Using Work Planners

Work planners enable you to plan project work easily by viewing assignments and resource requests grouped by project or by resource, and quickly viewing a resource's details and their scheduled work.

The following work planners are available from a Lightning app page or Lightning home page, if added by your administrator:

• Line Manager Work Planner
• Project Manager Work Planner: this work planner is also part of the Project Management workspace
• Resource Work Planner

For more information, see Setting up Work Planners or contact your administrator.

The work planners contain the following views:

• Scheduler: Shows assignments and resource requests grouped by project or resource over time. The default date range is six months either side of today's date or you can specify your own date range in the Filter panel. The Scheduler gives a good overview of what a resource is due to work on at a particular time. You can quickly reschedule the assignments and resource requests by dragging them forward or backward to change their start and end dates. For more information, see Changing the Dates of Assignments and Resource Requests.
• Grid: Shows assignments and resource requests grouped by project or resource over the default date range or the date range specified in the Filter panel. Also shows the number of scheduled hours a resource is due to work each day on the corresponding assignment or resource request and indicates if a resource is over-allocated. You can update the scheduled hours displayed to make sure resources carry out the right amount of work at the right time. For more information, see Updating the Hours a Resource is Scheduled to Work and Determining Resource Allocation.

Tips:

When you hover over an assignment, project, or resource request, relevant details are displayed. If you want different fields to be displayed, contact your administrator.

You can use filters to reduce the amount of data displayed and focus on what you want to view. For more information, see Filtering the Data.

Color-Coding Used

The following color-coding is used on the rectangles displayed on the Scheduler:

• Green: Project.
• Orange: Unheld resource request.
• Blue border filled with white: Held resource request.
• Blue border filled with blue: Assignment.

In the Grid:

• Cells shaded gray indicate a resource's non-working time and holidays, using the resource's associated work calendar.
• indicates that the corresponding resource is over-allocated.

Switching Views

To switch from one view to another, take the appropriate action:

• Select Scheduler from the button menu.
• Select Grid from the button menu.

Viewing Resource Details

To view a resource's details, do one of the following:

• Select the resource and click .
• Double-click the resource.

The resource's details are displayed in a panel. To hide the panel, click on the panel or click again.

For more information on viewing resource details, see Contact Card Lightning Component Overview.

Viewing Assignment Details

To view the details of an assignment, do one of the following:

• Select the assignment and click .
• Double-click the assignment.

The assignment details are displayed in a panel. To hide the panel, click on the panel or click again.

For more information, see Viewing Assignment Details.

Grouping Assignments and Resource Requests

To group assignments and resource requests on a work planner, select the appropriate grouping option from the toolbar:

• Resource
• Project

Filtering the Data

You can use the Filters panel to reduce the amount of content displayed. Depending on the work planner you are using, the Filters panel defaults to the following:

• Line Manager Work Planner:
  • Resource associated with your Salesforce user
  • Resources with your name in the Reports To field on their contact record
• Project Manager Work Planner:
  • Any projects where the current user is set as the project manager
  • Any projects the current user is assigned to
  • Any projects where the current user is a held resource
• Resource Work Planner:
  • Resource associated with your Salesforce user

The filters you last used are retained if you are using the same browser on the same device.

To filter the content displayed:

1. Click to open the Filter panel.
2. Specify the date range you want to filter by. The default date range is six months either side of today's date.
3. [Optional] Select Hide Zero Hour Commitments if you do not want to display assignments or resource requests containing zero hours.
4. [Optional] Search for and select the resources you want to include on the work planner.
5. [Optional] Search for and select the additional projects you want to include.
6. Click Apply. The content displayed reflects the selected filters.

To return the Filter panel to the default values, click Reset.

To close the Filter panel, click on the panel or click again.

Updating the Hours a Resource is Scheduled to Work

Note:

To update values on the Grid, your administrator must have assigned you the PSA - Edit Work Planner permission set.

To update the number of hours a resource is scheduled to work:

1. Select Grid from the button menu and check the zoom level is set to Days.
2. Navigate to the relevant date. If the date you want is not displayed, select the appropriate date range in the Filter panel. For more information, see Filtering the Data.
3. Double-click the value you want to change.
4. Type the new value and press Enter. Above the grid, Unsaved Changes is displayed to indicate you need to save when you have finished your updates.
5. [Optional] Repeat Steps 3 and 4 to update other values in the grid.
6. Click Save.

The total number of daily hours for each group of projects or resources is displayed in the top row of each group in the grid. The total number of hours on the schedule for the associated assignment or resource request is displayed in the Total Hrs column. This value reflects the total scheduled hours for the associated assignment or resource request across the entire schedule, not just the days specified in the filter criteria.

Tips:

To extend the start or end date of a resource’s schedule, update the hours outside the scheduled date range.

To expand or collapse a row in the Grid, press Enter.

To move forward through the cells in the Grid using your keyboard, press Tab. To move backward, press Shift + Tab. If you are using Apple Safari, ensure that you have "Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage" enabled in your browser settings.

If you update a value and then change your mind before clicking Save:

• If you have not moved away from the cell, press Escape to restore the original value.
• If you have moved away from the cell or changed more than one value, click to return to the last saved state.

Changing the Dates of Assignments and Resource Requests

Note:

To update assignments and resource requests on the Scheduler, your administrator must have assigned you the PSA - Edit Work Planner permission set.

To update the dates of assignments or resource requests from a Work Planner component:

1. Select Scheduler from the button menu.
2. Drag the resource request or assignment to a new start date. Although schedules are preserved where possible, the end date might be recalculated to take account of non-working days.
3. Click Save.
4. [Optional] Hover over the assignment or resource request to view the updated start and end dates.

Tip:

If you drag an assignment or resource request and then change your mind, click to return to the last saved state.

Determining Resource Allocation

PSA uses a resource's associated work calendar to determine whether the resource is scheduled to work the right number of hours. For more information on work calendars, see About Time Periods, Work Calendars, and Holidays.

In the Grid view:

• If a resource is over-allocated on a particular day, is displayed in the cell next to the hourly value.
• When grouping by resource, if the total daily value for the group exceeds the resource's work calendar hours for that day, is displayed in the cell containing the summary value. Holidays are taken into account.
• If a resource has zero hours on their work calendar for a particular day, the relevant cell is shaded in gray to indicate a non-working day or a holiday.

Provided you have the required permissions, you can quickly update a value by double-clicking on it or alternatively you can switch to the Scheduler view and use drag and drop to change the start date. For more information, see Changing the Dates of Assignments and Resource Requests.