Using the Staff Usage screen

Modified on Tue, 25 Jun at 11:36 AM

The Staff Usage screen lets you view how your staff are allocated onto projects and tasks so that you can plan and organize your staff pool.

Using the Staff Usage screen, you can see the following:

When staff are employed and not employed at your company
When staff are on vacation or are not working
When staff have idle capacity
When staff are allocated onto tasks within projects
When staff are over allocated with too many tasks

Staff Usage screen toolbar

The Staff Usage screen toolbar has the following buttons:

Dates - click the dropdown to choose a predefined data range such as This Year, Last Month or Next 4 weeks. The From and To dates will be changed after a selection is made.
From - click to select a starting date to view the visual timeline of visual timeline of staff usage. The visual timeline will start from this date.
To - click to select an ending date to view the visual timeline of staff usage. The visual timeline will finish at this date.
Timescale - click the dropdown to select the timescale units to view the visual timeline. For example, view each day, or each week, or each month, or each year. Each column in the visual timeline will show one timescale unit.
The other toolbar menus and buttons are described in detail below.

Group By menu

The Group By menu lets you control the items that are displayed in the rows in the Staff Usage screen. This lets you configure the Staff Usage screen so that you see the staff usage data that you need.

Example 1: You want to see the staff usage details across your company's departments so you can see the upcoming load and quickly determine if departments are overloaded or have spare capacity.

Example 2: You want to see the staff usage details across your company's office locations or regions so you can see the the capacity of each office or region within your company and redistribute tasks to make the best use of your staff pool.

The Group By menu has the following data attributes that can be displayed and grouped:

Company. The companies will be listed so you can see the staff load across all your companies (e.g. subsidiaries, outsourced partners, etc.)
Location. The various locations of where projects are being completed will be listed so you can see the staff load across your regional locations.
Status. The status of projects will be listed so you can quickly view projects in bidding, in budgeting, in progress, in review, etc.
Project. Each projects will be listed so you can see the staff loads on each project within the selected date range.
Department. Each company department will be listed so you can see the staff load across all departments at your company.
Skill. The skills required to complete tasks will be listed so you can see what skills are required and the staff loads on those skills.
Staff. All staff assigned to tasks will be listed so you can see each of your staff's task assignments, non-working times (vacations), and start and end dates of employment.
Generic Staff. Generic staff that are assigned to tasks within projects will be listed so you can see where generic staff are currently used and to understand the future staffing requirements for upcoming projects.

The data attributes are organized into a hierarchy based on the above data attributes. Staff usage is grouped using this hierarchy.

Show menu

The Show menu lets you change what data is displayed in the cells in the Staff Usage screen.

Example 1: Your company works in units of hours when planning and scheduling tasks, so you want to see staff usage in hourly units.  In this case, you wish to see hours in each cell.

Example 2: You want to see the overall percentage of staff usage so you can quickly understand when over allocations or under allocations are occurring.  In this case, you wish to see percentage in each cell.

The Show menu has the following data that can be displayed in cells:

Fixed Cost. The fixed cost (or original budget) for tasks is displayed in each cell.
Fixed Cost (Net). The fixed net cost (or original net budget) with rebates applied for tasks is displayed in each cell.
Estimated Cost. The real-time estimated cost based on the tasks' duration, assigned staff costs and their utilization is displayed in each cell.
Estimated Cost (Net). The real-time estimated net cost with rebates applied based on the tasks' duration, assigned staff costs and their utilization is displayed in each cell.
Actual Cost. The real-time actual cost based on the current work effort, assigned staff costs and their utilization is displayed in each cell.
Actual Cost (Net). The real-time net actual cost with rebates applied based on the current work effort, assigned staff costs and their utilization is displayed in each cell.
Fixed Duration Hours. The fixed duration (or original budgeted duration) in hours allocated to tasks is displayed in each cell.
Fixed Duration Days. The fixed duration (or original budgeted duration) in days allocated to tasks is displayed in each cell.
Estimated Duration Hours. The total number of hours allocated to tasks is displayed in each cell.
Estimated Duration Days. The total number of days allocated to tasks is displayed in each cell.
Actual Duration Hours. The total number of hours of work effort thus far to complete the tasks is displayed in each cell.
Actual Duration Days. The total number of days of work effort thus far to complete the tasks is displayed in each cell.
Percentage. The available capacity that has been allocated to tasks is displayed as a percentage. For example, 100% means the the available capacity is fully allocated to tasks.
Head Count (FTE). The number of staff, or Full Time Equivalent (FTE), required to fill the current allocation of tasks is displayed.

Filter menu

The Filter menu lets you hide or show under allocations, optimal allocations or over allocations. This can let you focus on just the issues you wish to address.

Example 1: You want to see the over allocations of staff to tasks so you can fix these issues by reassigning other staff to these task or by hiring new staff.

Example 2: You want to see the spare capacity (or under allocations) of staff so you can assign these staff to upcoming projects.

The Filter menu has the following allocations that can be displayed or hidden in the Staff Usage screen:

Unders. Select this to view all under allocated staff.
Optimal. Select this to view all optimally allocated staff.
Overs. Select this to view all over allocated staff.

Include

The Include button lets you see staff usage for the particular project you are working on or for all projects being worked on in your company.

Include: Project Only. The staff usage data is restricted to just the tasks and staff usage within the current project you are viewing.
Include: All Projects. The staff usage data is for all tasks and staff usage in all projects that are being undertaken concurrently at your company during the selected date range.

Export

Click to export the current data displayed in the Staff Usage screen as an Excel XLS file into your local computer.

Expanding or Collapsing Staff Usage Data

The list of staff usage data on the Staff Usage screen may contain many levels of staff usage data. You can expand or collapse your staff usage data using two methods:

Individually. To expand or collapse a particular item, click on the arrow icon on the left of the item in the Name column to expand or collapse a single summary task.
All items. To expand or collapse all items, click the Collapse or Expand buttons on the Staff Usage screen toolbar.

Filtering Staff Usage Data

If you wish to reduce the list of items so you can see only specific staff usage data you are interested in, then you can search for tasks using the Search Staff Usage menu on the Staff Usage screen toolbar.

Enter a search term and the list of items will be reduced to those items that match the search term. Projectal searches for your search term in the tasks' name, ID, description tags, notes, assigned staff and assigned resources.

You can comma (,) separate search terms and Projectal will find all items that contain either search term.

Example: To list only staff usage for Animation department and Effects department, you could search for "animation, effects".  All departments called that have either "animation" or "effects" will be displayed used for staff usage data.

You can use the plus sign (+) to force inclusive searches so that all terms must be in an item to be listed.

Example: To list all Animation tasks assigned to John, you could search for "Animation+John". All tasks that have both "animation" and "john" will be used for staff usage data.

Saving & Recalling Staff Usage Views

If you create a view of the Staff Usage screen that you like, then you can save it so that you can recall it at any time. This lets you have a set of different views of the Staff Usage screen for getting different views on your staff pool.

Example: You may want to have a view so you can see your department usage.  Or you may want to have a view of all staff usage that shows head count requirements across your office locations.  Or, you may want a view of all unders and overs so you can see any staff capacity issues.

After you have configured the Staff Usage screen as you like, click the Save As Staff Usage View menu item to save the view. You will be prompted to provide a name for the view. For example, "Department Load 2023". The view will be saved and listed on the Staff Usage View popup menu.

If you wish to make changes to an existing view, then configure the Staff Usage screen as you wish and then click the Update Staff Usage View button next to the view in the Staff Usage View popup menu. You will be prompted to optionally change the name of the staff usage view and then the view will be updated with the new configuration.

If you wish to delete a staff usage view, click the Delete Staff Usage View button next to the staff usage view in the Staff Usage View popup menu.

By default, a saved staff usage view can only be viewed and edited by the user that created it. You can also share your staff usage views with other users. This is handy when working in teams or when a company wishes to standardize on a set of views. To share a staff usage view, click the Share Staff Usage View button next to the staff usage view. This will display the Share View screen. To allow all users to use the staff usage view, click the Public radio button. To share the staff usage view with a limited set of users, click the Private radio button and click the Members button to select the users that you wish to share the staff usage view with. By default, only you can edit your staff usage view to make changes. If you wish to allow other users to edit the staff usage view, click the Members button next to Editing Permissions to select the other users that can edit the staff usage view.

Interacting on the Staff Usage screen

Hovering your mouse over a cell on the Staff Usage screen will show key information about the staff usage - including tasks allocated, staff non-working days, staff non-employed days and more.

Clicking on a staff usage cell will allow you to edit the associated task. The Edit Task screen will be displayed and you can make changes to the task. If multiple tasks are allocated for a staff usage cell, then the Multiple Tasks Assigned screen is displayed and you can select each task to view and edit.

Overs in Timescale

When you see a small triangle displayed in the top right corner of a cell, then this is a warning to indicate that there are some day-based over allocations contained in the cell's timescale. This helps you to understand that although the timescale may be under allocated or optimally allocation, that there are one more days within the timescale that are over allocated.

Example: You are viewing staff usage over a timescale of month-to-month.  In the April cell, there are 13 days of staff usage so the month is regarded as under allocated and all seems fine.  But 9 days of this staff usage has been allocated across 1 day and i staff member.  So, this staff member is over allocated.  The small triangle will appear on the April cell to indicate that the month has some over allocations.

Tip: When the small triangle is displayed in the top right corner of a cell, hover your mouse over the small triangle to view a tooltip that highlights the over allocation.  Click on the tooltip to enter into Day timescale mode so you can scroll through the staff usage data to quickly find the over allocated day(s).