Using Resource Types

When is it important to use a Resource Type assignment to tasks?

1. Allow the assignment of a single resource to multiple tasks all at once
2. Filter reports by the Resource Type (i.e. type of work, discipline or skill set)
3. Automatically filter resources for "Suggest a Resource" Options

When planning a project, you may not always know which specific resources will be available for the project.

In some instances, the project may be awaiting approval, or have an undetermined schedule, or you're using this project for forecasting.

Assigning a resource type to each task will help you more quickly assign the resources once you know which resources are available.

Assigning by skill set

For example: You have a project that includes 30 tasks. Twelve of these tasks will be assigned to a carpenter, 8 tasks will be assigned to a mason and 10 tasks will be assigned to an electrician.

You assign these three resource types (carpenter, mason and electrician) accordingly to each task, leaving the "Resource" field blank.

Later, when you select the actual carpenter, mason and electrician that will be assigned to the project, associate these resources to the appropriate resource type. In this example, all 30 tasks are assigned resources through three data entries as opposed to 30.

Report by resource type across multiple projects

Same example: Let's say that we have a second project that involves an electrician.

In the case of this second project, we have assigned a different electrician as a resource.

We could run a report looking at all electrician resource types during a specific time period to determine our total resource utilization for all electrician tasks on all projects for that time period.

If you're ready to get started, visit the Administration > Users > Resource Type add/edit screen to add your organization's resource types.