brooke, Simon 01.06.2017-22.09.2017 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Planned: 0 h Actual: 0 h Remain: 0 h |
Editing the values will also change the assignment planned and remain values (also in Project space). After actual has become > 0 h only remain is changed from manual scheduling. Actual means the amount of accepted time reports for this particular assignment. After scheduling manually the assignment will look like below.
At the same time the view at the Project space Tasks tab looks like below.
Editing remaining amount or start and finish dates of the task/assignment
Changing the remaining amount or deadlines of an task/assignment causes the manual scheduling to be out of sync with the new values.
- When saving changes, a dialog window will ask if the manual scheduling is going to be removed or not.
- If you click Yes the new remaining amounts will be divided evenly across all periods of the assignment.
- If you click No the manual scheduling will be kept intact, but the Remain value will be different.
Note: When the start or finish dates are edited all scheduling outside the task’s new dates will be deleted.
Picture from the Work schedules after changing the assignments amounts for Brooke, Simon and not removing the manually scheduled hours. If we had clicked Yes to remove the manually scheduled hours, new values to the cells would have been set according to the new planned amount.
