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Allocating Units or the Percentage of Available Units to Resources or Roles

Use the Resource Planning spreadsheet to allocate a number of available units to resources or roles or a percentage of available units to resources for a project or WBS.

To allocate units:

  1. Click "" Resources.
  2. On the Resources navigation bar, click "" Planning.
  3. On the Planning page:
    1. Locate the project the resource or role is assigned to, and then click the resource or role.

      Note: See Customizing the Resource Planning Spreadsheet if the project you want is not in view.

    2. Review the timescale columns for Available and Allocated units (see the Usage column). For resources, use the values in the Available row as a guide to efficient workforce decisions.
    3. To allocate the number of units, double-click in the allocated field in the appropriate timescale column and enter a unit.

      To allocate a percentage of available units, double-click in the % Allocation field and enter a number. As you make changes to the % Allocation field, the total units and corresponding timescale allocated units are recalculated and displayed in the spreadsheet.

      Note: You can only allocate a percentage of time to a resource, not a role.

      For example, assume a resource works for 8 hours/day (specified in the resource's calendar). If you want to allocate 50% of the resource's time for project A from Mar 12, 2006 (Start) to Mar 16, 2006 (End), you can specify 50% in the % Allocation field. Based on this, total units would be calculated as 20 hours (4 hours/day times 5 days). The timescale allocated units would be recalculated and displayed depending on display options set. See Customizing the Resource Planning Spreadsheet.

    4. Click Save.

      Notes:

      • When calculating spreadsheet Allocated values for resource assignments, to determine total working hours for the time period, the application uses the resource's calendar and the hours/day setting defined in the Global Preferences; for role assignments, the application uses the project calendar. The application also uses the Global Preferences hours/time period settings to convert time units for display based on the Time Units Display option you choose.
      • Each time you edit the allocated total units for a resource or role, the corresponding timescale allocated values are recalculated and updated in the spreadsheet; for a resource, the timescale available values are also recalculated.
      • When you edit a spreadsheet interval allocated value, total allocated units for the resource or role are recalculated; a resource's availability is also recalculated. Additionally, if the spreadsheet interval you edit is prior to the current assignment start date or later than the current assignment finish date, the corresponding assignment date is adjusted to reflect the change.
      • The Resource Planning spreadsheet uses summary data to calculate availability, so it reflects values as of the last date the summarizer was run for a project. Assignment changes within a project after that date will not be reflected until the project is again summarized. See Summarizing Projects.

Related Topics

Resource Planning

About Resource Planning

Customizing the Resource Planning Spreadsheet

Assigning Projects or WBS Elements to Resources or Roles

Assigning Resources or Roles to Projects or WBS Elements

Modifying Resource or Role Assignment Dates

Synchronizing Resource Planning Dates

Splitting a Resource or Role Assignment

Categorizing Resource or Role Assignments using Status Codes

Exporting the Resource Planning Spreadsheet

Planning Page


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