Resource Utilization (or allocation) allows you to view your resources' capacity and availability based on the project tasks assigned to them. This feature allows you to easily see whether resources are over or under allocated and helps you find available resources for new and upcoming projects and tasks.
Vacation time can also be scheduled for resources. If a block of time needs to be reserved or considered for a future project, you can create a Salesforce Task within the Resource Allocation page and link it to a future project. This allows project managers to better allocate resources according to their capacity and availability.
For more information, please see Resource Lightning Web Component (Resource LWC).
Resource utilization is based on the planned effort and duration specified for a resource's assigned project tasks. For example, if the planned effort for a task is 10 hours and the duration is set to 2 days, then it will plot at 5 hours per day.
It also takes into consideration the % Allocation of work that the resource is responsible for. This is defined within the project, in the Assigned To field. For example, if there are two (2) resources assigned to a task and each resource is responsible for 50% of the work, and the planned effort is set to 10 hours with a duration of 2 days, then the work hours shown for each resource would be calculated as follows:
(Task Planned Effort x % Allocation) / Duration = Allocated Effort
So using the example above, work hours would be calculated as:
(10 hours x 0.50) / 2 days = 2.5 hours per resource
Please note:
Project Tasks are displayed in the Project Gantt according to the Project Timezone. However, when you open the Project Task record, you will see the task start date/time and finish date/time according to your user timezone. You will also see the task plot in Resource Utilization according to your user timezone.
If the task Planned Effort is left blank, it will plot according to the assigned resource's working hours per day. This is defined in the Resource's record (please see Set a Resource's Working Hours per Day).
If the Resource's working hours per day is blank, it will default to 8 hours per day.
Since Inspire Planner does not know the task planned effort, it assumes it will take the resource's full working day which is why it plots according to the value in the resource's working hours per day.
Instead of defaulting to the resource's working hours per day, can you tell Inspire Planner to use a default value instead? Yes, you can set a default planned effort value in custom settings.
When the task planned effort is left blank, it will then plot according to the default planned effort value. If the default planned effort custom setting is blank, then it will plot according to the resource's working hours per day.
This section will show you how to set a default planned effort in custom settings.
You must be a Salesforce System Administrator to complete the steps below since it requires access to Setup and Custom Settings.