Summary
Forecasted work (e.g. related to Projects or Tasks) is saved in Planhat using the Scheduled Time data model
Each Scheduled Time record (representing a piece of work) should be assigned to a specific Planhat User (Team Member) to complete
"Resource Allocation" is a pre-built (yet customizable) Page that you can use to make this assignment process easy - quick and simple
You click on a piece of unassigned work (Scheduled Time record) in the list in the Page, and it will automatically load a utilization display (like the Utilization Table Widget) for the appropriate date range, so you can view the capacity of your relevant Users
Assign the work to the relevant User via the "Assignee" field
Who is this article for?
It's particularly relevant for Managers who work in Service Delivery / Professional Services / Implementation etc.
This article is relevant to Planhat Service Automation (PSA), also sometimes referred to as Professional Services or Service Delivery.
If you don't have access to these features and would like to add them, please speak with your CSM.
🎥 Quick video overview
Article contents
Introduction
A key part of Professional Services / Service Delivery (PSA), especially regarding resource allocation, is the ability to assign upcoming work (e.g. a new Onboarding Project Workflow or training Task) to the most appropriate User (also called Team Member in Planhat) - with the right attributes (e.g. part of the relevant Team) and also with availability (capacity) to take on that new piece of work.
"System Pages" are partially pre-configured Pages built by Planhat for specific purposes, and there's one called "Resource Allocation" that makes this process easier for you.
In short, it gives you a list of unassigned work (records of the Scheduled Time model), and you can view details, compare to User capacity, and use the system field "Assignee" to allocate the work to an appropriate User.
What is a "Resource Allocation" System Report Page?
Pages are the foundational building block of content in Planhat. There are many types of Pages, and "System Reports" is one category of Pages.
"System Reports" are pre-built (yet customizable and interactive) Pages designed by Planhat for specific use cases. Most System Reports are actually for revenue data (which you can read more about here), but "Resource Allocation" is for PSA, and specifically for planning time: resource management.
Here is an example of a "Resource Allocation" Page within a View.
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On the left-hand side you can see a list of "unassigned work", which is actually Scheduled Time that hasn't yet been allocated to a specific User ("User" being the Planhat model that represents you and your co-workers, also called Team Members in Planhat).
On the right-hand side you can see a capacity display of Users, showing how much of their available time is already allocated. (You will note that this is effectively the same as a Utilization Table that's been built on forecasted data, i.e. Scheduled Time.) You can apply a filter here to only show a subset of Users in your Planhat tenant, e.g. your Professional Services team.
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You can click on any of the unassigned work on the left-hand side to open up its details, as shown in the example screenshot below.
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You can then use the "Assignee" field shown here (which is a standard/system/default field on the Scheduled Time model) to select the most appropriate User (typically the User with the most availability/capacity).
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Why use a "Resource Allocation" System Report Page?
"Resource Allocation" Pages are designed to make it easy for you - as a Manager working in Service Delivery, Professional Services or similar - to assign upcoming work (Scheduled Time - such as an upcoming Onboarding Project Workflow, or an upcoming Training Task) to the relevant Users (i.e. Team Members - you and your co-workers).
This Page type makes it easy for you to review the time requirements of a piece of upcoming work and compare that with the availability (utilization) of each potential User, meaning you can quickly identify who to allocate the Scheduled Time to.
The screenshot below shows an example of a Resource Allocation Page as a tab within a View for Resource Management, within a Section for PSA Leadership. You could similarly set up a central hub like this, for your Service Delivery management/planning.
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How to set up and use a "Resource Allocation" System Report Page
Creating the Page
To create a Resource Allocation System Page, add a Page like you normally would in Planhat. You will find "Resource Allocation" in the "System Reports" menu, as shown below.
🚀 Tip
You could have multiple Resource Allocation Pages, e.g. with different filters applied (as discussed below).
Configuring the Page
Once your Resource Allocation Page is created, it will look something like this:
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You will see a dropdown menu where you can choose your desired time period for the utilization display - "Day", "Week", "Month" and so on. This setting determines what each column corresponds to.
You should consider whether to apply filters, which you can do on either/both sides. To see each filter option, click on the respective funnel icons.
These filters can be useful both for:
...the right-hand side, which shows Users (Team Members)
You will likely want to only have a subset of your Planhat tenant's Users displayed here - the relevant Users, to whom you will be assigning Scheduled Time
For example, this could be your Implementation Team, or your Professional Services Team
As well as job role, you could also/alternatively apply a filter looking at other User properties such as location or language - whatever is useful to help you identify suitable people to assign the Scheduled Time to
... the left-hand side, which shows Scheduled Time
Filtering based on Scheduled Time properties/fields
Like other filters in Planhat, these filters can be either temporary and just for you, or saved as default for the Page.
Using the Page
You review the unassigned Scheduled Time showing in the list on the left-hand side of the Resource Allocation Page (under the "Unassigned work" header).
You can click into each of these Scheduled Time records to open up its details. The User utilization display on the right-hand side will automatically update to show you the relevant date range, so you can quickly and easily identify who has the capacity to be allocated this piece of work.
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If you would like to see further details for any User, put your mouse over their name, and then click on the chevron (arrowhead) that appears.
In the example below, we have done this for Beyonce, and we can see that she has Scheduled Time allocated to her from a task in a Workflow. Mousing over the white bar representing the allocated time, we can see a panel with further details.
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We can even click into the bar to see even more details.
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If you do click in like this, use the "x" in the top right to come out of this view and go back to the Resource Allocation Page.
Once you've determined which User to allocate the Scheduled Time to, click into the "Assignee" field on the left-hand side, and select your choice of User.
Once you have assigned the Scheduled Time to a User, it will disappear from the list on the left-hand side of the Resource Allocation Page, as it is no longer unassigned.
"Resource Allocation" System Report Page settings
You can customize the details panel shown if you click on a Scheduled Time record (i.e. piece of unassigned work) on the left-hand side of a Resource Allocation Page.
You will find the settings within the "Settings" Global Tool for admins - specifically in the "Capacity planning" tab in the "Services" category.
🚀 Tip
If you can't see "Capacity planning" within the "Settings" Global Tool, make sure you have the "Capacity Planning Settings" workflow permission is turned on for your Role.
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You can see that the configuration in the screenshot above corresponds to the fields and field groups shown in the Resource Allocation Page. Although some defaults are preloaded for you, you can make some changes if desired:
Click "+ Add Field" if you would like to add a new field to an existing group
Click the "x" for a field if you would like to remove it
Click "+ Add Group" if you would like to add another field group
Click on the trash can (rubbish bin) icon if you would like to remove a field group
📌 Important to note
You can't remove Assignee, because that's vital for the function of Resource Allocation Pages.