How to use the resource and project planners
The Resource and Project Planners in Apex Business allow you to easily see how resources are schedule over the coming months. Both planners work exactly the same, the only difference being that the Resource Planner shows a list of Resources and Assignments, and the Project Planner shows a list of Projects and Assignments.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Accessing the Planners
- To access the Project Planner, navigate to a Project in Apex Business and then click 'Open Project Planner' on the right-hand menu
- To access the Resource Planner, click on the 'Resource Planner' tab in the top navigation menu
In-Depth Help
As the planners are standard functionality, please see Financial Force help for more information:
FinancialForce Help - Resource Planner Overview - Professional Services Automation
Saving Changes
By default, all changes you make in the planner are not saved. Once you wish to save your changes, click on the 'Save' button in the top-right corner. Unsaved changes are marked with a blue circle.
If you wish to clear your changes without saving, use the 'Reload' button in the top-right corner.
Key Functions
Filtering
You can filter the resource or project planner to show just relevant records using the filter icon in the top-left.
See FinancialForce Help - Filters Panel Overview - Professional Services Automation
Create a New Assignment
You can assign someone to a job directly from the planner, just click on the + icon in the top-left and fill in the relevant information
See FinancialForce Help - Creating Assignments - Professional Services Automation
Swap Resource
If an assignment has not had time entered against it, you can swap one resource for another by using the Swap Resource button. This will preserve the schedule, bill rate, and other attributes.
See FinancialForce Help - Swapping Assignments and Held Resource Requests - Professional Services Automation
Splitting Assignments
If someone is ending their assignment prematurely and another person is starting in the same role, with the same bill rate, to finish the job you can split the existing assignment between the two staff members.
See FinancialForce Help - Splitting Assignments and Held Resource Requests - Professional Services Automation
Cloning Assignments
If you wish to clone an existing assignment (schedule, bill rate, role) for a new staff member, you can use this button.
See FinancialForce Help - Cloning Assignments and Held Resource Requests - Professional Services Automation
Editing Schedules
Adjusting Start and End Dates
-
Updating Individual Schedule - The easiest way to adjust an individual schedule's start or end dates, is to click and drag on the start or end of the schedule:
-
Updating All Schedules - To update all schedules for a particular project, the easiest way is to double-click on any assignment, fill in the 'Set End' field with a new end date, then click away from the field. You should see the end dates for all assignments update to the date you just set.
Regardless of which method above you have used to update schedules, don't forget to click 'Save' to commit your changes.
Applying Weekly Patterns
If you double-click on any assignment, the pop-up allows you to apply a weekly pattern between a start and end date.
You can also drag and drop schedules in the timeline to change start/end dates.
Editing Particular Weeks or Days
You can double-click on a particular week, or day, to edit the hours for that week.
By default, the planner will default to "Total hours held constant" which means the end date will be brought forward or pushed back, based on your adjustment. E.g. If an assignment had 40 hours in a week and you changed it to 20 hours, the end date will be pushed back by 20 hours to keep the total hours the same.
You can click on 'More' and also select "End Date held constant" which will change the total hours of the assignment and not change the end date.
More Information
See FinancialForce Help - Timeline Overview - Professional Services Automation