Resource scheduling shows who is working on what, and when. You book people onto projects for a number of hours a day, and you add their leave. The schedule then shows who is fully booked and who has time for new work.
Before you start
Four roles control scheduling. Assign them in Contacts. See managing users and contacts.
Role | What it allows |
|---|---|
Scheduling User | Can be booked, and sees their own bookings under My Schedule. Uses a licence. |
Scheduling Manager | Adds, changes and deletes bookings and leave on the Team Schedule. Only Administrators can give this role. |
Schedule Viewer | Opens the Team Schedule, but can't change it. |
Administrator | Everything a Scheduling Manager can do. |
These rules answer most questions that start with "Why can't I…?":
- Only Scheduling Users appear on the schedule. An Administrator or Scheduling Manager also needs the role if you want to book them. Company contacts, such as contractors, can have the role as well. Everyone with the role counts towards your plan's Scheduling User limit. See your subscription.
- Administrators see everyone. Scheduling Managers and Schedule Viewers see only the people they share a project with. They also see only the projects they're a member of.
- Project membership. You can only book someone on a project they're a member of. A Scheduling Manager who isn't an Administrator must be a member of the project too.
Before the first booking, an Administrator sets default working hours, leave types and public holidays in Settings › Scheduling Settings. Each person's Standard Working hours for each day of the week are in their contact details. Avaza works out each person's availability from these hours. See scheduling settings.
Administrators and Finance Managers can switch off the whole module. Go to Settings › General and find Team Schedule under Enabled/Disabled Modules. See general settings.
Open the Team Schedule
Click Team Schedule in the left menu. The page has two tabs. Team Schedule has a row for each person. Project Schedule has a row for each project.
Under each name you see the hours booked, the person's standard hours for the date range and their utilisation. For example: 35h/40h (88%). The strip above each day shows the hours that are still free. The strip is green while the person has free hours. It shows Full when the person is fully booked, and it turns red when they are over-booked. For every figure and colour, see sorting by availability.
In Project Schedule, each row shows the project's customer. If the project has dates or budget hours, the row shows them too. It also shows how many booked hours are over the budget, or how many budget hours remain.
Add a booking
Click Add Assignment, or drag across empty days on a row. Dragging fills in the person (or project) and the dates.
In Add Booking, choose the person under Assign To, then the Project and a Timesheet Category. Projects that the person isn't a member of are shown in grey.
Optionally choose a Task and add Notes.
Enter Hours per Day, or choose Total Hours. Set the Start Date and End Date. You can also add a Start Time and End Time. The person's Default Work Days & Hours are shown for reference.
Click Save.
Hours are only booked on the person's working days. A booking can't start or end on a day off or public holiday unless you tick Schedule on days off. For a booking that repeats, use Repeat. See recurring bookings. A linked task keeps the same dates and assignee as the booking. See linking bookings to tasks.
Change, move or delete bookings
- Edit: click a booking to open Edit scheduled time, then Save.
- Move: drag the booking to other days or to another person's row. In Project Schedule, drag it to another project.
- Change the dates: drag either end of the booking.
- Copy, split or delete: right-click the booking. See copying bookings and splitting a booking.
- Delete: right-click › Delete, or Delete in Edit scheduled time.
Hover over a booking to see its details: project, customer, category, task, dates and hours.
Add leave
Click the arrow next to Add Assignment and choose Add Leave. Choose the person and the Leave Type. Set the Daily Hours, Start Date and End Date, then click Save. Times, Repeat and Notes are optional.
Leave shows as a grey bar with the leave type's icon. Leave counts as booked time on the person's working days, so the person has fewer available hours. Click the leave bar to edit or delete it. Leave never becomes a time entry. See tracking time off.
Views, zoom and filters
- Sort: by Name or Availability in Team Schedule. By Name, Customer or Date created in Project Schedule.
- Bar size: Regular shows the project, customer, category, task and hours on each bar. Compact shows only the project and hours, so more rows fit on the screen.
- Zoom: the magnifier buttons switch between three zoom levels. The closest level shows single days with their names. The widest level shows several months. The first date on screen stays in place when you zoom. To move through the dates, use the arrows, Today or the calendar button.
- Date range: the menu above the names sets the period for the figures under each name. It also sets the total available hours shown next to the menu. The default is This Week.
- Search: find people by name or tag, or projects by name, customer or tag.
- Filter: Row Visibility filters choose which rows show. In Team Schedule, Booking Visibility filters choose which bookings show, for example by Customers or Project Categories. Everyone stays in the list. Utilisation still counts every booking.
To keep these settings, save them as a view with Update or Save as New. You can share the view with your team. See custom views.
Bookings have the colour of their project's category, so you can see the different kinds of work. See project categories.
My Schedule
Scheduling Users see their own bookings and leave under My Schedule. The page shows one week at a time, and who scheduled each booking. Sync to Calendar, in the page's menu, gives you a calendar feed for Google Calendar, Outlook and other calendar apps.
Next steps
- Turn bookings into time entries: timesheets from schedule assignments.
- Compare booked hours with the work done: Schedule Details, Schedule vs Timesheets, My Schedule vs Timesheets and Staff Utilisation.